A Family Name (11 page)

The silence that followed felt like it
stretched for an eternity, until Charlotte felt the bed shift under
Will's weight as he sat up. He exhaled a long whoosh of air. "Fine.
Just make it fast."

Despite the darkness, Charlotte narrowed her
eyes at Will. Some gratitude he was showing. She knew that her plea
to help him came across as forward and maybe a bit desperate. If he
got any wrong impressions from this little exchange she knew she
could set him straight in a matter of seconds. And for a moment,
Charlotte questioned her actions. She shook herself free of doubt,
though, because this was Lexi's father, and for the time being
Charlotte and Will needed to work together, help one another. Will
was clearly not in any state to be part of that deal while he felt
so lousy, and if the massage would help then so be it.

"I'm just going to flip on the bathroom
light, okay?" Charlotte said as she edged her way around the room.
When she got the soft glow of light filtering through the mostly
closed door, she assessed the space. It looked quite different in
the partial darkness than it had when she had dropped off a load of
clean laundry earlier in the day. She noted that said laundry now
lay in a heap on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Will sat slumped in the center of his bed
with his eyes closed. His normally perfectly coifed curly hair
stuck out in all directions. His mussed appearance, complete with
wrinkled graphic tee made Charlotte pause. She was even more aware
of his attractiveness than she normally allowed herself to
acknowledge. At the moment she felt swept up in the feelings that
she had first experienced the first time they had met.

"Can we get on with this?"

The defeated tone made Charlotte move faster.
She deftly climbed onto the bed and knelt behind him. "I'll just
start with your shoulders," she murmured as she slid her hands over
the taut muscles. After a few minutes of kneading and smoothing the
area, she moved on to his neck. Just as Charlotte was beginning to
think the whole idea had been ridiculous, Will let out a deep sigh
and relaxed under her hands. Knowing that he would be able to rest
now, Charlotte slid off the bed.

A wave of embarrassment heated her neck and
face as she hurried toward the door. The last time she had felt
this mixed up had been in high school, when she had been certain of
her love for a certain junior rodeo star. That had ended in nothing
more than a passing infatuation, which had broken her heart. And
here she was setting herself up for the same disappointment, only
this time there was so much more at stake, so much more to
lose.

Just as she turned the doorknob Will said,
"Hey, Charlotte?"

She turned to see him settled back against
the pillows, his eyes closed. "Yes?"

"Thanks."

"I'll get it!"

"No, I will!"

The refrain from the kitchen had become all
too common in the past week. Will set his leather work gloves and
battered Stetson on a hook in the mud room. Charlotte must be
helping Shane in the bathroom again or she would have played
referee again. That meant it was his turn. Stifling a sigh, Will
entered the brightly lit room. Near the table, Lexi and Sierra
stood facing one another, each with a hand on a glass bowl
partially filled with milk and cereal.

Lexi narrowed her eyes at the younger girl.
"I said I would get it. You shouldn't be taking a glass bowl to the
sink. You're such a baby."

Will inhaled sharply. Sierra's face crumpled
as tears started to snake down her cheeks. Swooping in, Will picked
the little girl up. He patted her back consolingly as she nestled
into his shoulder. Then he turned his attention to his daughter.
With a hand on a hip, Lexi was the picture of defiance.

"That was uncalled for, Lex," he said.

"You always take her side. It's like you'd
rather have her for a daughter. Well, you know what? I don't care
anymore. Here, she can take the stupid bowl to the sink." Lexi
grabbed the bowl and shoved it into Sierra's hand. The little girl
was startled as milk sloshed onto her and the bowl fell to the
floor with a crash.

Will tried to separate the situation into
pieces to deal with but all he could think about was the cold
seeping through his jeans from the milky cereal. Beyond that he
still had a sniffling Sierra and a broken bowl with shards of glass
scattered over the tile floor. Anger rose in his chest, but Lexi
shot him one last defiant look and rushed from the room. With
another sigh, Will set Sierra on a chair. He dropped a light kiss
on her head.

