She looked so peaceful whenever she was sleeping. A far cry from the shrieking, crying child I’d inherited a year ago.
The ride back to the cabin was quiet. Tanya came running out to scoop up Lanie so she could tuck her in as I unloaded the groceries. I put everything away and stuffed the groceries into their places just as Tanya came into the kitchen, and I could feel the questions she wanted to bombard me with.
“Something on your mind?” I asked.
“I was just thinking about that nice new lady up the road,” Tanya said.
“What about her?”
“You think she’s doing okay?”
“Don’t know,” I said, shrugging.
“I didn’t know if you’d been checking in on her since she hurt herself.”
“Why would I do that?” I asked.
“Because she’s a pretty young woman who happened to inherit the cabin next to yours.”
“How did you know she inherited it?” I asked.
“So she did inherit it.”
I could hear Tanya’s grin as I turned around and studied the woman. She was older, with a head full of salt and peppered hair. It was the only thing that gave away her age because her skin sure as hell didn’t. It sagged and drooped a bit here and there, but there were no wrinkles in it. No bags underneath her eyes and no scars to weigh her skin down. She was plump with the many children she’d raised on her own, and the war-torn life she had led being married to a military man was reflected in the brown of her eyes.
I had a great deal of respect for her, but it still didn’t give her the right to meddle in my affairs.
“She did, yes,” I said.
“Did you have a nice conversation with her?” Tanya asked.
“What are you getting at?”
“What I’m getting at is maybe you should take her some food. She was hobbling around pretty badly, and her car has been coming and going. I think she’s living off fast food.”
“She better. Turning on a stove in that cabin might set it on fire,” I said.
“All the more reason for you to take her something.”
“Why the hell would I do that?” I asked again.
“Because there’s no one else around here to do it.”
“You could since you seem so keen on it.”
“Then who’s going to take care of Lanie?” she asked.
“Umm, me.”
“I think it would be better if you took it to her,” she said.
“What exactly are you trying to do here Tanya?” I asked, my voice laced with annoyance.
“You should take her your chili. That stuff is the best. I’ve already got some venison that has fully defrosted in the fridge.”
“I’m not taking chili to Amanda,” I said.
“Please?”
I whipped my head around at the sound of Lanie’s voice as she stood in the hallway holding her blanket.
“What are you doing up?” I asked.
“Go see Amana! Please?” she said, not quite able to pronounce Amanda’s name correctly.
“Sweetheart, Amanda isn’t feeling well,” I said.
“Food! Amana!”
“I think she’s onto something,” Tanya said.
I eyed her darkly before I sighed. Lanie was looking up at me with her puppy dog eyes and giving me that little pouty lip. Tears were welling in her tired eyes as she ran over and wrapped her arm around my leg. She nuzzled her nose into me, wiping away the snot from her fake tears as she snuggled into my jeans.
“Please?” she asked lightly.
I knew I couldn’t refuse a heartfelt plea like that. Hell, I couldn’t refuse Lanie much at all. Over the past year, I’d watched Lanie grow. I’d watched her blossom into a little social butterfly, and part of me hoped she would always stay that way. Just because I enjoyed being reclusive didn’t mean she had to be as well. But that meant I would have to support and even encourage her interacting with others.
I guess we’d have to start with my new neighbor.
“Okay,” I said as I looked down at her. “But you have to take a nap. No nap, we don’t go over.”
“Yay!”
Lanie went dashing back down the hallway as Tanya followed her quickly. I could hear the two girls giggling as she bedded Lanie back down, and I sighed as I listened to the sound. She looked like her father in every sense of the word, but when she laughed, she sounded like her mother.
Holy hell, how I missed my sister.
I started working on my chili as Tanya picked up the cabin. She worked around me, her grin lurking in the corner of my eye. I had no idea what she was up to or why she was so hellbent on making this happen, but I knew there was a plan formulating in that brain of hers. It was what she did when she was bored. She could come up with the craziest of activities for her and Lanie to participate in.
And when she was stumped with Lanie, she always tried to meddle with me.
Usually, it was her coaxing me to take a night off. Go into town, get a drink, maybe meet someone and get a hotel room. She’d offer her services watching Lanie for free so I had no excuse, but I would always turn her down. She would try to get me to interact with people and get back out there, so to speak, but I would balk and tell her I wasn’t interested.
So, why hadn’t I done that now?
The chili was cooked, Lanie was awake, and Tanya was about to leave for the night. She offered to keep Lanie one last time before I sent her away, then I packed up the chili and held Lanie’s hand. We walked up to Amanda’s cabin, and I was shocked to see the lights on.
Electricity was running through the rundown cabin, and it hadn’t burst into flames yet.
We walked up the rickety porch, and I could see the splinters popping up from the wood. It was a shame that this cabin hadn’t been treated with better care. The types of wood this home had been built with were sturdy. By the looks of it, the porch could still be salvaged. It needed to be sanded out, treated, and sealed, but if there were no foundational issues, it could be saved.
I shook the thought from my head as Lanie knocked her little fist against the door.
Amanda opened the door, and I could see the shock roll over her face. Her bright green eyes sparkled in the colors of the sunset as the rays tossed colors against the skyline. She was dressed in jeans and a sweater that was falling off her shoulder, teasing my lips for a kiss.
Part of me wished I had taken Tanya up on her offer to watch Lanie now.
“We brought chili,” I said.
“For dinner,” Lanie added.
“How kind,” Amanda said, smiling. “Um—”
She looked back into her home, and it gave me a second to peer into it. Many of the surfaces looked recently cleaned, but there was still a lot of work that had to be done. I could see a cupboard door hanging off its hinges and a dishwasher that had been worked out of its cubby. There were chairs with wobbling legs that looked as if they were going to tip over any second. Just from the glimpse through the door, I could see why Amanda was hesitant to let us in.
Wonderful. I could just leave this chili with her here on the porch and not have to get involved.
“You can eat it whenever you want,” I said as I handed it to her.
“Oh,” she said as she took it. “Well, thank you.”
“No eat?” Lanie asked.
I looked down at my niece as her big doe eyes looked back up at me. I knew she had been looking forward to staying. Part of me had entertained the idea as we walked here, but when Amanda opened the door, I knew I had to find a way out of this.
She was too alluring, and her skin looked too soft for me to be having dinner with her alongside my niece.
“Wanna come over?” Lanie asked.
“Lanie, I’m sure she has—”
“If the offer is on the table, I’d love to.”
My eyes found hers, and there was a brightness to them that hadn’t been there when she opened the door. Her eyes ran down my body before she found Lanie’s smile, and I watched a grin crawl across her cheeks. I could feel the electricity surging through my veins as I thought about kissing that exposed shoulder of hers. My toes curled at the idea of her whimpering at the way my beard would trail along the dip in her waist.
It was going to be dangerous to live beside someone like her.
“Then come on,” I said as I took Lanie’s hand.