Chapter 6

Leigh woke with a start early the next morning, disoriented at first. Lying in her bed, she looked at her familiar things sitting on the bureau in her new room. It came back to her. She’d come west to marry a complete stranger. A very handsome stranger who was charismatic and pleasing to the female eye.

However, there was more to him than that. Although he’d been somewhat taciturn last night after he’d gotten home, she didn’t sense that he was antisocial. Angry and sad were the words that came to mind when she thought about his quiet nature. She understood that. The whole first year after Walt’s death, she’d been angry and sad, speaking only when she’d had to. Her smiles had been few and far between. Stan had been one of the few people who’d been able to coax a laugh out of her.

It had been too warm to sleep with anything heavier than the sheet. She threw it back and stood up. It was hotter out here than it was in Massachusetts, which she’d have to get used to. As she walked to her dresser, the sounds of dogs and a human voice came in through the open windows in her room.

Looking out, she saw Cy out on the front lawn, working with his dogs. The collie puppy, whom Cy had named Queenie, frolicked with the adult dogs. Cy had joined in the playtime, down on his knees on the brown, water-deprived lawn. He acted just like the dogs, bowing playfully while growling realistically, and taking turns wrestling with each of them.

She grinned while she watched him and then, on impulse, she leaned out the window and whistled. “Here, boy. Here, Cyrus.” She made kissing noises.

The dogs and humans all stopped their play. Pudge cocked his head as he looked up at her, his tongue stuck partway out of his mouth. Burt barked at her and Slink just yawned and sat down. Queenie was too busy attacking Cy’s pant leg to pay attention to her.

Cy had forgotten that she was there. He didn’t know how he could have, but he had. When he looked up at her, his heart gave a lurch over how beautiful she looked. Her brown hair tumbled around her shoulders in thick waves, and her green eyes shone with mischief.

The way she was leaning out the window pulled her nightgown tight against her breasts, offering him a tantalizing glimpse of cleavage. He could have looked all day, he thought as a certain part of his anatomy agreed with him.

Giving her a sheepish grin, he stood up and dusted off his jeans. “Good morning. I’m sorry if we woke you.”

Leah said, “Nah. You didn’t.”

Cy liked her accent and thought that she probably thought he had one, too. “Good. Daphne’s cooking breakfast.”

“Are you still in the doghouse?” she asked, winking at him.

He’d figured that she’d picked up on the tension between him and Daphne. “Yeah. It’ll probably be that way for a couple of days. It happens every now and then. Siblings.”

Leigh nodded. “I’ll get dressed and come down. Do you have time to show me the nearest creek?”

“Sure. Why?” he asked.

“To see if we can do any irrigating. I have some ideas about that,” she answered.

“All right.”

“Good boy,” she said.

“Do I get a treat?”

She smiled. “A treat?”

He nodded. “Whenever one of the dogs does something well, I always reward them with a treat or by petting them.”

Her cheeks colored at the thought of petting him. Until now, she hadn’t met a man that she’d been attracted to since Walt. Of course, she hadn’t really paid attention to men, either. But she was paying attention now, and touching Cy was a tempting idea.

“Well, if you’re expecting me to pet you, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to disappoint you,” she teased. “I don’t have any scraps, either.”

Cy wasn’t deterred in the least. “I’ll think of something. I’ll take an IOU for now.”

She chuckled. “I’ll be down.”

She withdrew from the window and Cy reined in his libido. Benny had been right all those weeks ago. He needed a good roll in the hay. Dragging his mind away from that, he went to wash up for breakfast.

Looking out over the land before her, Leigh’s gaze followed the thin thread of water as it meandered through the west pasture. The problem was that they needed more water on the eastern part of the ranch and the stream didn’t flow that way at all.

“How far up the stream does your land go? Does it stay in a mainly straight line or are there some bends?” she asked Cy.

“There aren’t any bends, but the land gets higher. Why?”

She gave him a grin. “That’s great news. We’re gonna flood as much of the pastures as we can. We’ll set up a gate at the right place on the creek so we can let water out on a regular basis. That way, we’ll keep the fields as green as possible, even during a drought without permanently altering the stream bed and causing disturbances for farmers downstream who depend on it.”

Cy looked at her with new appreciation. It was such a simple solution, but it had never occurred to him. Of course, irrigation techniques weren’t in his wheelhouse of skills. “A gate. What kind of gate?”

“A thick wooden one. We don’t want it to be too big, though, and let out too much water at a time. When I say ‘flood’ I don’t mean that we want to create a lake. We’re just growing grass, not rice. But we might be able to get some water down to your wheat field, too. It’s not looking too healthy,” Leigh said.

“I’m impressed. I’ll show you farther upstream,” Cy said.

They mounted up and rode for higher ground. When Leigh saw a place in the stream that would work well, she stopped and dismounted. Cy watched her walk up to the edge of the creek, enjoying the view of her shapely derriere in her jeans.

He couldn’t decide which mode of dress he liked her in the most. On the one hand, the jeans gave him an excellent idea of what her body looked like, but the dress looked so pretty on her. He smiled as he thought that she was the best of both worlds.

Leigh turned to him. “This’ll do. We’ll dig a deep trench down to that pasture. Higher on the right side so that the water goes in the right direction.”

Cy frowned. “That’s gonna be a long trench.”

“Yep. You got some family who’ll help?” she asked.

Cy figured that Daniel and Sly would lend a hand, and maybe Uncle David, too. He thought about tracking his friend, Hector, down, but he didn’t want to take the time to do it. He’d ask Benny to keep an eye out for him. In the meantime, they’d just have to do the best they could at getting the trench dug. Whatever it took to turn things around.

The thunder of hoof beats reached their ears and Cy smiled when he heard war trills. He recognized Sly and Daniel’s horses as they raced towards him and Leigh. Glancing at Leigh, he saw her staring wide-eyed at his cousins. It was the first time he’d seen fear in her eyes since meeting her.