The Boy Next Door (19 page)

“I thought that there might be more romance involved,” I persisted. “You did say that you liked walking by a serene river and listening to your own thoughts. You said that you liked to hold hands and get to know a woman in a more than physical way. It was your words that swayed me to give you a chance and the fact that you lost your brother and I lost my family made me think that we had a little in common.

He turned abruptly and grabbed both from my wrists at the same time. “I only said that because I was desperate to find somebody. I do have a niece and to be honest, I just need a woman’s touch to finally get through to this kid. She is always making me angry, breaking things and throwing tantrums. I’m getting sick and tired of being treated like a second class citizen in my own home. I have no delusions about love. I didn’t think it was possible and I’m not looking for anything that is more than just a commitment to look after Nancy.”

There was no carriage and my luggage had to be put onto the horse in front of me, while he got in behind and put his hands around me to grab the reins. He slapped them heavily against the horse’s hide and it took off in a gallop that made me almost go flying off. It was a good thing that I was in the front, or I would’ve been on the ground with some serious injuries.

He wasn’t kidding about being in a hurry. I didn’t even know that horses could go that fast. The countryside was going by so fast that I didn’t even get a chance to enjoy it. We arrived at this grey house and I could see this a woman holding this little girl’s hand. The girl was wearing this summer yellow and white dress, tugging at the woman’s hand and putting up a fight that was worthy of the woman with attitude.

“You know that I have to get to town, son. You said that you’d be here twenty minutes ago.” I was getting a pretty good idea of how he was raised just from this one image. She was opinionated, very caustic and had a strict eye for rules that made me believe that there was a lot of punishment and not a lot of love in that house. Unfortunately, when a young kid is dominated in that way, he becomes exactly like that himself, even if he doesn’t mean to. Maybe I could soften him up a bit, but that remained to be seen.

He got off the horse to lift the kicking and screaming Nancy onto his shoulder. I finally got a chance to see a little bit more of him. The duster was hiding a great physique and I could see that his shoulders were buff and there was probably not even an ounce of fat on this man.

“Stop kicking me, Nancy and I don’t have time for this.” He didn’t even bother to kiss his mother on the cheek or say two words to her. He handed me Nancy and I held her in front of me with a firm grip on her hips to make her believe that she had to settle down. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt her, but it was supposed to get her attention and it did
that
[SW2]
.

“I hope that the two of you can get along for a little while without me,” he said to me. “I do have a lot to do. When I finish, I would like a nice home cooked meal on the table. You did say in your letter that you were proficient at cooking and cleaning. I do hope that wasn’t an exaggeration?”

It was not even close to an exaggeration. I could cook. Maybe not like some others, but at least I could put something on the table. I nodded, not sure what words would make this man happy.

“Uncle Lucas…you’re not leaving me with her?” This was the first time that Nancy had said anything. Nancy did not like the idea of a stranger taking care of her and I suppose I could understand it from her point of view. “She’s not my mother and nobody will ever take the place of her. I don’t care if you are my uncle. Why can’t you understand that I just want to be left alone?”

She did have a chip on her shoulder. She needed understanding and not somebody screaming at her twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. How could I make him see that?

“I don’t think I said anything about wanting your permission, Nancy. If you hadn’t been such a brat, I probably wouldn’t have had to go down this road. I was hoping that you might be able to take care of yourself, but then you almost burned down my house. That was the final straw. I was also hoping that my mother might be able to take you in, but she said that her mothering days were over. She only wants to be your grandmother.”

“Grandma is terrible. She makes me do chores and stands over me while I do them.”

At least this black haired handful was learning some manners I supposed. I touched her arm only to have her wince. I checked and saw that there was an imprint of small hands there. I did not raise my daughter Laura like that and I wouldn’t do that to Nancy. Words were better than actions. Once they understood that you were the boss and that you only wanted the best for them, then they usually found a reason to behave.

We got back to his place with the winding driveway leading up to this beautiful house that was made of almost all stone. “My father built this. He said that anything that was worth doing was worth doing well. I hope that he is looking down and giving me his seal of approval.”

As far as I could tell, he was keeping up the place in fine fashion. I helped Nancy down from her horse, but she shrugged her shoulders away from me like she couldn’t be bothered. “I’ll be back in about two hours,” Lucas informed us. “It might be three, but it all depends on how fast I can rustle this cattle. I have to meet up with William. He’s my number one ranch hand and he’s probably already hard at work. He’ll be trying to do what I’m supposed to be doing. I hope that you can deal with her on your own, because I certainly couldn’t.”

Lucas didn’t even get off his horse, before taking off with the reins slapping back and forth against the horse. I looked at Nancy and she had her hands folded across her chest defiantly. She was making it well known that she was showing her displeasure in any way that she could find.

Chapter three

“I hope that you’re changing, Nancy. I want all of us to sit down together, as a family, when your uncle gets back. He needs to see that we are getting along.” Her attitude was irksome and there were moments there that I had to go outside and clear my head. “I would like to see you down here right now, Nancy.”

I was in the process of cutting some fresh vegetables I’d found in the pantry. There was already a cut of beef and I was putting the finishing touches with some scallions and some baby carrots into the pot alongside the pot roast. It had been cooking for almost two hours now, but to me it was the aroma of the fresh spices that was taking me back to my childhood.

“What smells so delicious?” That was the first nice thing that Nancy had said to me all day. She walked in wearing the exact same summer dress. I’d told her to change, but there were battles that I could face down and there were battles that I could leave alone. This one was one that I was going to leave alone. “My mother never taught me how to cook. I was always around her in the kitchen, but she thought that I would hurt myself.”

