Chapter Eleven
Gabe
After Lana left me in my room, it took me hours to fall asleep. I woke up early, tired and miserable. Somehow, I managed to doze off again and awoke a few hours later. A long shower woke me up and, after Louie and I ate breakfast, I pored over the plans Matt had for the farm.
My mind was 75% made up that I was going to let Matt take the farm. I just needed to figure out how to get him to make sure Marta and Julio and the other employees were taken care of.
Louie wanted to fly his kite so I took him out into one of the fields for a few hours and enjoyed watching him be pulled along in the wind. It felt good it just being me and him. He was a resilient kid, but I knew the upheaval since dad’s death would be affecting him. I felt guilty for disrupting his usual routine.
With Louie tired out, we headed back to the farmhouse and I cooked us up a noodle storm. As usual the noodles went everywhere and we had fun cleaning it all up. Once Louie was settled in, I allowed myself to think about Lana. I hadn’t seen her all day.
I knocked on her door but there was no answer, so I opened it and peered inside. She wasn’t there. She must have gone out when Louie and I were out playing earlier. I settled down beside Louie but couldn’t get Lana out of my mind. So I made the short trip across the track to see if she was at her parents’ house. Marta invited me inside.
“I was just wondering where Lana is. I haven’t seen her all day.”
Marta frowned. “She’s at the Valentine’s ball. I thought you knew.”
“Oh, yes. That’s right. Um, okay, I’ll speak to her tomorrow.”
Julio looked up at me. “Lana told me that you couldn’t make it.”
“Did she?”
Marta and Julio looked at each other. Julio patted the table. “Come and sit down son.”
I knew better than to say no, so I sat down at the dining table. Marta and Julio sat across from me, like judge, jury and executioner.
“We know that you and Lana have been having problems,” Marta said.
“Well, I won’t say it’s been easy.”
Julio leaned forward. “You know, Lana’s not had it easy over the last few years. She never looked at another guy after Kyle’s death. It’s like she completely shut down.”
“I know. It’s incredibly sad.”
“Uh-uh. But then you came along and there seems to be this light in her again. Not a full blazing light, but a tiny little flicker, you know?”
I wasn’t entirely sure what Julio was trying to get at. Marta put her hand over mine. “What are your intentions for our daughter, Gabriel?”
I pulled my hand away. My mouth was suddenly bone dry. “Well, you know the arrangement we have. It’s just so that we can save the farm. There’s nothing going on between us.”
“Are you sure?”
Both of them were staring at me intently. “I think so…”
Julio was having none of it. He shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”
I cleared my throat and looked down at my hands. “No sir, I don’t believe I do. I just get the impression that all this is somehow hurting Lana, and that’s the last thing I would want to do.”
“You don’t want to hurt her?”
“No sir.”
“Then why aren’t you at the dance with her, supporting her on her big night?”
“She asked me not to go.”
Marta’s lips quirked up into a smile. “Oh dear, Gabriel. This is not going to do at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you something about my daughter. She has always carried a torch for you. Ever since you were children, running about this farm causing mayhem, ganging up against that poor brother of yours. I could see it in her eyes, in the way she followed you around like a little puppy.”
This was news to me. “But she fell in love with Kyle.”
“Yes, dear. When she realized that you were too obtuse to notice her ministrations,” Marta chuckled. I was taken aback at being called obtuse, but it was a fair point.
I stood up. “Will you excuse me please? I have something I have to do.”
Marta and Julio simply smiled at me as I hurried out of their house and back to the farmhouse. I raced upstairs and changed into the tuxedo as quickly as I could. Ten minutes later, I stared at myself in the mirror and adjusted the bowtie. It was uncomfortable but it would have to do.
I ran downstairs to find Marta sitting on the couch next to Louie. “Don’t worry. I’ll take him across to ours for the night.”
The drive to the town hall was maddeningly slow. Traffic was busy, which didn’t help my rising anxiety. I finally found a space to park and ran up the steps and into the ballroom. People were heading back from the buffet and the band looked as though they were getting ready to start the second half of the evening.
I looked around the hall to try and find Lana, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. Perhaps she was in the other hall, overseeing the stragglers at the buffet. I turned round and spotted her walking in to the main entrance. My breath caught in my throat as I watched her walk slowly through the crowd, heading towards me but unaware of my presence.
She was breathtaking. Her long red dress skimmed her curves perfectly. Her hair had been swept up into a soft bun, with wispy tendrils floating behind her as she walked. I just stood there staring at her, feeling like I had seen her for the very first time.
She turned her head my way and jolted as her eyes caught mine. I waved and smiled, bracing myself for any anger she was about to unleash on me.
“Why did you come?” She asked, as she arrived in front of me. I wanted to reach out and brush away a tendril of hair from her shoulder.
Instead, I just stood and gawped at her like an idiot. “Your parents enlightened me on a few things that I hadn’t thought of.”
“Really? That’s interesting.”
“Yes, it is.”
“I thought I made it clear that I didn’t want you to come to the dance.”
“Come on now. Did you really think I was going to miss out on getting all dressed up?”
A small smile. “You’re a piece of work, you know that?”
The band started up. I took Lana’s hand in mine. “If you say so. Now, let’s put the talking on hold and just enjoy the rest of the night.”
“What? You’re actually going to dance?” She exclaimed, as I led her to the dance floor and pulled her into an embrace.
“I figured it’s time to let our feet do the talking for a change. Seeing as our mouths are so bad at it.”
I led her round the dancefloor, doing my best not to bump into the other dancers. Halfway through the song, Lana had relaxed and she was smiling. I pulled her closer and we settled into a relaxed rhythm. Her ear was tantalizingly close to my mouth, so I took the chance to have a nibble. She chuckled and turned to face me.
“It would appear your mouth still wants to say something.”
Confused, I opened my mouth to speak, but she bit down on my bottom lip and pulled me into a deep kiss. We both began to smile as skin grazed against skin. Then she pulled away from me and continued to dance.
We stayed on the dance floor for the rest of the night, lost in our own world. I don’t think either of us really understood what was going on, but I knew I was happy to have her in my arms. “I’m sorry about what I said yesterday about not wanting to fall in love with a local woman. I realize now it was an incredibly insensitive thing to say.”
“It’s okay. I don’t think I had realized that I had actually caught feelings, you know? It hurt when you said that, but I didn’t expect it to.”
“Feelings huh? They have a habit of complicating things.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” she laughed.
Her lips brushed against mine again and I was struck by how easily she was able to knock me sideways by simply breathing into my mouth as she gently kissed me. It left me wondering why I hadn’t been kissing this woman since forever. It blew my mind that she had been attracted to me all those years ago. I never realized that the attraction I had always felt for her was mutual.
I chuckled softly to myself. She pulled away and frowned. “What are you laughing at?”
“Us. I found out tonight that you had quite the thing for me when we were younger.”
It was her turn to laugh. “Oh, I just love my parents.”
“I was clueless, of course.”
“Well I knew that.”
“But did you know that the feeling was mutual?”
“I highly doubt that, Mr. Dawson.”
“Why?”
“Because if you had thought of me as anything other than a friend, you would have married me instead of Rebecca.”
I considered this for a moment. “You only had eyes for Kyle.”
She tossed her head back and laughed. “You really were clueless.”
I’d had enough. I cupped her face with my hands and kissed her. “You’ve got five minutes to say your goodbyes.”
“What?”
“I’m going to explain to you in great detail, about all the things I wanted to do to you when we were younger.”
Her eyebrows shot up in shock. “Are you going to use your mouth?”
I grinned at her mischievously. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”