Chapter Eight
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“Ready for the hordes?” Connor asked a couple of days later as they gathered on the back porch ready to walk down to the building site after a hearty breakfast. They’d done their chores before sunup. Now it was time to focus on the stable.
“Do you really think we’ll get hordes?” Logan asked.
Connor shrugged. “Time will tell, I guess.”
Cass, true to her word, had put out a call for help, and according to her, a fair number of men and women would show up to lend a hand today. She, Alice and Sadie had gotten up well before dawn to cook all morning in anticipation of extra mouths to feed at lunchtime.
“It’s a little hard to plan when we don’t know how many people will show up,” Lena told them. “I might have been optimistic. If that turns out to be the case, then we’ll break some of the tasks down. We won’t finish today, but it’ll push us forward a lot.”
“What if no one shows up?” Logan asked.
“Then we’ll get back to work.”
“Someone will show up, though, won’t they?” Connor pressed. Logan understood why; the man had shown Logan his cell phone earlier this morning. The temperature was set to plunge in just a few days, and snow was in the forecast for early next week. They needed help, or there was no way they’d finish in time.
“I’m sure they will,” Lena answered.
“You don’t sound sure.” Too late, Logan wished he’d thought before he’d spoken.
Lena winced. “It’s just—we’ve always kept to ourselves for the most part. We’re not bad neighbors, but we’re not the best, either. When we were teens, hiding out when we’d kicked out our overseer again, we didn’t exactly go around helping other people, you know? I’m not sure if we’ve built up enough goodwill to expect people to help us.”
“Plenty of people come to your weddings,” Brian pointed out.
“That’s true.”
“But weddings mean free food and drinks,” Logan said. “Not working all day in the cold.”
“Dude, you’re not helping,” Brian told him. “Come on, let’s get ready.”
An hour later, Logan was beginning to despair of anyone showing up, and although Lena hadn’t said a word, he knew she was, too. He caught her surreptitious glances toward the house—and toward the poor excuse for a sun that had risen above the horizon. It didn’t look like it would rain today, at least. But a thin haze of clouds covered the sky, leaving the sun a dim globe behind them. It wouldn’t be that warm, but it wouldn’t be that cold, either.
“Look!”
Logan followed Brian’s pointed finger and smiled. “There come the first of them,” he said heartily as a silver truck rolled down the lane toward them. Hope buoyed his heart when Lena smiled, too.
“That’s the Cruzes,” she said. “Thank God; that’ll be a big help. And the Mathesons,” she added a second later when several more trucks came into view. “That’s almost enough extra hands right there!”
But the help kept coming. Truck after truck pulled in, unloading men, women—and children. Many of the women and kids peeled off toward the house, carrying covered dishes, while the men—and several women and teenagers—joined the growing group at the building site.
Lena busied herself breaking them up into details of four to eight people, consulting her notes as she went. Once again, Logan thought the military had lost out when she hadn’t joined up. She was a whiz at organization and at breaking down a task into its component parts.
As the work started, a cheerful hum of voices changed what had been a frustrating struggle into an enjoyable endeavor. Logan worked along with the rest of the men, meeting his new neighbors, pitching in where he was directed—content to let Lena shine.
And she was shining. The happiest he’d ever seen her—directing everyone, thinking of everything, always two steps ahead anticipating problems and the best ways to solve them.
When he’d first stepped back and let her have her way running the ranch, it had been to score points with her, he admitted to himself now. Today his understanding grew. It wasn’t simply kind to let her take the lead at Two Willows; it was right. Lena knew everything about this land. She’d grown up here. It had belonged to her family for generations. That meant something. There’d be plenty of work for all of them, and they were all qualified leaders in their own right, so they’d have to discover how to use their qualifications in ways that didn’t upset the apple cart at the ranch.
But that was a problem for another time. For now, he needed to focus on the task at hand.
Except—who was that?
Another truck pulled in, and when the doors of the cab opened and two men climbed out, Logan’s chest tightened.
The twins.
Back for another try at Lena, he guessed.
“Take over for me, will you?” he asked Luke Matheson, who grunted and stepped in to help raise a section of wall into place. Logan strode toward the approaching men and confronted them a half-dozen paces from the stables. “Why are you here?”
“We heard about the stable raising. We came to help—just like everyone else,” Harley said. “Even brought a casserole.” He nodded at the dish in his brother’s hands.
“A casserole, huh?” Logan hadn’t expected that. He wanted to kick them off Two Willows land, but he didn’t know how to do it without raising a fuss at the same time. He couldn’t exactly justify his rancor, either. These two hadn’t done anything wrong—yet.
Besides, Lena might come after him with that crowbar again.
