Chapter Nine – Lynn

The day started well enough. If you considered more cleaning a good thing. By lunchtime the sense of satisfaction brought on by dusting a year or more’s worth of dust out of the sitting room was beginning to become jaded. Still she cleaned. Lynn desperately wanted the house clean, ready for when her furniture would be arriving tomorrow.

Tomorrow. With a groan, she renewed her efforts, scrubbing, scraping, and sweeping, until she thought it would never end. Without electricity, it was difficult, what she wouldn’t give to be able to plug in her vacuum cleaner, it would make life so much easier. The old boiler was struggling to cope too: the various noises emanating from it every time she showered or filled a fresh bucket ready for more cleaning, made it sound as if she had a beast in the house trying to get out. It was hard not to miss her apartment with all its modern conveniences, like a washing machine.

Lynn looked down at her clothes. They were close to ruined, the dirt and grime unlikely to ever come out. All of these gripes were ruses she was using to put a Band-Aid on the real issue. With each wipe of a cloth, or sweep of a brush, she struggled to deal with the thought of Uncle Freddy living here alone. The house had been closed up for a few months after his death, which explained a lot of the dirt, and Lynn suspected a few of the wild animals from the woods had made their home in the house over the winter months. However, even discounting that, some of the house would have been close to uninhabitable. There was mold in the corner of one of the upstairs bedrooms, which would have been bad for his health.

Lynn had added roofer to the list of people she had to call. The never-ending list.

“I should have been here for you, Uncle Freddy,” Lynn said, for the hundredth time.

“Are you still beating yourself up over that?” a voice asked from behind her.

Lynn whirled around. “Adam!”

“I thought I’d come check on you,” He looked nervous.

“I’m still here, if that’s what you mean.”

“And still cleaning.”

“I think I will be cleaning for the rest of my life,” she said theatrically, waving her cleaning cloth in the air.

“It’s looking good.” Adam nodded enthusiastically, his eyes sweeping around the room. “If it makes you feel better, your uncle didn’t use this room very much.”

“He didn’t?” Lynn asked.

“No. He kept himself mainly to the kitchen and the dining room. We brought his bed down for him when he struggled with the stairs. The rest of the house was closed up.”

“I saw the bed in the dining room. And it wasn’t so dirty in there,” Lynn said.

“We did what we could for him. He was a proud old man, didn’t accept help too eagerly. We’d clean up as much as he’d let us. Although that is a secret best kept from my father,” Adam told her.

“Your secret is safe with me.” She smiled at him, enjoying having someone to talk to. Someone other than herself. “And since I am your dad’s least favorite person for not selling the ranch to him, I don’t think I’m going to be seeing him any time soon to tell.”

Adam came into the room, and stood in front of her. “That’s what I’m here for.”

“What? To make me sell?” she asked, not in the mood for a fight with the man she was beginning to look forward to seeing each day. “Or to take me to your father so he can persuade me to part with the house before my furniture arrives?”

“Not to make you sell. But yes, to take you home with me. Or at least on a ride, across the Williams Homestead, with my brothers.”

“I don’t belong there. I’m the enemy, aren’t I?” She turned back to her cleaning, her face burning at the thought of having to mix with Adam’s brothers. They were a close-knit bunch, from what Adam had said, and she would be an outsider. However, the thought of escaping the ranch and getting some fresh, dust-free air was going to make it hard to say no.

“If I promise to come back and help you clean later, will you please come with us?”

“A ride? With your family?” she asked. “Why? So you can all gang up on me?”

“No. Nothing like that.” He took a deep breath, and then said, “You know what I’m planning. And I thought you might be able to help me talk my brothers into it.”

“Why would they listen to me?” Lynn frowned. “We’ve just met. And they don’t know me at all.” Lynn had a sneaking suspicion she was falling into some kind of trap.

“Your opinion would be important to them.”

“I’m an outsider.”

“Exactly.” Adam came close to her, his breath warm on her skin as he leaned forward and said softly. “You can give them the voice of unbiased reason. You can tell them what it’s like to strike out on a new path.”

“You mean, I can tell them what happens when you go against your parents’ wishes?” Lynn asked, her frown deepening.

“Please. I need your support.”

“My support?” She shook her head. “What will that count for?”

“A lot. It’s hard for me to explain right now,” Adam said.

“Try,” Lynn told him bluntly.

He looked down at the carpet she had spent all morning cleaning, and then said, “If we were together.” He pointed to her, and then to himself. “And this was our decision. Would you agree it is the fairest way to handle the ranch? An equal share, like I told you yesterday?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“And that is why I want you there. They will want to know your opinion.”

“Why?” Lynn pressed, unsure if she wanted to know the answer. Adam’s behavior often felt as if it were veering close to him being a stalker. It was as if he had decided they were going to be together, and he was just waiting for her to catch up.

“A woman’s point of view.”

“OK.”

“OK?” he asked, surprised at her acceptance.

“Yes. Although you owe me man-hours, in return.”

“Great.” He looked satisfied, but he had no idea what she had in mind. The furniture all needed rearranging before her own furniture arrived. It was a tough task alone, and she would appreciate his help.

“I’ll go get changed,” she said, leaving him alone in the sitting room and running upstairs to put on some clean clothes. Jeans and a sweater should do it. Horseback riding was something she had spent several summers learning when she was in her teens. It had been her refuge from the hotel, sun on her face, a horse between her legs, and the urge to just keep going and never come back.

There was a chance she might have forgotten how to ride after so long. She might be about to make a huge fool of herself, but at least she would see Adam’s true colors if she did and he laughed at her. Which was the whole reason she had agreed to go with him, she lied to herself. Lynn was beginning to miss some of the hustle and bustle of the hotel, but that was hard for her to admit.

