An Unlikely Place for Love

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  “We had no idea she was dealing with a woman’s issue,” Todd said. “We never would have insisted on you waking her up if we had known.”

  Todd is a nice man. What is he doing with these losers?

  “There’s no harm done. At least she can get some rest now. So, why are you here anyway?” she asked Chris.

  “I came to see my brother,” he replied. “I see he disappeared.”

  “Yes, he’s well known for that,” Sam said. “Georgia had to keep him by her side at all times so he wouldn’t go running off somewhere.”

  “I remember her,” Chris stated. “She wasn’t bad to look at. I could have been with her but when I learned she would make him miserable, I decided to let him have her. He got so jealous when he saw us together. It was all a game of course, but it was fun to mess with him.”

  Everyone stared at him, their shock showing.

  Kate understood at that moment that women were a game to Chris.

  “What do you mean that she would make Chad miserable?” Tim asked, clearly upset. “Georgia was one of the sweetest women around.”

  Chris laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. She was awful. She pretended to be nice but she didn’t mind stabbing anyone in the back. Thankfully for Chad, she hated anything to do with physical contact. I suspect his impotency was actually a relief to her.”

  She had to give Chris credit for being brave enough to say this in front of her relatives and friends.

  “What do you mean she stabbed people in the back?” Sam demanded, his face getting red.

  “Why do you think she let me court her while Chad was courting her? She enjoyed making a fool of him. She and I used to laugh about it. We were using each other to make him squirm. I have to admit, she was fun.” He smiled in amusement.

  “She really wasn’t interested in sex?” She had to ask it. How could a woman not want to have sex with Chad?

  “She didn’t even want anyone to hold her hand. She said that any form of physical expression repulsed her. She said she was too beautiful to let anyone defile her by touching her. I tested her on that one time, just to see if she was telling the truth or not. She practically had a heart attack when I kissed her. She was a cold woman. Anyway, that’s not why I gave her up. Our parents found out she was only going out with me and my brother because we had a lot of money and she was interested in it. Well, I don’t care how pretty or entertainingly evil a woman can be. I don’t give up money for anyone. So I let Chad win her from me. He really thought he accomplished a great feat. He even gave up everything he had for her. What a moron.”

  Being Billy was proving to be a real eye opening experience for Kate. She was learning more in her disguise than she would have learned otherwise.

  “These are all lies,” Sam insisted. “You can’t be trusted. After all, you are Chad’s brother.”

  He shrugged. “Believe what you will.”

  “Do you mind telling us why you hate your brother so badly?” she asked.

  “Who said I hate him?”

  “It’s obvious.” Anyone who wanted to see his brother miserable had to hate him.

  He eyed her warily. “I wouldn’t call it hate. Perhaps I found him a bit annoying.”

  “How was he annoying?”

  “He was always trying to outdo me. He acted like he was better than me.”

  “That’s Chad alright,” Sam agreed. “He’s got this holier than thou thing going on.”

  Now that Chris was off the topic of Georgia, the other men had relaxed.

  “The only person who could tolerate him, besides Georgia, was our mother,” Sam told Chris. “Of course, our mother sees the best in everyone.”

  “Mothers are prone to do that,” he replied.

  “So, that’s why you can’t stand him,” she began. “He was the favorite. It’s the old sibling rivalry story. You and Lacy have something in common. Georgia was the favorite too.”

  She saw Chris narrow his eyes at her. That meant she struck a nerve because she was right.

  “I wouldn’t say Georgia was the favorite,” Tim protested. “We love Lacy as much as we loved Georgia.”

  Kate suspected that was true of the brothers, but the mother definitely chose her favorite child. She was relieved that her parents hadn’t been obvious about choosing a favorite among her and her brothers. As far as she could tell, they didn’t choose a favorite.

  The women walked over to them.

  “Would anyone like to do some dancing?” Lacy sweetly asked.

  “It would be hard to square dance without a fourth woman,” Sam replied.

