Issued to the Bride One Marine (Brides of Chance Creek Book 4)

by Cora Seton

  Lena became as obsessed with the weather report as everyone else as the week went on. Today’s job was sheathing the building in plywood.

  Tomorrow they’d put on the roof.

  If the snow held off.

  Lena found herself pulling out her phone and looking at the weather report every fifteen minutes. Only when Brian barked at her to pay attention as they maneuvered a sheet of plywood up to the top of one of the gable ends did she put it away, pride stinging from the rebuke, and promise herself not to look again until they were done for the day. High, thin clouds obscured the sun but didn’t bring any bad weather. Still, it was getting cold—which made working with tools far more difficult.

  She came back to the house that night with Logan to find several boxes of pizza stacked on the table.

  “A movie night?” Lena asked. “I’m not sure I can stay awake.”

  “These were delivered. By your fan club,” Sadie said with a grin. She was setting a stack of plates on the table.

  “My fan club?” Lena looked at the boxes again for an explanation.

  “Harley. Not sure where Ray was—I thought those two were joined at the hip. I asked him to join us, but he couldn’t stay. Just knew we were probably overworked this week. Nice of him, wasn’t it?”

  Lena noticed Logan’s frown and had to bite back a smile. “Very nice. I’ll have to thank him tomorrow.” She nearly laughed at the Marine’s baleful expression. “Come on, let’s eat. I’m ravenous.”

  “Way ahead of you.” Brian grabbed a plate and helped himself to a slice from the top box. “Pepperoni. Awesome.” He took a bite right then and there and groaned. “That hits the spot.”

  Soon they were all arrayed around the table, eating pizza, not much chatter interrupting their meal until they’d each consumed several slices.

  When Connor made a frustrated noise, Lena craned her neck and realized he’d been looking at his phone under the table.

  “Snow tomorrow night.”

  His words sank in, and they all stopped eating.

  “Then we’d better be up before sunrise and get that roof on as soon as we can,” Logan said.

  “It’s going to be a struggle,” Alice said quietly.

  Lena knew that was one of her sister’s hunches, and her appetite disappeared. “We’ll get it done,” she assured everyone else. “We have to.”

  Chapter Nine

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  The following morning dawned cold with an iron-gray sky overhead.

  “I don’t like the look of those clouds,” Brian remarked when Logan joined him on the back porch. As they walked down to the building site, their breath shone white in the air. Champ, Isobel and Max had tried to join them, but Brian had ordered all the dogs back to the house, and Cass had taken charge of them.

  “We’ll get ’er done,” Logan said, but he wasn’t as sure as his words made out. If they didn’t, the horses would have to board elsewhere over the winter. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but he knew Lena would feel like she’d failed. He knew the rebuilt stables stood for more than a roof over their horses’ heads. It stood for standing strong against the people who had set themselves against Two Willows.

  “I mean it. We’ll get ’er done,” he said again when Lena frowned.

  “I’m with you,” Brian said. Soon they were back at work, tackling the usual morning chores and then following Lena’s commands to set up their materials for the day.

  Once again, trucks rolled in as soon as the sun came up. This time the volunteers wore more layers, and the women carried more dishes up to the house. Heartier fare, Logan expected.

  They’d need it.

  There was less joking today as everyone broke into teams and got to work, and soon sheets of plywood were being handed up to the roof and screwed into place. The twins were back, he noticed, and he had to work hard not to resent it. While Ray looked out of sorts, grumpy as a wolverine anytime anyone came near, Harley was doing everything he could to stay close to Lena, and she seemed to enjoy his company—laughing even now at something he’d said.

  “Lena?” he called.

  “Yeah?”

  He racked his brain for a response that wouldn’t give his real motive away. As usual, he’d acted first without thinking. “Need a hand over here.”

  When she joined him near a pile of shingles, he knew he should come up with a reason to mask his jealousy. Instead, he found himself saying, “I don’t think you should encourage that ass.”

  “We’ve been over this before,” she reminded him.

  “I don’t like him.”

  “Don’t like him? Or don’t like me talking to him?”

  “Is there a difference? Look, we know nothing about him—or his brother. And he’s the idiot who nearly got you killed.”

  “He dropped a tool—”

  “And nearly ended up tipping you on your head. It’s my job to keep you safe—”

  “Actually, it isn’t,” she shot back. “It’s your job to get to work and get a roof on my stables. It’s going to snow any minute, so stop wasting time.”

  Lena wasn’t the only one whose temper grew short as the morning advanced, and she knew a real leader would do something to ease the tension. She wasn’t sure what to do, though. Ray was the worst of the lot, snapping at anyone who spoke to him. The contrast between his behavior and Harley’s made her wonder if Logan was right and the twins had fought over her. She didn’t normally think of herself as the femme fatale type, but it was clear something had happened. The looks Ray kept sending Harley made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Men got like that when their desires were frustrated. She shivered a little. Once she might have been attracted to a man like Ray with his reckless male energy. Not anymore. She wished he’d go home and take his brother with him.

  Worse, the roof was progressing more slowly than she’d hoped, people’s dexterity hampered by the cold weather. Although they had many hands, more didn’t necessarily mean faster where a roof was concerned. Things needed to be done in a certain order. They couldn’t all climb up at the same time.

