Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Late Sunday afternoon, Lana parked in front of the house where she’d grown up.
It was a beautiful afternoon The sun was slowly sinking toward the horizon, casting the distant, snow-covered Cascade Mountains in rosy hues.
Spring was her favorite time of year. The air smelled fresh and sweet, and life seemed to bud and surge everywhere.
Usually, she looked forward to the noisy Sunday night dinners with her parents and her younger sister and family. But tonight, she dreaded it.
All because last Sunday, she’d finally told her parents about her decision to adopt a baby.
She’d waited until two months after the social worker had cleared her as a prospective parent, and six weeks after she’d begun to actively search for a pregnant female wanting to give up her baby for adoption.
The social worker had given her the web address of a county-wide site called , which put prospective parents in touch with pregnant teens who wanted to give up their babies.
Although Lana visited the site daily, she had yet to make a contact that might work out.
Discouraging, but she understood the process would take time. Eventually she’d find someone.
Not wanting to keep such a big decision to herself, she’d told her sister, Liz, first. That had been easy. Telling her parents, who tended to be old-fashioned, not so much. Lana had known they wouldn’t approve. Not of adoption itself, but of her decision to adopt as a single woman.
Apprehension had ruined her appetite, and she’d barely managed to eat her mother’s delicious meal.
She’d waited to spring her news until after dessert, when her niece and nephew had scampered off to play.
After quickly delivering the news to her parents, she’d left and let them digest the news in private.
The fallout had come later, in a series of increasingly upset phone calls, one from her dad and too many to count from her mother.
All of them about finding a husband and then adopting.
With their old-fashioned values about raising kids—values Lana had supported until Brent had divorced her—they didn’t understand.
“I would love to have a husband to help me raise a child, but I’m not even dating right now,” she’d explained. “Besides, I’m thirty-two years old, and I know in my heart that this is the right time for me to adopt.”
No amount of reasoning had changed their minds, and she cringed at the prospect of another of her mother’s lectures tonight. The saving grace was that her parents would behave in front of their grandkids.
Which was why, knowing Liz et al usually arrived about five, she pulled up to the house a little later.
Hoping for a pleasant evening free of judgment and criticism, she crossed the brick stoop, wiped her feet on the welcome mat, and walked into the house. She hung her jacket on a hook by the door.
The living room was empty, but through the window that faced the backyard she noted her brother-in-law, Eric, and her father lighting what looked to be a new barbecue grill.
Connor, age six, and Emma, who’d just turned four, were racing around the same pint-size log cabin Lana and Liz had once played in.
There was no sign of Lana’s sister or their mother. They were probably working on dinner.
She was about to slip back out the door and head around the house to play with the kids when her sister called out. “Is that you, Lana? Mom and I are in the kitchen.”
No chance of sneaking away now. “I’ll be right there.” Shoulders squared, she headed down the hall. Liz understood her aching desire to have a child and supported her decision. Why couldn’t her parents be as accepting?
Forcing a cheerful expression, she sniffed the air as she entered the big, homey kitchen. “Something smells really good in here.”
Her mother was sauteing mushrooms and didn’t look up. “I’m just finishing the rice dish. Why don’t you toss the salad, Lana?”
Not even a hello? Lana exchanged a glance with Liz, who shrugged. “Um, hi, Mom, it’s nice to see you, too?”
“Hello,” her mother said, without an ounce of her usual warmth.
Liz scanned Lana up and down. “You look fantastic. Doesn’t she, Mom?”
At last, her mother turned her attention to Lana. Bracing for whatever she might say, Lana sucked in a breath.
“You are wearing a certain glow.” Her mother gave her a curious stare, as in, “Where did that come from?”
This was good, much better than another criticism about choosing single motherhood. Maybe her mother had decided to lay off the awful lectures tonight. Lana crossed her fingers and thought about the “certain glow” that apparently was still with her.
It’d been almost forty-eight hours since her night with Sly.
By now,any afterglow should have faded. Yet inside, she was still purring like a satisfied cat.
Turning away from her mother’s and sister’s curious expressions, she washed her hands.
“I caught up on my sleep last night—that must be the reason,” she said over the hiss of the water. “Did Dad get a new grill?”
“Yesterday, and this one has more bells and whistles than the old model—it does everything but shine shoes,” her mother answered. “He’s as excited as a boy on Christmas morning. He couldn’t wait to show it to Eric.”