  “Oh, we can square dance later.” Kate waved Sam’s protest aside and took Lacy’s hand. “Someone get that fiddle going and we’ll take turns dancing with these lovely ladies.” Now it was time to put her plan into action.

  Todd picked up the fiddle and Tim took the banjo and began playing some music.

  Sam danced with Cheryl and Chris danced with Gabriella.

  Kate took on the leading role since she was pretending to be Billy and took Lacy in her arms. Since the music was fast paced, she could get away with being rough on the woman. She knew she was a good dancer, so she could easily act like a bad one. She turned Lacy in three circles, dipped her and spun her around. Then she let go of her so that she stumbled and fell to the ground.

  “Oh no! I’m sorry,” Kate quickly apologized as she helped her up.

  She coughed all over Lacy when their faces were close. Once they were dancing again, she made it a point to step on Lacy’s feet. She knew how to angle her boots to best hurt her feet and Lacy’s cringe let her know that she was succeeding.

  The dance finally ended and she loudly clapped her hands, making sure her hands were close to Lacy’s ears. “Alright! Todd and Tim do a great job!” She yelled into Lacy’s ear. Then she let out an annoyingly high pitched whistle.

  Lacy winced.

  The two men looked pleased.

  “How come you don’t play at the fairgrounds?” she loudly asked.

  “Joe, Phil and Richard usually play,” Todd responded.

  “Well, join them this weekend!”

  They nodded and grinned.

  “Who’s next?” Kate looked at Gabriella and Cheryl who slowly shook their heads. They had seen how she danced with Lacy and were appropriately turned off from Billy.

  “You usually don’t dance that badly,” Sam said.

  “Oh, that’s because I’m not drinking today. I perform better when I drink.” She saw Tim and Sam snicker. Great. They think I’m talking about sex, she sarcastically thought. She quickly added, “I dance better is what I meant.”

  “Sure.” Sam clearly didn’t believe her.

  She groaned.

  “I’ll dance with you,” Lacy offered.

  She hid her annoyance. What was going on? Why wasn’t Lacy offended by her? She was doing everything she could imagine to make Lacy flee from her. It was time to get insanely repulsive. She took a deep breath and nodded when an idea came to her. “Let’s go.”

  Todd and Tim played another song.

  She roughly took Lacy by the hand and danced wildly. She waved her arms and legs around like a puppet attached to a string. She even loudly sang out of tune to the words of the familiar song.

  Lacy had to struggle to keep up with her.

  Towards the end of the song, Kate saw Roger, the sheepdog, walking past them. Inspired by a new thought, she swung Lacy around and let go of her so that she flew across the lawn and landed on top of the dog which bolted from her so she landed face first on the ground. A couple of hens clucked by her, checked for any food they might find and walked off when they found nothing of interest in her hands.

  “I am so embarrassed!” Kate put her hands to her head and pretended to be mortified. “I can’t do this to you, Lacy. I’m sorry. It can never be!” Then she ran off to the barn where she hid in the loft to settle down before she changed back to Kate.

  ***

  Once she was in her K
ate attire, she came back out of the barn and acted as if she was happy to see everyone. Chad wasn’t back yet, but she figured he couldn’t stay away too much longer. As soon as the men saw her, they surrounded her. She forced herself to smile. To her surprise, Lacy come up to her too. She briefly noticed that Gabriella and Cheryl looked upset that the men were no longer talking to them. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time men left other women to talk to her. She didn’t know what was so special about her. Had Chris, Tim, Sam and Jeff not been shoddy characters, she would have felt guilty for taking them from the other women. In this case, she was doing them a favor.

  “Hello, Kate.” Sam smiled at her.

  “Good afternoon,” she replied.

  “How are you feeling?” Todd asked.

  “I’m feeling better. I really needed that rest,” she lied. What I really need is for everyone to leave.

  “We’re glad you’re doing better,” Tim said.

  “A beautiful woman shouldn’t be in such discomfort,” Jeff quickly inserted.

  “Lunch is ready,” Lacy told her. “I would like a chance to talk to you, if the men can spare you for awhile.”