“Better get that up to the house,” he told Ray grudgingly. “I’ll check with Lena about assignments for you. Not sure if there’s anything left for you to do.”
But of course there was, and fifteen minutes later the two men were working with a framing crew. They both climbed ladders with the ease of men who’d done this kind of work before, handy with the tools, comfortable at high elevations. Logan had to admit to himself they were an asset to the operation, but he’d be damned if he’d say so out loud.
With two of the walls up, the structure was far from steady, but the twins swarmed over it as if it was constructed of steel—and Lena seemed determined to follow their example. Climbing up to check if everything was level, she perched unsteadily at the top of one of the walls. Logan, catching sight of her, put down his tools to go spot her. All she needed was to hit her head again.
He was halfway there when Harley dropped his drill with a shout of warning to the men underneath, lunged forward to try to catch it, gripping the structure with his legs, but only succeeded in grabbing thin air. The force of his movement made the whole wall sway—
And Logan watched in horror as Lena yelped and lost her grip.
He didn’t know how he made it the rest of the way, but a second later, Lena hit his outstretched arms and they both fell to the ground.
“Lena!” Brian came running. So did Connor. As a crowd surrounded them, Lena got to her feet and pushed Logan away.
“I’m fine. I’m perfectly fine,” she said, but Logan knew she was shaken. It wasn’t that far a fall, but she still could have been hurt badly enough to put her out of the game for weeks.
And they didn’t have weeks.
“You need to take a rest,” Logan said. “We all do. Lunchtime, folks!”
“Jesus, Lena. I’m sorry.” Harley had finally managed to climb down off the wall and fight his way through the crowd. “That was a rookie mistake. I can’t believe I lost my grip on that drill.”
“Nearly got her killed,” Ray said, shooting his brother a look Logan couldn’t decipher.
“I didn’t try to,” Harley shot back.
“Stick with me,” Ray said to Lena. “I’ll keep you safe from guys like him.”
“Fuck you.” Harley shoved him.
“Time to eat,” Brian said, stepping between the brothers. Ray turned to follow several of the other men toward the house. Harley hung back a moment, then left as well. Logan wanted to go after them, but he didn’t want to leave Lena.
“You okay?” he asked her.
“I’m fine,” Lena all but growled. “You heard Brian; let’s go eat.”
But she didn’t turn with the rest of the crowd for the house.
And Logan followed her to the barn a few minutes later.
Lena was still shaking as she climbed the ladder to the hayloft, and when she reached the top, opened the chest and pulled out the old horse blanket, she lowered herself to the floor gratefully and tried to catch her breath. Heat flamed in her cheeks. She’d fallen in front of everyone. She hated to think about how that had looked. Some leader she was turning out to be when she couldn’t even keep herself upright.
It had all happened so fast: first she’d been on top of the wall, and then she’d been in Logan’s arms.
And if he hadn’t caught her—
She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she’d be racing in an ambulance to the hospital right now with a broken arm—or leg. Or worse. She covered her face with her hands.
How would she have explained that to the General? That she couldn’t even build a wall without falling off? It would have been too much.
“Lena? Do you mind if I come up?” Logan called from the base of the ladder.
She nearly refused him, but a moment later she managed, “Yeah. Okay.” It wasn’t Logan’s fault she was such a klutz.
His head and shoulders appeared first, then the rest of him as he climbed into the hayloft. “Are you all right?” He approached her, and she waved him down.
When he’d taken a seat, she nodded. “I really am fine.”
“Still, that had to be scary.”
“How come no one asks men if they are scared after an accident?”
“Maybe they should.”
Yeah. Right. “Look, I don’t want any extra attention, okay?”
“Baby girl,” Logan said, moving closer despite her protests. “I’m not giving you extra attention because you’re some fragile princess. I’m giving you extra attention because you’re hot.”
Despite herself, Lena laughed. The man was too ridiculous. “You expect me to believe that? Look at me.” She knew she was a mess.
“I am looking at you. Tell you what, how about I prove it?”
Before she could stop him, he leaned close and kissed her, bracing his hands on the hayloft floor. She was getting used to his stolen kisses, much to her chagrin, but this one was different. This time he didn’t stop with a quick peck. Instead, he kissed her thoroughly, and without making a conscious decision, Lena kissed him back, suddenly hungry for this kind of touch—hungry to prove to herself she really was all right.
“That’s more like it,” he said several minutes later when they parted. “Got some color in your cheeks now.”
She could certainly feel the heat rising in them. “You’re an ass.” Lena scrambled to her feet, steadying herself against a wave of dizziness. “I’m starving,” she said to cover up her distress. “We’d better get up to the house before everyone else eats up the food.”