“Men and their toys.” Liz shook her head, her ultrashort bangs and chin-length hair making her appear twenty instead of thirty. “If I know Eric, he’ll want one exactly like it, just to keep up.”
“With Eric’s construction business doing so well, you can certainly afford a new grill,” their mother pointed out.
The kitchen door opened and Connor and Emma rushed inside. “Aunt Lana! Aunt Lana!”
They raced straight for her. Heart swelling with love, she leaned down and hugged them both. She envied Liz, with her loving husband and two adorable children. “It’s been a whole week since I saw you. What’s new?”
“Daddy’s gonna sign me up for T-ball in June,” Connor said proudly. “When is that, Aunt Lana?”
“Let’s see. It’s April now. After April comes...?”
Connor screwed up his face. “Summer?”
She laughed. “Summer isn’t for a little while yet, buddy. After April comes May, then June.”
Emma gave an enthusiastic nod. “When I’m five, I get to play T-ball, too.”
“That’ll be next summer—how exciting.” Lana made a mental note to get the dates of the games so she could cheer Connor on.
“How are Daddy and Grandpa doing with the hamburgers?” Liz asked.
“Good,” Emma replied. “We’re ’posed to tell you that they’re almost ready.”
“Then you’d both better hang up your jackets and wash your hands.” Liz pointed to the powder room.
The men brought in the hamburgers, greeted Lana, and helped set the food on the dining room table. Dinner was the usual chaotic but fun affair, with Connor and Emma causing lots of laughter.
Lana finally relaxed. She was almost home free. With any luck she’d skate through the rest of the evening with a smile on her face and then head home filled with the warmth born out of family harmony. Or so she thought.
At the end of the Sunday meal, Emma and Connor scampered into the fenced backyard to play. The adults lingered at the table, sipping coffee and chatting.
“I keep forgetting to mention, I ran into Cousin Tim at the grocery yesterday,” Lana’s mother said.
Lana’s cousin from her father’s side was nine years her senior, but he seemed much older.
Always a brusque man, he’d grown even more difficult after his wife had divorced him less than a year after their wedding.
Having grown up in a bustling city, his ex had decided the ranching life wasn’t for her.
Or maybe the problem lay with Cousin Tim himself.
Lana wasn’t sure. Her cousin rarely smiled or laughed, which made being around him a chore.
After eleven years, it was long past time for him to get over his ex and move on.
“We haven’t heard from him since last Christmas,” her father said. “How is he?”
“Not so good.” Her mother looked solemn. “He told me that a few months ago, some of the cows at Pettit Ranch died suddenly. It turned out they were poisoned. Sly Pettit has accused Tim.”
Two men named Sly in the same town...What were the odds? Lana had gone to high school with yet another. Apparently, the name was popular among the sixty-thousand-odd residents here in Prosperity. She imagined Cousin Tim’s neighbor, whom she’d never met, to be as beefy and bowlegged as he was.
“That’s terrible—unless Cousin Tim actually did it,” Liz quipped. Both parents stared at her, appalled. “Well, he isn’t the nicest person.”
Their father frowned. “I don’t care, he’s family, and—”
“Family sticks together through thick and thin,” Lana, Liz, and Eric replied in unison.
They meant it, too, especially when times were tough. When Brent had left Lana, they’d wrapped her in so much love and warmth, they’d nearly smothered her. But now that she wanted to adopt a baby by herself... Her parents’ disapproval ruled out their support.
Liz made a face. “Just because the man is family doesn’t mean we have to like him. He’s never exactly been fond of us, either.”
“Ranching is a tough business,” her father said. “Tim inherited the Lazy C from your great-uncle Horace, and it never has been a moneymaker. That kind of stress would make anyone grouchy.”
“Living all alone on that big ranch...” Lana’s mother shook her head. “I wouldn’t like that at all.”
“He has a crew and foreman to keep him company,” Liz pointed out. Under her breath she muttered, “They probably can’t stand him, either.” Then, in her normal voice, she said, “He could sell the ranch and find a job in the city, where he’d collect a regular paycheck.”
“With acreage prices at record lows, this isn’t the smartest time to sell,” Lana’s dad said. “Besides, Tim is a rancher through and through. As bitter and rough around the edges as he is, at heart he’s a decent man. He wouldn’t poison anyone’s cows.”