This little adventure was going to be her way of finding out exactly what was going on with Adam, and how she fit into his plans. Lynn hoped that by meeting his family, she would get an insight into the real goings-on over at the Williams Homestead. If there really was a plot to get her to sell her new home, then she was going to see it laid bare.

“Let’s see if he really is the nice guy he wants me to think he is,” Lynn said to her reflection, satisfied she looked presentable if she came face-to-face with Adam’s father. “And what if he is?” she asked herself, leaning forward and peering at herself. The face that looked back at her said it all. If he was a nice guy, and he was willing to make this kind of effort, and involve her in his life when he had no need to, then she was going to give him a chance.

Life was all about taking risks; that was what she had done when she left her old life. Maybe Adam was lucky and he had this love at first sight thing down to a science, even if that was a contradictory notion.

“Live and learn. Love and learn,” Lynn told herself. Then she turned and ran back downstairs to find Adam waiting in the kitchen. He was looking at the tiles on the floor.

“I didn’t know these were here,” he admitted.

“They were hidden under some old linoleum,” Lynn explained. “I pulled it up and cleaned them off. They are beautiful and unusual. I love the bears and the wolves. And the crescent moons. I suspect they have been here since the house was built.”

Adam bent down and touched a tile that showed a bear gazing upward; there was a tile positioned above it to give the idea that the bear was staring at the moon. “He looks moonstruck.”

“He does.” She watched him as he moved across to place his hand on the wolf. “My dad would love to see these. I think my great-great-grandmother made them. She had a workshop over at the Homestead. There are similar ones in the kitchen there.”

“She made them? By hand?” Lynn asked. “What do they mean?”

“Mean?” he asked, standing up and looking at her, his expression strange, distant.

“Yes. The moon and the wolf, well, that’s common. But a bear?”

Adam looked down at them again. “The moon is a symbol of the shift. The bear is my great-grandfather. The wolf is my great-grandmother.”

“The shift?” Lynn asked. Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, she remembered a whispered story told to her at bedtime by her uncle. It told the story of two people who fell in love and lived under the moon, able to turn from man to bear, from woman to wolf. Long ago, when she had stayed here, she’d heard the bear and the wolf in the distance, just as she had the first night she had moved here.

“When humans have another side, and shift from one to the other. Bear to man…”

“And woman to wolf.” She nodded. “Uncle Freddy told me that story.”

“And do you know it’s based in truth?” Adam’s face was so serious, so still, and the air in the room seemed to evaporate, and the temperature rose, making her cheeks turn pink.

She shook off the intense energy that sprung up between them. There were some things she could believe in, like love at first sight, but people turning into animals? Not today. “If you are trying to frighten me off with these stories of werewolves, then you are going to have to do better than that.”

“I’m not trying to frighten you off.” His face clouded, and he struggled with something, with words he wanted to say. Twice he opened his mouth, fighting to speak, only to close it again.

“Let’s go,” she said, not wanting to carry on this conversation anymore. “I have not ridden a horse for so long, I’m excited to try it again. And if I fall off, and you laugh, you know I will not speak to you again.”

“I won’t laugh.” He took her hand and held it sandwiched between his. “If you fall off, I will catch you. I will always catch you.”

“Why?” she asked, wanting to get lost in the passion in his eyes.

“Because, and I know you don’t see it and don’t feel it, but we are meant to be together.”

“I’m beginning to see that you believe that.”

“I don’t just believe it. I know it.” He looked down at the tiles. “I am the bear. Moonstruck.” He looked straight at her, his eyes honest, true, so that her heart stopped beating for one long moment when he said, “By you.”

“Adam. This is too soon. We don’t even know each other.”

“I know you.” He placed his hand on her heart. “I can hear your heart beat, and mine wants to beat in time with it forever. I wish you could feel the same.” He let her hand drop. “But until you do, I’m willing to take it slow.”

She lifted her hand he had held and held it against her. “I’m not sure I should come with you.”

“Yes, you should.” He smiled, bright, the intensity of before passed. “No strings. Just come and meet my family. Help me persuade them to take on the ranch in equal shares. Tell them how you feel about this place and making new beginnings. Please.”

“That’s all?” she asked. “You’re not trying to lure me into something … odd?”

“Nothing. No luring.”

“Then I’ll come. Only because I need to know if you are like this with everyone.”

“Like what?” he asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“Intense. All this talk of wolves and bears. And shifting.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the house. “I’d like to know if it’s peculiar to you, or if it’s a thing with people in this area. You know, you are making Pete look like a positive catch.”

“No Pete. You are mine. I’ll make you see it.” He grinned at her as she stood defiantly with hands on hips. “OK, I’ll show you, and let you make up your own mind.”

“Better.” She opened the door of his truck and got in, before he could help her. “Maybe you are just a lonely old cowboy who needs to learn how to treat a woman.”

“I’m willing to let you teach me,” he said.

“Why is it, no matter what I say, you twist it around and make it sound so…” She searched for the word. “Naughty?”

He chuckled. “I haven’t been naughty for such a long time.”

“There you go again,” she said, but felt better; he’d lightened up, his mood shifting to happy, not brooding.

“You bring out the worst in me. And the best in me,” he said. Turning the key in the ignition, he started the engine. “You’ve made me look at myself differently. I see what you’ve given up, what you are willing to do to make this place work. And I want to do that too. I want to run the ranch, but I want it to be fair. I want to go to bed at night knowing that my brothers are being treated fairly.”

“OK, maybe you aren’t naughty, maybe you are nice.”

“Nice, you make me sound like a pair of warm socks.”

“I like warm socks,” she answered. “I like warm socks a lot.”