“Not me. I pay bills and do any paperwork after the meal. Less indigestion that way.”
He seemed more at ease now. Lana relaxed, too. “My parents would agree with you,” she said. “When my sister and I were kids, they insisted on no television or phone calls during dinner. We tried to eat together every night, but once Liz and I started high school, we both had so many after-school activities that family dinners were hard to manage.”
“What kinds of activities?”
“Liz played soccer and joined the swim team, and I worked on the yearbook and the sets for our school plays.”
He actually smiled. “With your artistic skills, I can picture you painting scenery.”
“That’s exactly what I did. What about you, Sly? What sorts of activities were you involved in?”
“Like your sister, I was into sports. Football and baseball. That’s how I was able to attend college—on a baseball scholarship.”
“No kidding.” She’d never have guessed. There was so much she didn’t know about this man. “Did you ever consider going pro?”
“Sure. I figured I’d do that after high school. Then my coach took me aside and convinced me to get a college education instead. And he was right. As it turned out, I was an okay ballplayer, but not good enough for the pros.”
“I used to think I wanted to go to New York and be a set designer for one of the theaters, maybe even Broadway,” Lana said. “Then in college I took a couple of child psychology courses and decided I wanted a career that involved kids.”
“You made the right choice.”
“Seems we both did.”
“For me it was pure luck. The scholarship covered tuition, but I still needed money for books, room, and board. I told you about finding work at a ranch, and here I am.”
She nodded. “When I was little, I begged my parents to buy a ranch so we could live there. But they saw how hard my great-uncle Horace struggled to make ends meet. They didn’t want that. Cousin Tim inherited the Lazy C from Horace.”
“Dealing with Mother Nature and crop prices is always a struggle,” Sly said. “But the work is rewarding. I enjoy it.”
His face was lit up now. Lana smiled to herself. “How did you come to own all this?”
“The rancher who hired me, a guy named Bill Hodges, respected my work ethic. When he asked me what I wanted to do with my life, I said I wanted to own a successful ranch like his. He took me under his wing and mentored me like a father would a son.”
Sly sat back and stared into space a moment, as if remembering. “With his help, I was able to purchase a small spread north of town. A couple of years later, the state bought my land for that new freeway. I netted enough to buy this place.”
Talk about impressive. “Are you still in contact with Mr. Hodges?”
Glancing down, Sly shook his head. “A year after I bought this place, he passed away.”
He’d lost so many people he cared about. Her heart ached for him. “That’s a shame. He’d be so proud of you now.”
“I like to think so. My turn to ask the questions. Did you have any serious boyfriends in high school and college?”
“A couple of boyfriends, but nothing that lasted. Brent was my first real relationship. We met shortly before we graduated from college and dated almost three years before we got married.”
After that, four years of marriage and another eighteen months mourning the breakup... With a shock, Lana realized she’d spent eight-and-a-half years of her life focused on Brent. Difficult years that’d left her sadder and wiser. She counted herself lucky to be free of him.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t be pregnant now. She touched her belly and smiled. “I’ll bet you had lots of girlfriends.”
“A few.”
“Anyone serious?”
“There was one girl I dated in college…”
His somber expression made her curious. “What happened?”
“We talked about marriage, but her parents disapproved of me. I was a kid from a broken home and not good enough for their precious daughter. I didn’t even own a suit, and that was real important to them. Apparently, she decided they were right—she broke up with me.” He gave a dismissive shrug.