"Looks like I've got some cleaning up to do,
huh sweetie?" Carefully Will stepped around the mess to grab paper
towels and a dustpan.

Sierra sank down in the chair still
hiccupping now and then. "She hates me. Lexi really hates me. I
just wanted to help her but it made her so mad."

Panic twined with the lingering anger, making
it hard for Will to breathe. How was he supposed to handle a
comment like that? Clearly he was not cut out for this father
business, but it seemed he had no choice. While he was wrestling
with his mental demons, he heard footsteps approaching the kitchen.
He hoped Lexi had grown up in the past five minutes and had decided
to apologize to Sierra.

"What happened here?"

Will looked up to see Charlotte's face
contort in distaste. She balanced Shane on her hip and was already
making her way toward the tear stained Sierra. For a brief moment,
he envied her ease with the children. She always seemed
unflappable, whereas he felt like he was stumbling constantly. Now,
for instance, Charlotte slipped Shane into his booster seat,
handing him a small cup of cheese crackers all in one fluid motion.
Then she reached out to Sierra who went to her without pause. Will
would have knocked over a chair, forgotten the crackers, and
probably made the crying situation worse. He glowered to himself as
he scooped up glass and soggy cereal.

"Thank you for cleaning up." The softness of
Charlotte's voice made him jump.

"No problem." He choked a bit at the
gruffness of his tone. Whatever made him talk to her that way
needed to stop. The look she got on her face always made guilt
overwhelm him. And yet he couldn't seem to stop himself. He knew
that when he stopped creating distance between them things would
get complicated very quickly. Complications he had plenty of
already.

"What are we going to do about this little
situation?"

Will sat back on his heels to glance up at
her. She was stroking Sierra's hair, and the little girl had her
arms twined around Charlotte's neck. He had to admit, he admired
the way she had come into their lives and gave so freely of herself
with so little reservation.

"What situation?" Will asked, his mind a
complete blank as he stared at her surprisingly hypnotic blue
eyes.

Charlotte cocked an eyebrow at him. "Lexi's
jealousy over this one."

"This is a jealousy thing? But Lexi's, what?
Eight years older? They don't have much in common to be jealous of,
do they?" Will felt self conscious as he asked. As Lexi's father he
should know stuff like this, right?

"They have you and me in common. Our
attention. I've seen it before. I… I've lived it before. Look, it's
not a proud memory for me, but I was just a little younger than
Lexi when I got placed in a home with another girl who was seven or
eight. We fought constantly trying to get our foster mom's
attention. Ultimately it was those fights that got me placed with
the people who fostered me until I graduated high school."
Charlotte said the words so matter-of-factly that Will almost
missed the pain embedded therein.

Will swiped the paper towel in a large arch
on the floor, an uncomfortable feeling settling over him. As he
dumped the soggy contents of the dustpan into the garbage he
thought about what Charlotte had said. Not just her insight into
the Lexi and Sierra situation but also the divulgence of personal
information.

"What do you think we should do about
it?"

Charlotte bit her lip as he waited for her
answer. "I think you need to spend more time with Lexi."

Will cleared his throat. "When? Between
teaching and ranch stuff, you've seen what my free time looks
like."

"I know. But what about now? Aren't you going
out to ride fence lines? Take Lexi with you."

The idea was so simple it was brilliant.
"I'll ask if she'd like to go."

****

Lexi was so excited about the ride that she
could feel herself trembling. From the moment her dad had come into
her room and awkwardly asked if she'd like to go she hadn't been
able to stop shaking. He actually wanted to spend time with her.
After the little fight in the kitchen, she was sure he would forget
that he wanted her to live here at the ranch. That thought had
caused her to panic. She didn't know what was wrong with her
lately, but she was always fighting with Sierra. The little
pest.

She pulled the stiff boots on that Charlotte
had bought her before they moved to the ranch. The toes pinched and
she felt a little like Frankenstein when she tried to walk but she
knew that this meant that she was truly a cowgirl. Wobbling across
the gravel drive toward the barn, Lexi's stomach clenched as she
neared the door. She could hear the soft whinnying of the horses,
the gruff calls of the cowboys as they led their mounts out of the
stable. This was a place she longed to belong but a place she
couldn't figure out how to approach.

