Authors: Marla Monroe
Beverly smiled and shook her head. “Don’t blame me if you get fat.”
“No way. We work too hard out there.” Jeff turned to Caleb. “Right?”
“Bev, you worked hard planting the garden. Are you sure you don’t want that sandwich?”
She nodded then turned away before he saw something in her eyes that would give her away. She was still a little hungry, but another glass of water or tea would take care of that.
While they finished up, she gathered all the lunch supplies and put them away. She still needed to water the newly planted seeds and clean her garden tools before putting them up. As she opened the kitchen door to walk outside, Caleb stopped her.
“How much more do you have to do out there?”
“Just water and clean up my mess. Did you need something?”
“No. We’re going to be in the office setting up a time to pick up the horses and meet with Sloan and Nelson. Don’t stay out there any longer than you have to. I’m not real comfortable with the fence yet.”
She looked from Caleb over to where Jeff stood in the doorway to the living room. He didn’t say anything, but she could tell he felt the same way. She nodded her head and smiled.
“I won’t be long. I promise.”
Caleb smiled at her and squeezed her hand. “Thanks.”
Beverly continued outside and looked around the backyard. She didn’t see anything unusual outside of the weird colors and plants. Determined to stay aware of everything around her, she hooked up the watering system and gathered her tools. It was strange not to hear birds or insects. The wind provided some noise as it swished through the trees and shrubs, but for the most part, it was eerily silent. She supposed that would change once they had horses and chickens and maybe some cows in the area. She sure hoped so. She didn’t like feeling like she was the only living thing on the planet.
Once she had everything cleaned and dried off, she moved the watering system once more and waited until she was satisfied everything had been thoroughly soaked. After putting up her tools, she would begin her diary keeping up with the garden. There had been so much talk about how fast everything grew on Alpha that she was eager to compare it to what she was used to from back home on Earth.
She hauled in the box full of tools that had originally contained her seeds and opened the cellar door. A noise from the back part of the house reminded her that the men were in the office. She decided to let the guys know she was back inside before she carried everything back down to the cellar. She wanted to look through everything while she was down there so she would know what they had available.
The office door was open, and the sounds of someone talking over the radio filtered out through the living room as she drew closer. When she stepped inside the office, both men were leaning back in a chair with their feet on the desk. Caleb held the microphone as they listened to someone talking about the cattle they would be responsible for. Neither man looked up when she entered the room.
Not wanting to interrupt them, Beverly backed out and returned to the kitchen. She’d go ahead and do what she had planned. It sounded like they would be busy for a while. She would be finished by the time they got through.
Walking down the stairs with the box proved awkward. She soon realized that she could easily fall since the box was so large she couldn’t see her feet and where she stepped. Once she’d made it down to the bottom, Beverly let out a breath of relief. All she needed was to fall and get hurt. The guys would have blown a gasket if that had happened. They wouldn’t let her come back down again without one of them with her.
Setting the box down, she put away the tools and began to explore the room and its contents. Besides the fresh root vegetables they’d gotten in the city with their supplies, there were jars of all sorts of canned vegetables and fruits. A storage box held flour, sugar, and cornmeal. All in all, they were pretty well set for the summer.
Since she was down there, Beverly decided to go ahead and carry up some potatoes and carrots along with some posh to cook a roast for dinner the next day. She needed to set the roast in the fridge to defrost. Since microwaves didn’t work on Alpha for some strange reason, she had to learn to get meat out the day before she planned to cook it. Otherwise, thawing became an issue.
After depositing the vegetables on the counter, she washed her hands and started a pot of coffee. She was sure the guys would appreciate it while they were in the office. Once it was ready, she poured two cups and carried them into the other room. When she walked in, both men looked up from where they were bent over one of the desks looking at something.
“Thought you might like some coffee,” she said and handed them their cups.
“Thanks, Bev. This will hit the spot.” Caleb took a sip and grinned.
“Where’s yours?” Jeff asked.
