by Ann Roth
“I knew you were a rancher!” Sophie turned to Lana. “Thanks for brunch. It was really good.”
“Anytime.” Lana bit her lip. “Would you mind if I gave you a hug?”
“I guess.”
Feeling like he was watching something that was none of his business, Sly stared as Lana embraced the girl.
When she pulled away, her eyes dropped to Sophie’s belly. “You take care of that baby, okay?”
“I will.”
Her eyes stayed on Sophie until the door closed behind her.
Chapter Five
Angry at Sly for suing her cousin and unhappy at how badly the meeting with Sophie had gone, Lana was ready to leave. “I have a lot to do today,” she said, signaling Dani to bring the check. “Enjoy your lunch.”
“Stay a little longer and tell me about this baby you want to adopt.”
She didn’t mind talking about that, but after Sophie’s bombshell that she was also meeting with a couple interested in adopting her baby, Lana felt unusually emotional and vulnerable. Just now, she wasn’t ready to share anything. But she wouldn’t mind some answers from Sly. “I’ll stay if you explain about the lawsuit,” she said.
“Any minute now, my sister will bring me my burger, and I don’t want to ruin my appetite talking about that. I’ll give you the details later.” Resting his arms on the table, he leaned toward her. “So you want to adopt a baby.”
He gave her a long, searching look that made him seem genuinely interested. Lana wanted to explain. If she kept it short and simple, she wouldn’t cry. “That’s right,” she said. “I’m unable to have children myself.”
“So you said before. You didn’t mention wanting to adopt, though.”
“Because we agreed not to get into anything serious.” Besides, they’d been too busy to talk much. “Anyway, now you know.”
“If you’re sure you want kids, adopting makes sense.”
“I’m sure. I’ve always wanted to be a mom.”
Sly nodded, but Lana was curious about the way he’d said if you’re sure you want kids. “You don’t want to have children?” she asked.
“Nope. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, as long as they belong to someone else.”
“You mean you don’t want any right now,” she corrected. “My best friend, Kate—you met her that night at the Bitter & Sweet—feels the same way. Kate says she’ll be ready when she’s thirty-five.”
“That’s how old I am now, and I mean never. I’d make a lousy father.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Trust me, I raised my younger brother, and I know what I’m talking about. Me having a kid would be irresponsible.”
“I’d call raising your brother the opposite of irresponsible.” Lana was beyond curious now. “Do you mind my asking what happened?”
“It’s no secret. I was eleven when my mom died. Two years later, my father also passed away. The child protection people managed to find an uncle who agreed to take in Seth and me. Let’s just say our uncle didn’t want us around. That’s how I ended up raising Seth.” Sly shrugged. “That didn’t turn out so great.”
“What do you mean?”
“For starters, he did a few stupid things that got attention from the law. Uncle George had a problem controlling his temper, so I stepped in. Or I tried.” Sly let out a self-derisive laugh. “No matter what I said or what I did, I couldn’t get Seth to straighten up or take responsibility for the trouble he caused. Not even moving back to Prosperity helped. Then he dropped out of high school.”
That sounded like a tough situation. Lana bit her lip. “Where is Seth now?”
“I have no idea. When he was seventeen, he split. A few weeks later, he sent a postcard to let us know he was okay. He hasn’t been in touch since.” Sly glanced down at his empty coffee cup, then spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Now you know what a great job I did.”
Lana pictured a very young Sly struggling to raise his brother when he was so young himself. “You were under very challenging conditions, Sly. You were an orphan and a child yourself. Under those circumstances, no one would do well.”
He was unconvinced. “Because of the situation, I grew up fast. At fourteen, I was more mature than most eighteen-year-olds. I should have done a better job. Instead, I screwed up my brother and also blew any chance of a tight relationship with him.”
Lana thought Sly was too hard on himself, and felt terrible for him and his brother. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago. I’m over it now. But I won’t ever screw up a kid that way again.”
