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But how much should he tell her about his past? Not that he had anything to hide, but his story was kind of like hers today – sad – and she needed some happiness. He’d tell her just a little. But not everything.
Tonight was going to be about making her feel better. Later, he might tell her about his family, but right now, she didn’t need to hear his miserable tale.
“My family has been ranching here since before Montana became a state. My great-grandparents were some of the earliest settlers. My great-grandfather was quite the character. And his horse Folly was the reason we have this ranch.”
Lucas knew he was fortunate. He was wealthy because of his ancestors who had survived some of the worst blizzards and still made this ranch successful. In the morning, he would need to take hay out to the cattle even in the snow.
But that was a small price to pay for the life he led.
“We raise cattle and have over a thousand head in the summer. In the winter, I sell off all but about two hundred pregnant mommas. Our winters make it too difficult to keep cattle year-round.”
“Oh my,” she said. “What about family? I would think it would take a lot of people to run an operation like this.”
He would have to give her an abbreviated version. “My parents are both dead,” he said not really wanting to talk about what happened.
“Is your girlfriend going to be all right with me staying here? If you were my boyfriend, I wouldn’t be too happy about a single woman staying with you.”
A chuckle came from him. “My last girlfriend decided she didn’t want to live out here in the boonies with me. That was over a year ago.”
In fact, she’d deserted him a week after his family died. And yet, he felt grateful. Because if she didn’t care enough to be concerned with him dealing with grief, then there was no place for her in his life.
“You’ve had a dry spell,” she said. “Lucky you.”
“Yes, ma’am, I have,” he said. “I’m very picky when it comes to women. For me, I want a marriage like my parents had. They were each other’s universe and they had each other’s backs. They were first in each other’s worlds and loved one another until death separated them.”
She stretched her legs out on the couch and pulled the blanket up closer. A gust of wind slammed into the house, and for a moment, the lights flickered, but the generator continued.
“That storm is not getting any weaker,” she said with a sigh.
“No,” he said. “I’ll give you a flashlight before we go to bed, in case the generator fails.”
“Thank you,” she said. “How long were your parents married?”
“Thirty-five years,” he said. “The first years, they were separated because my father was in the service. When he came home, my mother got pregnant with me. How about your family?”
She’d said something weird about going home for Christmas and he wanted to understand. Knowing a person’s family dynamics helped to understand them so much better.
“My parents have been married for thirty years. I’m the oldest and then there are the twins — my sisters.”
“What did you mean by golden girls.”
She gave a little laugh. “The twins are both overachievers. Amelia is a lawyer and Emma is a nurse. The lawyer, she was valedictorian in high school and graduated with honors from college. She was given a full scholarship to law school and now works at a prestigious firm. Emma works in the NICU unit and saves babies. I’m the one who was doing good to graduate from college being a teacher. But it’s what I love, and now, I fear no one will hire me.”
Her bottom lip trembled and he wanted to reach out and kiss her but resisted. Though her full red lips were a temptation he was finding hard to keep from staring at.
“You’re going to find a better teaching job than the one you had. And the students will love you.”
She bit her lip and it was all he could do to keep from groaning. “I hope so.”
He had to change the subject and get her mind on something else.
“Tell me what you like to do. I know you love kids, but what other kinds of things do you love?”
Nodding, she gazed off. “I’d love to write children’s books. Someday that’s going to be what I do. My kids gave me such great ideas about what they wanted to read, so that’s my future plan. I love to travel and see how other people live. And someday, I would like to live in a foreign country for a month.”
That was interesting and he loved that she wanted to be a children’s writer. “What was your favorite book growing up?”
“I loved all the Disney classics but alsoLittle Women. I couldn’t imagine living during that time period.”