“In the kitchen. I’m going to sit in there and work on my garden diary.”
“Why don’t you sit back here with us? There’s plenty of room.” Jeff indicated that there were actually four chairs in the office.
“Oh, I don’t want to disturb you guys. I know you are busy.” She started to back out of the room.
“Nonsense. Get your coffee and whatever you’re working on and sit back here with us.” Caleb frowned.
“O–okay. I’ll be back in a minute.” Beverly hurried out of the office and back to the kitchen.
She wasn’t sure if Caleb really wanted her back there or not, but she wasn’t going to argue with him. Besides, it would be nice to have some company while she worked. It wouldn’t be long before they wouldn’t be around during the day. She planned to enjoy the next few days she had left with them at home and make the most of them.
When she returned, the sound of Caleb’s voice stopped her before she got to the door. He sounded exasperated.
“…not what I was expecting. I told you that. She’s what we need here though. She knows about gardens and putting up vegetables. Can you imagine anyone I’ve dated being able to function here?” Caleb asked.
“Give her some time. She’s still feeling her way around us. I’m sure she’ll get better in time. We just have to be patient.” Jeff seemed to agree with Caleb.
Beverly knew Caleb wasn’t happy with her. She thought she was doing better, but obviously he was still disappointed in her. What was she going to do? Tears welled up behind her eyes. She fought the urge to run back to the kitchen, but she couldn’t very well hide when she’d said she would be back. With as much composure as she could muster up, she carried her coffee cup and diary into the room.
Caleb could tell that something was wrong when Beverly walked back into the office. She didn’t look at them. Instead, she walked over to the empty desk and pulled up a chair with her back to them. He’d seen the sheen of tears in her eyes. Fuck! She’d heard them talking about her. How much, he didn’t know, but it had obviously been enough to upset her.
What the hell am I supposed to do now? If I say anything to her about it, she’ll just clam up and deny that anything is wrong. Why couldn’t I just leave well enough alone? It’s only been a few days.
Totally disgusted with himself now, Caleb looked at Jeff. The other man was staring at their wife’s back, a thoughtful look on his face. When Caleb nudged him with his ruler, Jeff turned back and lifted a brow. He nodded his head toward Beverly. His partner just shrugged one shoulder and shook his head.
With a sigh, Caleb returned to the map they were studying that outlined the area that the two ranches occupied. When they had talked with Andrew from the other ranch, they’d found out that the herd had grown to well over fifteen thousand head. While that wasn’t anything to sneeze at, he’d run much more on his ranches. The difference being the number of hands available to work them and the supplies they had access to back on Earth weren’t available here on Alpha.
While the other ranch had fencing around much of their land now, it had taken them several years to build it. The land he and the others would be working was totally open. They would have to start working on adding fence as soon as they could. Andrew had filled them in on a lot of the dangers in the area and how they’d handled them so far. As it was, they were lucky to have made it the first year the women were with them. It didn’t make him feel any better about leaving Beverly alone while they were working, radio or no radio.
“So what do you think, Jeff? Pick up the horses tomorrow morning and meet up with Sloan and Nelson tomorrow afternoon?” Caleb asked resigned to having to start over again with Beverly.
“I think that’s a good plan.” Jeff turned toward where Beverly was sitting. “What do you think, baby?”
“I–I’m sorry. What did you say?” She didn’t turn all the way around.
“We’re going to go pick up the horses tomorrow morning and then go see Sloan and Nelson and their wife tomorrow afternoon. Does that sound good to you?”
“Yeah. Whatever you think is best. I’d like to meet their wife.” She turned back to what she was doing.
Caleb pressed his lips together as he ground his teeth together. He wouldn’t make the mistake of talking to Jeff about her unless there was no chance she was anywhere near again.
“Radio over there and see if that will work for them.” Caleb handed the mike over to Jeff.
Once his partner had them on the speaker, he stood up and walked over to where Beverly was sitting. He pulled one of the other chairs over next to her and sat down, draping his arm around the back of her chair.