I think that she was looking for some kind of relationship, but she wasn’t sure how to come out and say it. “You can wash the potatoes. Scrub them really good. You can even help me baste the roast.”

Her eyes lit up and I think this was the first time that anybody had included her in anything. She was only seven years old, but she had an old soul that you could see in her eyes. Those baby blues were a dead giveaway that any mother would have been proud to have her as their child. She reminded me of my Laura, but not in the way that you might think.

I set the potatoes out for her and helped her wash them. “Maybe tomorrow, you can give me a hand with the laundry. We’ll take it out together in the morning. We’ll wash it in the washtub and then we’ll hang it to dry on the line. After we finish that, I’ll even take you for a picnic down by the river’s edge.” I was giving her a sense of accomplishment, but also rewarding her for a job well done. It was the way that my mother raised me and it was the way that I raised Laura, until I lost her.

For a moment it felt like I had forgotten about my husband and daughter. It made me weep inside and even a couple of tears came from my eyes. I felt a tugging on my skirt and I looked down to see that Nancy was looking at me with great concern.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’m just missing my family. I lost them in a fire. I still feel them with me all the time. It’s like they’re standing right here with me. I know that they’re watching and I hope that one day I will be reunited with them.”

“I miss my mother and father, too. They’re in heaven now and I hope that they see your family and they are friends. I would really like to believe that they found a way to be together. I pray to them every night. Lucas doesn’t know and I really don’t want to tell him. He’s always mean. He’s always telling me what to do and never really sits down and talks to me.”

I felt her pain and I knelt down on the floor to give her a hug.

“Ahem.” We both turned at the same time to see Lucas in the doorway looking a little disheveled. His hair was an unruly mess and his clothes were covered in a fine sheen of dust that you could see billowing into the kitchen.

“You go outside and cleanup.” I knew I was being bold to say that to him but if this was going to be my house too then there was going to be some rules.

He raised his hand to argue, but he finally just waved it dismissively, before going outside and taking off the duster. I took out the pot roast and Nancy helped me serve it with the medley of fresh vegetables and the potatoes that we had mashed down and added spices into as a complement for the flavor.

I went to the doorway to tell Lucas that supper was ready. I had my hand on the screen door and I looked outside to see that he was standing there without his shirt on. He was smacking his clothes with a piece of wood to get the dust off. His muscular backside in those tight blue jeans were not exactly leaving much to the imagination.

I couldn’t stop staring at him, until finally I realized that he was looking at me from behind his shoulder. He was doing it subtly, but I sensed that he knew that I was watching him this entire time.

“If you’re done out there, supper is ready.” He turned around and smiled with all his teeth showing. That was the first time since I met him that I actually saw him happy. “Nancy would really like you to lead us in a family prayer.” He was putting his shirt back on, buttoning it up slowly, and I think he was purposely doing that to tease me.

I knew that the ring on my finger was real, but until we actually stood in front of a priest saying our vows, I didn’t consider it official.

I sat down at the table and Nancy was itching to eat the food. “Nancy, it’s not polite to start eating without the rest the family present. Surely, your mother and father taught you that.”

She tried to sit still, but the aroma was getting to her. Finally, Lucas walked in and sat down with his hands folded. He gave a prayer for our daily bread. When he finished with the prerequisite Amen, I’d never seen a little girl with such an appetite.

“Emma, I don’t know what you have done with her, but there’s a difference like night and day. Before, I could never get her to eat anything, but now she looks like she hasn’t eaten in days. I have to admit, anything I fed her pales in comparison to this feast. I’m not much of a cook, but I tried my best to give her something good to eat.”

I could think of something that was good to eat and I was wondering how I was going to get to see him naked.

After the meal Lucas went out and made sure that everything was secure around the property. I made sure that Nancy was in bed. She was so exhausted from her day of meeting me and cooking that she fell fast asleep after saying her prayers. I heard her talk about my husband Jasper and Laura. In the same breath, she mentioned her own parents. I did hope that she was right and somehow they had found each other and were keeping each other company, until we arrived.

My bedroom was down the hall and I was closing the door of Nancy’s, when I noticed something out of my peripheral vision. Lucas was in our room, completely naked, with those chiseled good looks and sculpted body now on full display for my eager and hungry eyes. I hadn’t been with anybody in over a month and it was getting tiresome using my own fingers to satisfy that carnal itch.

It was a good thing that I was obscured by the shadow of the hallway. I could stand there in the darkness and watch him, as he started to do pushups on the floor. I could see his cock dangling underneath him. It wasn’t even hard yet and still it had to be six inches long. He moved right into sit ups, forcing his body up to his knees and then back down again. I put my finger in my mouth and sucked on the tip, wondering what else I could suck on that might be more appealing.

Each time that he bought his body up, I could see that manual labor was not necessarily the only thing that made his body a work of art. I think he enjoyed putting his body to the test. Maybe he just wanted to look good for the ladies. Either way, it was a benefit in my direction. I could stand there and watch and he would have no idea that I was right there ogling him like a piece of meat.

He stopped momentarily, lying there flat on the floor and breathing heavily. I thought maybe he was having some sort of attack, but apparently he was just getting a second wind. He got up and put his hand on the overhead part of the door. He put his hands up onto the door, leaving him completely out there for me to see. He began to lift himself up and down with his cock now rising, almost like it knew that I was near.

“You don’t have to stay hidden, Emma. If you want to see, then all you have to do is walk out here and look.” I looked towards Nancy’s door, but it was closed and there was no way that she could hear anything that was going on outside in the hallway. I took a deep breath, sighed with anticipation and then I walked out to see his smiling face.