Peeking in through the partially open door,
Lexi saw her dad at the other side of the barn. Her heart hammered
in her chest. Would he still be mad at her? He seemed to be so
attached to Sierra. She wasn't even his daughter. It wasn't fair.
Lexi swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat as hot tears
pricked the back of her eyes. She'd show him why he should like her
better, why she was the better daughter.

With a quick breath to calm her nerves, Lexi
slipped inside and strode across the barn. Her dad gave her a smile
as she approached. That was good. He couldn't be too mad if he was
smiling, right?

"Hey, Lex, this is Bullock. He's a nice,
gentle horse. You've never ridden before, right?"

Lexi shook her head, momentarily embarrassed
by the admission. She bet that brat, Sierra, had been riding since
she could walk. Taking the reins from her dad's hand, Lexi said,
"I've never ridden but I can pick up anything fast. I'm a quick
learner. Just ask my teacher at school."

Her dad smiled again and chuckled softly.
What did that mean? Lexi frowned. Adults always did things like
that. He was either happy or thought she was being cute or
something. She hoped it was the former because the latter made her
seem like a dumb kid. She was thirteen years old, for goodness
sake. Shouldn't her dad and Charlotte be treating her more like an
adult now? Well, she'd already decided that she would show them how
grown up she could be. She grabbed the saddle horn which suddenly
seemed impossibly high, and tried to heft herself up into the
saddle. She would have had it too, if her booted foot hadn't
slipped from the stirrup. With a cry of surprise she fell.

****

Will saw Lexi trying to scramble up onto the
horse from the corner of his eye, and the he saw her fall. He
couldn't remember moving faster ever before, but somehow he managed
to get to his daughter before she could hit the ground. Even though
she struggled away from him quickly, he saw the shininess of her
eyes and knew she didn't want him to see her cry.

Instead of saying anything consoling, he
stepped forward, scooped her up, and deposited her onto the horse's
saddle. Then he mounted Noir, his own horse. He called over to one
of the ranch hands that he'd be out in the North section. Before
they left the barn, he triple checked the supplies in his saddle
bags. Charlotte had packed a bag of cookies along with the two
canteens of water. He felt the same flash of mixed emotions that he
often felt lately. On the one hand her constant thoughtfulness made
him feel good. No one ever really fussed over him. But on the other
hand it made him feel frustrated and inadequate because he never
thought to do those kinds of things for her or the kids.

"So… what are we going to do?" Lexi asked as
the horses ambled out of the barn.

Will thought she sounded apprehensive. He
already knew that she had never ridden before, but he believed her
assertion that she'd learn quickly. Certainly she had the drive,
and if she could stay on the horse, she'd be a natural.

"We're going to ride fences," Will replied.
"Check for anything broken. Repair what we can. And while we're up
that way, we'll check on some of the herd. Wyatt said most of the
cows have calved so you'll be able to see some babies."

They rode in silence out of the farm yard.
When Will glanced over at his daughter, he saw that Lexi was
chewing on her lip and gripping the saddle horn with both hands.
Even though he could tell that she had something on her mind, he
decided to let her have some space to formulate her thoughts and
questions.

Sure enough, a moment later Lexi asked, "So
why do the fences need to be fixed? I mean, are they old or
something?"

Will chuckled. "No. As a matter of fact, most
of the fences have been rebuilt in the past year or so. Fences need
to be mended constantly because of the harsh natural elements out
here. Wind and ice and snow. But also because the cows and other
animals break them by rubbing against them and the like. Besides
good fences make good neighbors."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Will laughed again but stopped short when he
saw the hurt look on Lexi's face. He coughed, confused. He
remembered in stark contrast that he had no idea how to relate to a
thirteen-year-old girl, but none of that mattered because this was
his daughter. Will considered how to rectify the situation.