“Did you get everything finished outside you wanted to?”
He watched her lick her lips and nod. “Everything is done. All we have to do now is keep it watered and watch for it to break ground.”
“Sounds good. You worked hard getting it all done.” He squeezed her shoulders then kissed her cheek. “Want some more coffee, honey? I’m going to get a refill while Jeff’s talking to Sloan.”
She started to get up, but he stopped her. “No. I’ll get it. You’re busy, and I’m just hanging around now.”
Beverly smiled and handed him her cup. “Thanks. Just a couple of swallows. I’ll be finished with this in a little bit and need to start dinner.”
Caleb took her cup and, after nabbing Jeff’s, headed to the kitchen. Once he’d refilled their mugs, he started back toward the office when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. When he turned back toward the kitchen to see what it was, there was nothing there. Scowling, he set the cups back down and looked all around the room without finding anything to account for the brief flash of color he thought he’d seen. It had looked like a mottled brown color. There was nothing in the area that would explain what he thought he saw.
He reclaimed the coffee and returned to the office. After handing Jeff his cup, he sat down next to Beverly again and handed hers to her. She smiled and took a tentative sip before continuing with her diary. He admired her careful writing and the well-drawn illustrations she’d made showing the dimensions of the garden. He wondered if she’d had any training in drawing.
After another twenty minutes or so, she closed the book and leaned back in the chair. Closing her eyes, she sipped the last of her coffee. He thought she was so pretty with her creamy complexion and the way she filled out her jeans. Besides that, she was a genuinely nice woman. He admired her enthusiasm and determination to do her best. But it was that determination that was giving him problems. How did he convince her that he liked her like she was and that she didn’t need to try to impress him?
“You look tired, honey. How about an early night tonight? We’ll help you clean up after we eat then run you a bath.” Caleb ran his fingers up and down her arm
“Th–that sounds nice.” She smiled, her eyes trying to close again as he continued to run his hand up and down her arm.
“Come on. Jeff can finish up on the radio while we work on dinner together.” He stood up and reached down to pull her out of the chair.
“You don’t have to help me. I can do it,” Beverly said in a breathy voice.
“I know, but I want to help. I used to like to cook some.” He guided her through the door and back to the kitchen.
“What was your favorite dish to cook?” she asked.
“I guess it would be between lasagna and a nice juicy steak with baked potatoes.” He grinned down at her.
She smiled and rolled her eyes. “I would have guessed the steak, no problem.”
“Now ask me what my favorite dish to eat is.”
“What is your favorite dish to eat?”
“You.”
* * * *
All the air slammed out of Beverly’s lungs when he said
you
to her innocent question of what his favorite dish to eat was. She hadn’t been expecting that. One minute he was talking about her not being what he had wanted to Jeff and the next he was telling her things like this. Confusion swirled in her head.
“I–I didn’t expect that.” She quickly looked down at the counter where she was working.
“I can tell. I know you’ve heard me tell you how good your sweet pussy tastes. How I can’t get enough of your spicy juices.” Using one finger, he tilted her chin toward him so that she had to look at him. “Well?”
“Um, yes, but that’s just sex talk. All men say those things, don’t they?”
His eyes darkened, and she could see his jaw working as if he was trying not to say something that was on the tip of his tongue. Beverly wished she had kept her mouth shut.
“Maybe some men say things they don’t mean during sex, but I don’t, Bev. I’m not that kind of man.”
“Okay.” It came out in a whisper.
She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. They held hers as he slowly lowered his head until his lips captured hers in an achingly gentle kiss. She barely caught a whimper before it escaped. Then he was pulling away.
“So, let’s get this dinner on the road so we can see about that bubble bath.” He started chopping onions while she fought to regain her composure.
Later, as they were eating, Jeff filled them in on what the plans were for the next afternoon. They were pretty sure they would be back well before lunchtime with the horses, so they planned to drive to their new neighbors around two thirty for a short visit and planning session.