“Isn’t Dani your sister? She seems to have turned out well.”
“No thanks to me. Our uncle didn’t want any girls around, so Dani went into foster care. She was lucky enough to get Big Mama as her foster mom. A couple of years later, Big Mama adopted her. So yeah, I’m all for adoption.”
Dani slid Sly’s burger and a soda in front of him. “Here’s your burger, Sly. Are you telling Lana about my adoption?” After waiting for his nod, Dani went on, “I’m so lucky to have Big Mama as my mom. Even if we are both hardheaded.” She flashed a truly happy grin. “How about a piece of coconut cream pie, Lana?”
Lana was hungry now, and pie sounded good. But she didn’t plan on sitting here long enough to eat it. “No, thanks. I’m leaving in a few minutes,” she said. “We’re talking about adoption because I’m planning to adopt.”
“Is that why you were buying that pregnant teen brunch? I wondered. How exciting!”
“Cross your fingers. Sophie has a meeting with a married couple who also want her baby, and I’m worried she’ll choose them.”
“Because they’re a couple and you’re single?” When Lana nodded, Dani scoffed. “Big Mama was a single mom, and she did a super job raising me. Wish I had more time to talk, but as you can see, we’re slammed. Sly will give you my number. Call me, and let’s get together.”
“That’d be great.”
Dani smiled and left.
“I really like your sister,” Lana said.
“She’s good people.” Sly took a bite of his burger.
His food smelled great. He caught her staring at his potato chips, which were homemade and out of this world. “Have one.”
“I couldn’t,” Lana said. But she took one anyway. “I really should leave.”
“I haven’t had a chance to explain about the lawsuit. I get that you’re upset about it, but I’d like a chance to give you my side.”
Lana wanted to hear it, and Big Mama’s chips were impossible to resist. As was Sly. And so she stayed.
* * *
DESPITE LANA’S PROTESTS, Sly ordered more chips. He waited to discuss the lawsuit until Dani set a fresh plate on the table and left.
“I first met Tim Carpenter seven years ago, not long after the state reimbursed me for the small ranch I owned. They needed the property to put in a new freeway, and I needed a new ranch. Lucky for me, the Martinson place came on the market. It was bigger than the one I gave up, with a lot of potential. The Martinsons were about to go into foreclosure and asked a fair price, so I bought it.”
“Then you’ve always been a rancher?”
Sly shook his head. “I never made a conscious decision to make ranching a career. When I was in college, I needed a job and found work at a ranch. Ranching is in my blood now, though, and I feel I was born to do it. After I bought the Martinson place, I learned that your cousin had figured on cutting a deal and buying the land dirt cheap. He wasn’t happy that I offered the asking price.”
“I remember hearing him talk about that at a Fourth of July family barbecue,” Lana said.
Unable to imagine a worse man to spend a holiday with, Sly made a face. “That must’ve been a real fun get-together.”
; “Cousin Tim isn’t the nicest guy, but at holiday gatherings he’s usually in a pretty decent mood.” Lana paused to munch a chip. She seemed to really like them. “I enjoy hanging out with family,” she went on. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have dinner at my parents’ house every Sunday. My sister and her husband and kids go, too. Sometimes my mom gets on my nerves—well, okay, a lot of the time—but the kids make it fun.”
Sly wondered what it was like to be part of a family that got together for dinner once a week and attended big family barbecues. He had a few memories of his parents grilling, and friends and neighbors coming over for a meal. His family had lived in a pretty little house with a nice yard and a neighborhood filled with families just like theirs.
“The day I moved to Pettit Ranch, I made a point of going over to the Lazy C and meeting Tim,” Sly said. “He was never what I’d call friendly, but we nodded when we saw each other. Then three months ago, I lost three cattle. Over the next few days, several more got sick, and two of my pregnant heifers miscarried. A cow will usually bear four to five calves over her lifetime, but those two will never be able to conceive again.” The loss of ten calves meant a bundle of lost revenue.