  Since Chad wasn’t around, Kate was happy to comply with Lacy’s wishes. At least as Kate, she wouldn’t attract the wrong kind of attention from the woman. “That sounds wonderful. It would be nice to talk to another woman for a change. I’m surrounded by men all the time out here.”

  “What a horrible problem,” Gabriella muttered to Cheryl.

  Kate sighed. She never was popular with many women. She hoped that would change once she got married and women no longer saw her as a threat. She decided to help the women set up the picnic. She couldn’t cook much but she could do this task.

  During the lunch, she decided to sit between Lacy and Cheryl.

  “What is Billy like?” Lacy asked her.

  Kate paused as she lifted the fruit salad to her mouth. “I heard what happened during the dance. Are you sure you want to be with him?”

  “He can’t help it if he’s a lousy dancer.” She bit into her sandwich.

  Kate suddenly lost her appetite. What was wrong with Lacy? “Billy is pretty gross. I mean, he farts, burps, snorts, and coughs on people. He scratches his crotch and his butt. Then he picks his nose and eats his boogers when he thinks no one is looking. I can hardly tolerate him. Why do you think I try not to be around him so much?”

  “He’s a nice man.”

  “You can have him, Lacy,” Cheryl stated. “After the way he flung you around, he’s obviously not a considerate person.”

  “Exactly.” Kate was relieved that someone was showing some common sense.

  “You’re way too hard on him,” Lacy protested. “He can’t help it if he turns women off. What he needs is to have one woman who overlooks his flaws.”

  Kate hid her aggravation. “He was telling me that he can’t bear to face you after you landed on the ground during the dance. He was too humiliated to stick around. I don’t think he’ll dare come out to see you again.”

  “He will once I make it clear that I won’t abandon him.”

  Cheryl and Gabriella shook their heads. “Good luck with him then,” Cheryl remarked. “He’s not worth the effort.”

  “Chad’s not so bad,” Gabriella commented. “I didn’t realize he was so attractive.”

  “He’s gotten more muscular over the past year,” her friend replied. “I can certainly see why Georgia was interested in him.”

  “I wonder where he’s at.”

  Kate tensed. She didn’t like the idea of the women showing an interest in him.

  “Who knows?” Lacy shrugged. “He has a tendency to disappear unless someone’s closely watching him. Why do you think Georgia kept him on a short leash?”

  “He was devoted to her,” Cheryl added. “It’s hard to find a man who cares so much about his wife that he can’t bear to be away from her.”

  “A year has gone by. He’s probably healed enough to pursue a relationship with another woman now,” Gabriella reflected.

  This wasn’t in Kate’s plans. None of it was. Just as she was about to refer them to Todd, Chad rode Reliable onto the property. She gritted her teeth when she saw the two women look at him appreciatively. She glanced at Lacy and saw that even she had a noted interest in him. This is all his fault! He should have sent everyone home! If he had, then Cheryl and Gabriella wouldn’t have even noticed him.

  She stood up, ready to put on her Billy disguise and talk everyone into going back home when Chris stood up and took her hand. She gasped, startled. He was only doing this because Chad was back. Otherwise, he had no interest in her.

  “I think it’s time we enjoyed that square dance,” Chris told the group.

  They readily agreed and Todd got up to grab his fiddle while the other women quickly put the picnic items away.

  Kate didn’t know what to do. She didn’t like the way Cheryl and Gabriella were whispering to each other as they watched Chad take his horse into the barn.

  “What a great idea!” Kate cheered, hoping to get their attention.

  They looked at her.

  Good. It worked. “Fortunately, we have enough men and women to do this dance,” she said.

  “And fortunately for Lacy, Billy’s out of sight.” Jeff chuckled.

  Everyone but Lacy laughed.

  “I’ll start out as Kate’s partner,” Sam said.

  “No. I will,” Chris argued.

  “Excuse me? I haven’t heard her say who she wants to start with,” Jeff spoke up, pushing past the two men to get to her.

  “Wait a minute. You can’t hog her all for yourself,” Tim stated, grabbing Jeff’s arm and pulling him back.

