Chapter Seven
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After such a beautiful night, Logan couldn’t believe how gray and oppressive the clouds were the following morning. A wet mist threatened to become rain, and for the first time he wondered if they’d be able to get the barn done before the really bad weather arrived. He’d handed Lena over to Cass reluctantly when they’d returned to the house the night before. He’d have rather stayed up and kept an eye on Lena himself, but Cass was awake, having gotten a call from the hospital when they discovered Lena was gone, and she insisted on sitting up the remainder of the night to watch her sister.
Still, this morning Lena refused to consider resting. Instead, she arrived at the building site ready to get to work, the bump still prominent on her forehead, and the men hurried to keep up with her. She didn’t even seem to mind when Logan stepped in to offer a suggestion about how to frame in the windows. They all knew they were racing against the clock—with no guarantee of winning.
As usual, Champ, Isobel and Max wandered around the building site until Lena finally phoned Sadie to come and take them away. Sadie arrived and took charge of them, saying she’d take them on a long hike to tire them out.
“Last night must have set you back a bunch,” Connor said to Logan in an undertone later that morning. He nodded at Lena, who was deep in conversation with Brian, both bending over plans that riffled in the wind that had been blowing all morning.
“Yeah. But not as much as you might think.” He’d connected with Lena last night in the maze when he’d kissed her. Lena hadn’t pushed him away. That had to be progress, but he didn’t want to talk about that with Connor. “She can’t resist my hot body,” he joked instead and flexed his arms.
Connor rolled his eyes. “Are those the same muscles you used to knock her out yesterday?”
“I didn’t knock her out!” Logan sighed. He didn’t know why he bothered to argue. “Anyway, she’s back today, isn’t she? Working with me? Brian won Cass while fixing the house, right? Why can’t I win Lena while building a stable?”
“Yeah, but Cass was the first. Lena watched me build Sadie a walled garden. Hunter built Jo a house. Maybe you need to up your game. Build something specifically for her—not the horses.”
Logan kept thinking about Connor’s suggestion long after they got back to work. It made sense, but there was one problem: he didn’t know what Lena wanted. She wasn’t into gardening, and he’d heard her talking to Sadie about how much work Jo would have to do keeping her home tidy without Cass to do it for her.
He didn’t think Lena was in any rush to move out of her home. What could he build her that would make a real impression?
He mulled over that question for the rest of the morning, through lunch and into the afternoon, until Lena called out, “Take a twenty-minute break, everyone. Go clear your heads; we all need to stay sharp today.”
Logan turned toward the house like everyone else, hoping to grab a snack and a drink before coming back. That mist had hung around all day, and he was damp—and a little cranky. But when he glanced back to check that Lena was following the rest of them, he saw her disappear into the barn—
And knew exactly what to build for her.
An escape. Somewhere dry and warm she could slip away to and read for hours at a time. Somewhere no one else knew about—at least at first.
Not a house—no need to get complicated. Lena wouldn’t want that. A simple structure, easy to maintain—and heat. A place to store her books.
With comfortable seating and a few other necessities her hideaway in the barn didn’t have.
Could he build it on the ranch without her knowing about it?
And where could he tuck it away, hidden from her sisters, but close enough she could easily reach it?
Logan decided he’d start exploring the ranch and making plans. He’d search online for ideas.
A reading hideaway.
The perfect gift for the woman who was going to be his wife.
Even if she didn’t know it yet.
“Damn it!” Lena shoved Logan away when he stole a kiss later that afternoon. That was twice in twenty-four hours he’d gotten past her guard.
She was losing her touch.
“Baby girl, you know you love it when I do that,” Logan said and went back to work, whistling.
“You know I’m going to kick your ass. Just as soon as I’ve built this stable.” She got back to work, too. She was wet and getting cold as the sun sank low in the sky. Her head didn’t hurt as badly as it had earlier, but it still throbbed. The damn mist hadn’t let up all day, and she’d made the mistake of choosing twenty minutes of reading over returning to the house to warm up and dry off at break time.
“Might want to wait for that bump to heal up before you give yourself a new one…”
“Watch it!”
She caught his grin and had to bite back a smile of her own. What a jerk. It was like having a brother—
Although it wasn’t like that at all. With every kiss Logan got deeper under her skin. She kept catching herself… thinking about him.
Thinking about being with him.
It was ridiculous.
Horrifying.
It had been too long, she supposed, and her body was rebelling against her self-imposed moratorium on carnal pleasure. She hadn’t been with a man since before the first attack on Two Willows. She’d thought Scott had soured her on men forever, but it seemed like her body had other ideas in mind.
Being close to Logan seemed to rile her up every which way.
Which wasn’t good. She still needed to look out for trouble, even if things had remained calm these last few weeks. Somewhere in Tennessee was a group of troublemakers who’d decided to target her ranch. First, they’d sent Bob Finchley and his buddies to try to woo them and trick them into handing over the property. Then they’d stolen Jo’s dogs for a diversion and tried to kidnap Jo. When that didn’t work, they’d set the stable on fire to get revenge.
Each time she and her sisters—and Brian, Connor and Hunter—had managed to fight them off. So far, they’d won, but who was to say what would happen next? Cab had traced the men back to Tennessee, but he hadn’t uncovered the mastermind behind the attacks, nor a solid reason for them above and beyond the drug connection.
She had to assume they’d try again. She couldn’t let Logan distract her.
Lena finally gave up on the afternoon when the light got so low that it would have been dangerous for them to keep working. The wind had picked up, and it was outright raining. They secured all their tools, cleaned and dried them thoroughly before putting them away, and then worked together to do the evening chores.
“I hope this storm passes overnight,” Brian said as they walked back to the house, stating what was on all their minds.
“We need to work faster,” Lena said.
“I think we’re working as fast as we can, lass,” Connor said.
“We’ll get it done,” Logan assured her.
Lena wasn’t sure they would, though, and the realization felt far too much like another failure for comfort.
At the house, she waited her turn for the shower and came down to dinner in clean, dry, warm clothes, her hair still damp.
Cass was just putting the finishing touches on a pot roast.
“How’s it going out there?” she asked with a commiserating smile.
“Not great,” Lena admitted. “I don’t know if we can get it done before the snow flies.”
Cass nodded. Thought a minute. “You know, we haven’t asked for much help from our community over the years. We’ve always hidden away—done our own thing. Maybe it’s time to try something different.”
“Like what?”
“Like a barn raising. A stable raising,” she corrected herself. “What do you think?”
It went against all Lena’s desire for independence, but the alternative was possible failure, and she’d hate to have to explain that to the General after everything else that had happened this year.
She couldn’t bear to prove him right about her.
“I think you’re on to something,” she said reluctantly.
“Leave it to me,” Cass told her, patting her shoulder. “I’ll put the word out, and we’ll get the stables done in no time.