“That’s terrible.” Lana grimaced. “My mom ran into Cousin Tim a few weeks ago and he mentioned that you’d lost some cattle, but he didn’t share the details.”
“It sucks, all right. My crew and I had no idea about the poison at first. We tested for all the usual diseases, but the results were negative. The vet couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He ordered autopsies. They showed that my animals had been poisoned.”
Sly had entered Big Mama’s a hungry man. His burger was delicious, but suddenly he couldn’t eat another bite.
Lana wasn’t going after the chips anymore, either. Her face had paled and she looked shocked. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before. It’s horrific.”
Sly agreed. He’d spent more than a few sleepless nights wondering what kind of person would poison an animal, and fearing that even more might sicken and die. The feeling of powerlessness had settled in his chest like a dark weight, just as it had after his father had passed, leaving him and his siblings alone.
“What makes you believe my cousin did it?” Lana asked.
“Long story short, there’s a private service road along the north side of my ranch that runs between my land and Tim’s. The only people with access to it are me and my crew, and Tim and his. Remember that freakish warm weather in January that melted all the snow? By sheer chance, my foreman was driving a truck of feed down that road and happened to notice a piece of a bag label and a small pile of white powder just inside the fence of one of our pastures. We weren’t sure what it was and sent a sample of the powder to a lab. It turned out to be arsenic.”
Every time Sly thought about it, a slow burn started in his blood. His fingers tightened into fists.
Lana stared at his hands with wide eyes. “I have no idea what to say.”
With effort, he forced his fingers to relax. “Yeah, it’s kind of a conversation stopper. Accidents happen, and at first I kept an open mind. You hit a bump, or drive over a pothole, and things can fall off a flatbed without the driver realizing. By some fluke, it could have landed inside the fence.
“None of my men had transported arsenic in their trucks. I decided to ask Tim about it. Hell, he might have had a legitimate reason for buying the stuff. I tried to talk to him twice, but he refused to even discuss the matter. He got downright belligerent, even aimed a gun at me. I figured bringing in someone else might encourage him to help clear up a few questions. So I hired an attorney.”
Sly shook his head. “Fat lot of good that did. Tim was just as stubborn and closemouthed with him. He’s been so ornery and nasty that I can’t help but think that he deliberately put that arsenic on my land.”
Lana frowned. “But why would he do that?”
Sly had given that a lot of thought. “I wish to hell I knew. To get back at me for buying the ranch? Or maybe because I’m turning a profit and he isn’t.”
“My cousin can be a real jerk, but I can’t imagine him doing something like that.”
“I’m sorry it had to be your cousin,” Sly said, and he genuinely was.
Lana looked just as sorry. “My family sticks together through thick and thin. Once, when my mother’s cousin Millie lost her job at a farm supply store due to cutbacks, the entire family bombarded the owner with calls and letters, asking that he reinstate her. He didn’t have the resources to rehire her or any of the other people he laid off. Our family took out an ad in the paper, asking people in Prosperity to please patronize that store to increase business and help the laid-off employees get their jobs back. The ad generated a ton of new business, and eventually the owner was able to rehire cousin Millie and several other former employees.”
Sly couldn’t imagine having a family so tight. He envied Lana. “That’s impressive.”
She nodded. “What are you asking for in the lawsuit?”
“An apology and a reimbursement for what the poisoning cost me—thirty thousand dollars.”
“That’s a lot of money.”
“Raising cattle is expensive. The feed, the vaccines and vitamins, the costs of maintaining all that fencing. Plus losing the unborn calves, as well as the future calves of the cows who died and the two who are now sterile—it adds up. The tests and autopsies alone cost me a small fortune. That money was earmarked for a new drainage system.” Sly sipped his coffee, which had grown cold. “That’s my story.”
