Simmons Brothers Series: Boxed Set Read online

  “We had a little bit of an accident,” Pete said. “Nothing serious.”

  “What happened?” Jamie asked, worried.

  “I accidentally turned on the burner and let a pot burn, bad,” he lied through his teeth. He didn’t know why he was covering for Lana but he knew he had to get the truth before he made any decisions about whether to keep her.

  “That was stupid of you,” Drew said. “The pasta isn’t so bad today. The sauce is decent, although I’m not sure it’s quite got the pasta taste to it yet.”

  Pete had adjusted everything as he had tossed everything through.

  “She’s finally getting the hang of it,” Mark said. “Where was she when this happened?”

  “Lana told me to turn it off, while she went to hand laundry, but I actually made it higher,” Pete said, avoiding eye contact. “I was distracted.”

  “It’s fine, there’s no lasting damage, right?” Jaimie said. “And you two are fine, so no harm done.”

  “No harm done,” Pete repeated as he ate.

  He waited until everyone had left before he made his way upstairs with a plate of food. He was feeling very guilty by then and he didn’t think it was right that he had blown up on her. He knocked on her door and asked,

  “Can I come in?”

  He took her silence to be a yes and walked in to see that her suitcase was propped up and she was dressed.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “I’m going to leave,” she said. “There’s no way I can stay after causing so much trouble. I nearly burned your house down.”

  “Lana,” Pete said, taking her hand and pulling her closer so she’d sit on the bed. “You don’t have to leave. I’m sorry I yelled at you. I was more scared than angry. The counter and pot, hell the whole house can be replaced. You can’t and the thought that you might have been hurt, it scared the crap out of me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because,” Pete said, as if the reasons should be plain to see. “You’re human first of all.”

  “Is that the only reason?” she asked, her dark eyes pulling at him.

  He squatted in front of her. “No,” he said, reaching up to cup her face. “No, Lana, that’s not the only reason I was scared.

  “I’ve come to care a great deal for you during your time here. Try as I might, the more I try to deny how I feel about you, the more you seem to take up time in my day.”

  “I like you too, Pete,” Lana said, giving him a watery smile. When he gently pulled her down to touch his lips gently to her, Lana closed her eyes to drink in the feelings that floated through her. She’d dreamed of a moment like this and the reality was so much better.

  “Well at least we got that out of the way,” he chuckled. “I brought you something to eat as a truce and a very heartfelt apology.”

  She nodded and sat down, taking the plate from him. He sat down near her and waited while she ate.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Lana,” he said. “But I need to know the truth. I know a lot of things aren’t adding up so please tell me everything.”

  “I’m not nor have I ever been a housekeeper, I can’t really cook that well either, as if it wasn’t obvious,” she admitted. “It’s just… it’s a long story.”

  “I have time,” he said calmly taking her free hand.

  “The truth is that I come from a very conservative family. It wasn’t that bad while I was growing up and I do have some work experience but mostly in store keeping. But then parents suddenly wanted to start pressuring me to settle down for them and have someone take over my dad’s store. I didn’t want to do it but I couldn’t stall them any more so I clutched the first thing I could which was the job advertisement that you guys had out,” she said in a sad voice. “I knew it was wrong of me but I just wanted to save some money so that I can do something, work where I like, do something with myself that I wanted.”

  Her story was really sad and his heart went out to her. He couldn’t imagine being in a family and being pressured to do something he didn’t enjoy and was completely against. His parents had always been respectful of he and his brothers’ decisions but he also knew that it wasn’t that way in every family.

  Knowing how he felt about her, about things, Pete asked, “What are you going to do now?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I have enough put back to get to the next town, maybe I can find work there that suits me.”

  Pete knew immediately that he was against that, he could feel the protests coming back with a vengeance. She was naive, she would end up in trouble with people taking advantage of her, and he knew it. He couldn’t let her go, nor he didn’t want to let her go. Either way, he wasn’t letting her leave him.

  “You can’t just go like that,” he said. “We have to think of a way to make this work.”

  “What use is it?” she asked. “I’m no good at keeping house or cooking. The only thing I’ve managed to get the hang of is the laundry and I’ve even messed that up.”

  “I’ll help you,” he blurted out, wondering just how he was supposed to do that. “Your cleaning isn’t bad and you got the laundry down, right? I think it’s the cooking that’s really the problem and I think we can fix it with some proper guidance.”