  They were making progress, though, and by noon they were nearly done. Which was good, since the clouds had lowered ominously.

  “Lunch break,” she called out, expecting the crowd to make a dash for the house to warm up.

  “Lena, no disrespect,” Luke Matheson called from the roof. “But I think we’d better keep going.” He pointed to the sky, just as a lazy flake of snow drifted down and touched her cheek.

  “Okay,” she decided quickly. “You’re right; let’s get it done.” She pulled out her phone and called Cass. “Hey, we’re pushing through, so no one’s coming up for lunch yet. Is there any way you can get some hot coffee out here—and something everyone can eat on the go?”

  “I’m on it.” Cass hung up.

  Ten minutes later, a string of figures came out the back door of the house and trudged down the track toward them. Luckily, the snow had only continued to fall a flake at a time, but Lena knew they were pushing it. Even such a slight amount of precipitation would leave things wet and slippery in no time.

  She blessed Cass when the women arrived with thermoses of piping hot coffee and easy-to-eat sandwiches. The men were back to work in no time, warmed and ready to go.

  Still, the job crawled on. The shingles were hard to work with in the cold, and Lena’s fingers moved like metal gears left to rust for far too long when she tried to shift one into place.

  “At least it’s not a metal roof,” Logan mumbled the next time they came close.

  He was right. The metal would be slick and dangerous by now. They were already pushing it being up here in the snow.

  The light waned, even though it was barely past noon.

  And the snow began to fall for real.

  “Damn it.” Lena bent to work harder, nailing a shingle in place and reaching for the next one. All around her the sound of hammers redoubled.

  “Let’s go, boys. Let’s move,” Brian called
out. “We can finish in a half hour if we put our backs into it.”

  “Someone get a broom up here. We need to keep the snow off this roof,” Logan added.

  Lena looked up, wishing she’d thought to suggest that.

  Harley scrambled past her. “I’ll get it. Where do I look?”

  Lena told him, impressed by his willingness to keep helping under these conditions. He’d been cocky the first time she’d met him, but she was quickly learning he wasn’t the jerk his brother was.

  She straightened and caught Logan’s dark frown. When she made a face at him, he leaned closer. “I can’t help it,” he growled at her. “He’s such a kiss-ass when it comes to you.”

  “Maybe you should try that once in a while.”

  His dark look changed to something far more dangerous. “Any time, baby girl.”

  “Oh, my god. You are incorrigible. Do you ever think of anything besides sex?”

  “Rarely.”

  She got back to work with a smile, despite the difficult situation. A moment later, Harley returned, and he made it his job to keep sweeping the snow off the roof in between helping with the shingling. The unshingled area was growing smaller by the minute.

  Lena’s heart lifted. “I think we’re actually going to get this done.”

  She could have eaten her words when the wind whipped up a moment later, sending billows of snowflakes sideways into their faces.

  “Jesus,” Logan said. “Okay—everyone not actively shingling, get off this roof. We don’t want anyone to fall. Brian? Get those last bundles up here. Let’s finish off this job.”

  One by one the men climbed down, leaving just a handful of figures huddled up on the high roof. Brian humped the remaining bundles of shingles up the ladder. Lena kept hammering. So did Logan, Connor and Harley—and Ray, to her surprise. Now that the chips were down, Lena had to admit she appreciated their presence. Both twins had worked hard all day despite Harley’s propensity for chatter and Ray’s baleful looks.

  Lena, on her knees, had bent to tack down a shingle near the edge of the roof when Connor, working higher up, swore and lurched forward. A hammer zipped past her, and Ray, near the ridge of the roof, cursed. “Damn it, Harley! Look what you did.”

  Lena lunged for it, too, just as Connor slid down the wet surface and knocked her over. He scrambled on all fours and caught himself from sliding farther. Lena fought to do the same, but her momentum carried her forward and she tumbled, coming face to face with the ground twenty feet below her—

  Just as a strong hand clamped around her bicep and kept her from falling off the roof.

  For a long moment she hung there, legs and torso splayed on the roof, head and shoulders hanging over, staring at the ground far below, where the hammer lay in the newly fallen snow.

  “Someone brace me,” Logan finally yelled. “If I move, we’re both going to fall.”

  Lena kept as still as possible, aware the slightest movement could unbalance her—and pull Logan down, too.

  Someone moved to grip her feet. She felt another presence behind Logan. A moment later, Logan shifted back and pulled her with him. Slowly, he eased her away from the edge of the roof.

  When she could push up into a sitting position, Lena finally let out the breath she’d been holding. Stars danced before her eyes, and she had to bend down and put her head between her legs. The world dipped and spun. She put a hand on the roof to brace herself, unable to get her balance back. Connor was holding on to Logan. Harley had been the one to grip her feet.

  She felt Logan’s hand on her back.

  “It’s okay. Just breathe,” he told her.

  Humiliation washed over her as she realized what had nearly happened. A man wouldn’t have been bowled over—he’d have had the strength to stop himself. She had fallen because she was too light to keep her footing.