Lana dipped her head and smoothed her napkin so that her hair swung forward, hiding her expression. She was easy to read when Sly could see her face, and he wished she’d look up or say something more so that he’d have a clue what she was thinking.
Though he was sure it wasn’t good.
He cleared his throat. “I should get back to the ranch, and you have things to do.”
He left Dani a big tip, and walked out with Lana. As she moved toward her car, he touched her arm. “I haven’t given you Dani’s number. I’m sure she’ll want yours, too.”
Between the lawsuit and the baby she wanted to adopt, exploring their attraction seemed impossible. But Sly lost himself in her beautiful eyes. “So would I,” he added.
Lana hesitated, her expression regretful. “I want you to call me, Sly, but even if you do have a legitimate reason for suing my cousin, you aren’t sure that he did it. I have to support my family. Goodbye.”
She walked away.
* * *
LANA WOKE UP Sunday morning thinking about Sly. After their conversation yesterday at Big Mama’s, she liked him more than ever. But she was also convinced that they shouldn’t see each other again.
As she sipped her morning coffee and read the Sunday paper, sleeting rain battered the windows. The weather was supposed to clear by noon, but the dark gloom suited her mood. This was a perfect day to stay home and work on the nursery. Because Sophie had to choose her.
If she didn’t... Lana refused to let herself go down that path.
A few hours later, she stood in the nursery and admired the freshly painted walls. The soft yellow color made the formerly chocolate-brown room appear bigger and cheerier. It would look even better when she painted the children’s mural next weekend.
After changing out of her paint clothes, Lana headed downstairs, flopped on the sofa and phoned Kate. “How was your blind date last night?” she asked when her friend picked up.
“As bad as I predicted. Henry had slippery hands and bad breath. He took me bowling. I have no problem with that, but on a first date? That’s the last time I let my mother set me up with anyone, ever. How was brunch with Sophie?”
“That didn’t go so well, either.” Lana filled her in. “Then Sly showed up.”
“Oh?” Kate sounded intrigued.
&
nbsp; “As it turns out, his sister is Big Mama’s adopted daughter. Dani’s great. You’d like her.”
“I know Dani from when I eat there. She’s a sweetheart. I even remember she had a brother, but I didn’t realize he was Sly. Now, there’s a guy I’d want someone fix me up with—if you hadn’t snagged him first.”
“Snagged him? You’re funny. And now...” Lana blew out a heavy breath.
“That’s some sigh. Tell me what happened.”
“If you’ll just be patient, I will.”
“Okay, okay. Start from the beginning.”
“Sophie was getting restless, but as soon as Sly sat down with us, she totally changed.” One smile and she’d been as smitten as Lana. “He pretty much snowed her.”
“Well, yeah. He’s a gorgeous man. But get out! Sly sat at your table?”
“It was a booth, and he only joined us because all the other tables were taken.”
“Really,” Kate said in a tone that reminded Lana of a cooing dove. “And how did that go?”
“Pretty well. After Sophie left, we—”
“Sophie left? I thought she liked Sly.”
“She did, but she had to get home.”
“So she left and you and Sly stayed. In a nice, cozy booth. This is starting to head in the right direction. Go on.”
Lana rolled her eyes. “We talked. I explained why I treated Sophie to breakfast. I also learned some interesting things about him.” She filled in her friend about Sly’s childhood and the lawsuit.
“You two sure made up for lost time in the talking department. I’ll bet he finally asked for your number, huh?”
“He did, but I didn’t give it to him.”
“Are you nuts? Why the heck not?”
“Did you not listen to what I said? Sly is suing my cousin and I’m getting ready to adopt a baby. I can’t get involved with him.”
“That’s just plain crazy. The adoption isn’t for months yet, and you can’t just stay home, twiddling your thumbs. As for your cousin, you can hardly stand him. The one time I met him, I didn’t care much for him, either. If Tim did the crime, he should pay.”