  The three women frowned at her.

  Chad thinks that I’m likeable to everyone, but he has no idea how wrong he is. Kate was comforted in the fact that Chad had finally come out of the barn so she was in his view. He could watch all the men adore her. She turned her attention back to them and sweetly smiled, as if she was enjoying the fact that they were fighting over her. “There must be some way we can work this simple problem out,” she remarked. “Whatever could it be?” She knew that men liked to be the problem solvers so she played into that desire.

  “We’re going to do a dance that requires frequent partner change,” Todd called out. “So it doesn’t matter who starts dancing with who.”

  “I’m holding her hand, so I get her first.” Chris smiled at the men.

  The men reluctantly dispersed into their respective spots in the square.

  Thankfully, her trips to town as Billy provided her with the knowledge of square dancing. She just had to assume the female role. She hadn’t danced much as Billy, but she still couldn’t understand why people didn’t realize she intentionally danced with Lacy poorly so that Lacy would back off. Shrugging, she followed Chris’ lead as the dance began.

  She sourly noted that Chad didn’t even look in their direction. He simply walked into the house and shut the screen door behind him. He had been carrying something but she couldn’t tell what it was from the distance she was at. What is wrong with him? Isn’t he interested in me at all? This should be driving him insane!

  Not only did Chad stay inside the house for the next hour but when he finally emerged to feed the animals, he didn’t even glance in her direction. She even loudly laughed at one of Chris’ lame jokes so he had to know that she was surrounded by the five men. Chad didn’t so much as give one indication that he noticed her. What was worse was that Gabriella and Cheryl, who had been talking to Lacy, stopped to stare at him. I can’t believe this! He’s supposed to be jealous, not me!

  “I created a musical piece for you,” Todd told her. “Would you like to hear it?”

  “Sure,” she half-heartedly agreed.

  He picked up his fiddle and played a tune for her.

  “I’ve been reading up on the Bible,” Tim said over the music. “Did you know that there are ten commandments?”

&nb
sp; “They were given by Noah,” Sam added.

  “No, you dimwit. They were given by Moses.”

  “Oh, right. Noah was the one with the animals and the flood.”

  “Wasn’t it twelve commandments?” Jeff asked.

  “It’s ten,” she said. They obviously didn’t know the Bible, but here they were, going out of their way to lie about it.

  “You know,” Chris began, “I would like to have children some day. Certainly, you will be looking for a man who can provide that for you.”

  Unlike Sam, Tim, Jeff and Todd’s harmless ways to get her attention, she suspected more dubious motives from Chris. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

  “Oh, that reminds me! I’ll be right back,” Jeff said. He jumped up and ran to his horse which was tied to the side of the barn.

  She wondered where he was going but quickly dismissed the question when she saw Chad go to the shed for some paint. He came out with a ladder and a can of paint and a paintbrush. To her horror, Cheryl and Gabriella ran over to him. It took all of her energy to sit still. Didn’t it bother him at all that she was surrounded by men?

  Chris glanced at him and back at her. “I wouldn’t concern myself too much with him, my dear. He’s not able to give any woman a child.”

  She didn’t listen to him. Instead, she saw Chad stop in front of the cattle barn while the two women talked to him. Lacy had decided to join her brothers.

  When Jeff returned with a book on how babies were made, which was written for a child, her jaw dropped. Lacy looked over at her and snickered. “Didn’t your mother ever give you the talk?” she asked.

  Kate couldn’t believe Jeff had taken her literally. She had no idea she was that good of an actress.

  “I got it from the library,” Jeff explained. “You can give it back to me or give it to Billy to give to me when you’re done. I made sure it was at your reading level.”

  “Come on.” Chris laughed. “Surely, you know the facts of life at your age.”

  She tried not to keep looking over at Chad and the two women but it was difficult, so she was only half aware of the conversation going on around her. Why isn’t Chad painting the barn? Does he enjoy their attention? He had no trouble getting away from the men. Did he find the women to his liking?