  She was always at a disadvantage. Just because she’d been born a woman.

  She worked as hard as anyone else. Tried as hard, but she always came up short.

  Lena tried to move. She needed to get back to work. Prove to all of them she was as good as they were. But somehow the more time went by, the worse she felt.

  She didn’t know how long they stayed that way before she allowed Logan to help her over to the ladder, where he climbed down before her, one hand on her waist as she took it rung by rung. Each step down felt like a defeat. Back on solid ground, she sagged against him, hating her own weakness but unable to fight it.

  She’d nearly died.

  As a rancher, she’d messed up a few times. Had a couple of close calls to danger. And hell, she’d been in a shoot-out just weeks ago—

  But she’d never faced death so baldly. Not like she had on the roof. As soon as she’d started to slide, she’d been helpless to stop herself.

  She hated feeling helpless.

  “It’s okay,” Logan said again.

  Behind him she heard arguing, and she was dimly aware Harley and Ray had climbed down, too, and now were fighting. Other men circled around them, trying to break them up.

  Connor, pale as a ghost, came to stand beside Lena. “I’m sorry, lass. Christ, what a stupid mistake to go after that hammer.”

  “What made you drop it?” Logan asked him, craning his neck to see the argument playing out behind him.

  “It wasn’t mine. I saw it go past and lunged for it. Should’ve called a warning and let it go. Nearly got you both killed.”

  Logan clapped him on the shoulder. “Honest mistake. It was slippery as fuck up there. Any of us could have lost our footing.”

  “I don’t know about honest,” Connor leaned in to say. He sent a look over his shoulder at Harley and Ray, who appeared to have noticed the crowd of onlookers. They weren’t arguing anymore, but the animosity between them was clear. “That boy’s got butterfingers,” Connor went on. “That’s twice he’s dropped a tool. He’s got no place on a construction site.”

  “Harley dropped it?” Logan asked.

  Harley turned at the sound of his name. “It wasn’t me,” he said. “It was—”

  Ray grabbed his arm and hustled him away up the track. “I didn’t do nothing,” he snarled back at Logan.

  “Like hell! Lena? It wasn’t me,” Harley called back as his brother kept hustling him along.

  “You think she gives a damn about you?” Ray said loudly enough for all of them to hear.

  Harley ducked his head, shoved his brother away and kept going.

  “Good riddance,” Logan said as the brothers stalked off toward their truck, but Lena was horrified. Had Harley dropped the hammer? Or had Ray? Was it an accident, or—?

  “Forget about them. You two had better get up to the house and get warm,” Connor said.

  “We’ll be right there,” Logan said. When Connor was gone, he added, “He’s right. It’s cold, and you’re in shock. We need to get you back to the house.”

  “Chores,” Lena managed through teeth that had begun to chatter. She’d think about Harley and Ray another time. When she was warm, and her brain was working right.

  “Brian’s got it covered already.” Logan nodded at a cluster of men heading toward the barn. She realized they’d already put the tools away.

  “Okay.” Her whole body had begun to shake, and a moment later when Logan picked her up, she couldn’t even find the strength to protest.

  Back at the house, Logan kicked off his boots, pulled Lena’s off, too, and carried her straight upstairs to her room. She’d sagged against him as he’d carried her up the hill and didn’t seem aware of their location until he began to undress her.

  “Hey,” she protested when he’d gotten off her coat and gloves and began to work on tugging her thick sweater up and over her head. “Hey!”

  She batted his hand away and tried to sit up. “What are you doing?”

  “Putting you to bed—after I get this wet stuff off. You’re soaked through. Still in shock.”

  “I can get myself to bed.” Her color was coming
back. A knock sounded on the door, and Cass poked her head in.

  “I’ve got hot coffee and some stew. Lena, you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Logan’s making too much of this.” But she gratefully took the mug of coffee Cass handed her, blew on it and took a sip.

  “I’ll get her into bed,” Cass told him. “You can come back as soon as she’s tucked in,” she added with a knowing grin.

  “Fine.” Logan left the room, frustrated. It wasn’t that he wanted to hit on Lena in her condition. He simply didn’t want to let her out of his sight. He’d nearly lost her over a stupid mistake this afternoon, and he couldn’t help but feel responsible. There’d only been a few feet left to shingle. He should have sent everyone else inside, including Lena, no matter how she protested.

  He had to stifle a grin at the thought of how that would have gone. They’d have gotten into a wrestling match up there and probably both would have fallen off the roof.

  He sobered again at the realization they’d come pretty damn close. He’d caught Lena at the last possible moment, and only luck had left him in a position to keep her from sliding over and pulling him with her. That had been a long, awful minute before Connor had shuffled close behind him and helped pull them both back. He was going to make damn sure neither Harley nor Ray got anywhere near her again.

  Voices floated up from the kitchen, where people had congregated to eat now that the work was done. He’d make sure to thank everyone for their help—later. First he needed to make sure Lena was okay.

  When Cass came out of the room, she held up a hand before he could even ask a question. “Lena’s fine. She ate some food, drank her coffee. She’s already going to sleep.” She gave him a good long look. “If you’re going in there, you behave.”