“Good idea.” Logan stood up, too. When a noise down below caught his attention, he strode to the ladder. Lena followed, shaking her head to clear it. She reached the edge of the loft in time to see the barn door shut. “Hello?” Logan called.
Whoever had been in the barn didn’t come back.
“Someone probably came to call us to lunch,” Lena said and sighed, “then heard us up here.” She followed Logan down the ladder, knowing gossip was bound to follow.
“Let them talk,” Logan told her when she made it down the ladder.
“I hate it when people talk about me.”
“I know.” Logan took her hand, and to her surprise, she let him. Outside, he looked around, and groaned. Lena saw why. Harley was striding quickly toward the house, his shoulders stiff.
“He’s pissed,” Logan said. “Do you think he dropped that drill on purpose?” he added.
“No.” She couldn’t say why, but she was convinced he hadn’t. When people did things on purpose, even if they were trying to act normal, they exaggerated their movements. She hadn’t seen anything like that.
“I think he and Ray are fighting over you.”
“Huh. Well, let them fight.” She wasn’t interested in either of them.
Logan’s grip on her hand tightened fractionally. “Just as long as you remember who’s here to marry you.”
By the end of the day, the stable’s four walls were in place, as were the struts that would hold up the roof. The twins had left at lunchtime. Everyone else who’d come today had promised to come again on Saturday to get the roof on.
Logan eyed the weather report with concern. Toward the end of the week, the temperatures were supposed to drop.
“The weathermen are always wrong,” Lena told him when she saw what he was looking at, but when she left, Brian and Connor came to look, and both of their faces echoed his feelings.
“It’s going to be tight,” Brian said.
“We’d better be prepared to tarp it up at a moment’s notice,” Connor put in.
He was right. Logan went to town the following day and made sure they had adequate tarps, but he knew a good storm could tear one off a roof no matter how well you secured it. They could only hope the bad weather would hold off.
Meanwhile, there were plenty of chores to keep them busy as they got the ranch ready for cold weather.
The week passed in a blur, and most nights Logan fell into a deep sleep the minute his head hit his pillow. He still flirted with Lena every chance he got, stole kisses when he could—
But they were both far too busy for much more than that.
As for the hideaway he wanted to build for Lena, he made no progress at all and was beginning to despair when he ran into Cass in the basement one day. She was putting a load of bedclothes into the washer when he came to fetch his things from the dryer. As he watched, she put a hand at the base of her back and stretched, and he noticed the swell of her stomach—bigger than it had seemed just days ago.
He couldn’t help wondering if he would ever have a family. If Lena ever became pregnant, he’d do double-duty to keep her safe. He…
Was letting his imagination carry him away.
“Hi, Cass. Just here to get my things.”
“I’ll do your laundry for you, you know,” she said. “I do everyone else’s.”
“Don’t want to impose.”
“It’s not an imposition. We divvy up the jobs here so that everything gets done.”
“And you don’t mind getting stuck with the laundry?”
Cass laughed. “I don’t mind it nearly as much as I’d mind mucking out a stable.” She made a face. “Luckily, I’ve got two sisters who feel entirely the same about laundry. It works out.”
Logan realized this was his chance to talk to someone about Lena. “Got a minute?”
“Sure.”
He told her about the hideaway, mentioning that he’d noticed Lena liked to be alone but not spilling the beans about her penchant for historical novels. “I just haven’t had time to find a place or get it built.”
Cass thought a moment. “I have an idea—but you don’t have to agree to it,” she rushed to add.
“Lay it on me.”
“The attic. We never used to use it because the roof leaked like a sieve. Now it’s completely dry, and it’s a big space—”
“There would have to be a lock on the door,” Logan said, thinking it over. “It would have to be off-limits to everyone else.”
“Of course. And you’d need to insulate it somehow so it isn’t hot in summer and cold in winter…”
“I can handle that.” He was sure he could. And it would be a lot less work than building something from scratch—plus it took away the need to figure out how to heat a little place out in the woods, and it would be handy to Lena all the time. “You’re a genius, Cass.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to need your help, though—so she doesn’t suspect.”
“I’m in,” Cass said immediately.
Lena was so busy she barely had time to visit the hayloft in the barn that week, and besides, it was getting too cool to be comfortable out there for very long, even with the horse blanket wrapped around her. This happened every fall, and as the slow, dark months passed she was apt to grow cranky with her sisters—and anyone else who got too close. The walls of her small bedroom closed in on her when she retreated there for too long. Sometimes she took long drives in her truck just to get some time alone, but there wasn’t room in her schedule for that now.
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.”