  “Pete,” she whispered. “That’s too much. I can’t let you…”

  “It’s fine. We’ll figure it out together. I don’t want you to leave, Lana.”

  “Why?” she wanted to know. “Your brothers’ don’t seem to care one way or the other, why do you?”

  “Apparently, I haven’t made myself very clear,” Pete said. With that, he took her mouth, letting the heated but rather chaste kiss say what he couldn’t seem to put into words. When he finally pulled back he grinned. “I want you to stay, Lana.”

  And that was when he realized that he liked Lana Jones a lot, too much for a normal employer relationship and that was the crux of his problem.

  The next day, he printed out some recipes.

  Lana had told him that she had some recipes but hadn’t quite understood them. So, he decided that an hour before lunch, he would finish what he had and take his recipes to her so that they could figure out what to make.

  He was avoiding the glaring question as to why he was doing so much to help a complete stranger; not that he didn’t already know the answer. More than just a housekeeper, Pete wanted her in his life in a much more serious fashion. As he walked towards the house, he hoped that she wasn’t too bad so that they could at least try and make it work. She was waiting for him, sitting on the couch and she sat up straight when she saw him.

  “Hi,” she said softly as he walked in, sheets of papers in hand. He pretended not to see the blush that stained her cheeks.

  Lana looked subdued; probably scared of him which didn’t make him happy. He didn’t want her to be scared of him but he didn’t comment on it. She probably wouldn’t admit it even if she was scared.

  “I have some recipes with me,” he said. “What do you want to tackle first?”

  She took the papers from him and looked through them before picking out one.

  “What about this?”

  It was recipe for a casserole and he nodded slowly, unsure if she was going to be able to handle all the steps. Either way, there was only one way to find out. They walked to the kitchen and he saw that the black mark from yesterday’s fire was faint. She had worked on it until it had faded at least a bit. He looked at her hands and could see that they were rough from the work she had done. It didn’t make up for the massive oversight on her part, but he respected that she’d tried hard to fix her mistake.

  He placed the recipe paper on the counter and took a look at what she had taken out. He picked out everything that they would need and she placed everything else back in the fridge. The first step was to prep all the vegetables and he quickly discovered that she hadn’t been hiding anything about her ability. She really was quite inept at cooking but he didn’t comment on it as he watched her take a lon
g time to cut the onions. At least she didn’t cry.

  “How are you so bad at all of this. I thought girls learned to cook and clean from their mothers?” He said bluntly.

  She laughed. “I don’t know. You would think as someone being married off I would be better at it but my mom never really exposed me to it. I mean she tried once but after I burned the fish and her pan, she never insisted that I help with cooking again.”

  Remembering the incident the day before, he could see where her mom was coming from. He watched her now, putting the onions and garlic in the pan and sighed. It was going to be a lot of work. With him supervising, they somehow managed to get it done and when he tasted it, it wasn’t terribly bad. It wasn’t superb but it was a smidgen better than before.

  “We have to work on it,” he said firmly. “Be ready for dinner.”

  “I think there’ll be leftovers from this,” she said peering into the pot. “It’s a lot.”

  He looked at it and he knew she was right which was good thing; this meant that they wouldn’t have to go through the same ordeal again. So, he said,

  “That’s a good thing. Pick out a recipe for tomorrow and we’ll talk about it tonight.”

  She nodded but before he left, she reached for his hand and said,

  “Thank you so much for everything. I won’t let you down.”

  Pete nodded and that was when everyone walked in. She took her hands away just in time as they all sniffed the air.

  “Smells good,” Drew said cautiously as they sat down.

  She set the table for them and served them, watching them on pins and needles as they ate. Pete didn’t say anything but he could tell that everyone else was mildly surprised that it wasn’t as bad as before. No one said anything which was the best thing because he didn’t want them bolstering to let her go before he could help her improve.

  They left and she sighed. Pete lingered for a second and she smiled at him.

  He felt his heart thump against his chest at the smile on her face. It all but radiated from her and he wondered, not for the first time, what had happened in her life that had taught her to doubt herself so much.

  I’m falling hard, he thought. And I have no idea if that’s a good thing or not.

  Chapter Seven

  Lana couldn’t believe she had just been given a second chance at everything.

  To think that Pete would help her out, it was astounding. She didn’t know much about Pete but this elevated what she thought of him. He was an amazing guy and kind enough to help her. And it didn’t hurt that he was also fine in the, I want to jump him, sort of way. But thinking he was just kind made her feel a bit down. If she were being honest with herself, she’d admit that she wanted his help to be more than just simple kindness.

  They had worked steadily at her cooking and she was sure she was learning new things. One of which was that using the flat edge of the knife to pick up vegetables was much easier and also dicing onions made it easier to cook them so they wouldn’t be crunchy every time she made a dish. Her knife skills had improved a bit from when she first started, though she still managed to cut her finger on their third cooking session. Regardless, she was getting better.

  It had been a week since they had started working together and everything was improving with every session. Pete was a good mentor and taste tester and he helped get the flavors right. There were mishaps here and there, she had burnt the onions the first time and then had the burner on too high while frying some chicken pieces so they ended up raw inside but other than that, she was working hard to make sure that she didn’t mess up as before. At least she didn’t burn another pot or start another fire. That would have been terrible.

  So, two weeks after she had arrived, she decided to attempt the hardest or at least the most complex recipe she had seen, which was the potato au gratin.

  It was actually quite easy but she thought the whole process of slicing the potatoes and making the béchamel sauce made it hard.

  “Are you ready?” Pete’s voice broke her reverie.

  It was eleven and she was sitting on the couch. They had to do some shopping for the sauce and he had volunteered to go with her to the store.

  “Let’s go,” he said, when she nodded.

  Lana had gotten familiar with the store and the town but she still worried about venturing out alone, scared as she was by the, everyone knows everyone’s business, feel of her former town. She confided in Pete about her feelings as he drove towards the store.

  “This town is close-knit too but we know to respect everyone’s privacy, that’s all,” he said calmly. “I can see your point though.”

  “I have always loved my home town, but I couldn’t stay there and be happy,” she said. “I had friends who knew that I wasn’t happy, so they helped me escape it. I don’t know how I could thank them.”

  “You could be happy,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.

  But Pete, staring at her face, knew that there was more to it. She was happy about leaving her town but upset? Disheartened? He forced himself to think about something else. This wasn’t his problem. This was hers, even if he did want to see her put the past behind her so she could smile easily and often.

  Lana was oblivious to his conflict, her mind on her parents. How were they? Were they mad that she’d left without a word to them otherwise? It had been a while since she had seen them and she hadn’t even told them why she had left. Maybe they hated her, that thought made her sad.

  The truck stopped and they got out, walking inside. Lana had a list with her and she wandered off. Pete knew that she would be able to get everything they needed and he walked off in the opposite direction, deep in thought. He stopped in the arts and crafts section, staring at the pencils and the materials. She had said she liked sketching…

  He picked out some of the things, he had no idea what was what but he hoped that she would be able to use it. He looked around to see if she was nearby but seeing that she wasn’t, he quickly got the employee to bill it, hiding the packet behind him. He felt like a child but he wasn’t sure how she would receive it.

  She appeared later, tugging a large basket of things to buy.

  “Isn’t that a lot?” he asked.

  “I don’t want to mess up,” she said. “You can cut it out of my pay if I do. You bought something too.”

  He laughed and said, “It’s nothing. Let’s go home.”

  He couldn’t have known that the word home had made her heart flutter, or that being with him, like this, felt righter than anything else in her entire life.

  Lana knew she was going to cut herself while slicing the potatoes and she was right. Pete cursed when he saw the blood and she flushed as he panicked a little, trying to get a Band-Aid on her.

  “I’m not dying,” she said, laughing after he finally got the Band-Aid on.

  “I have a phobia for this,” he admitted. “Once as a child, Mark fell from a tree and cut open his head. It scared me so bad that any sight of blood makes me freak out a little. Nothing bleeds like a head wound.”

  “That sounds traumatizing.”

  “It was initially. As we grew older and watched calves and foals being born, it got better,” he said. “I think I was more surprised by the blood and the fear hit later when the doctor said he had lost a lot of blood. For a long time, I followed him around, watching to make sure he was really okay.”

  “I’m an only child so I never got to experience having siblings,” Lana said.

  “Probably better, my siblings make me tear my hair out.”

  “Like you’re a saint,” a new voice said and it was Mark who had just come in.

  Pete moved away from Lana, who swallowed nervously.

  “You should stop disturbing her,” Mark said. “She’s working.”

  “She likes to have a taste tester,” Pete returned honestly. Still, if he couldn’t be close to Lana when his brothers were near, what sort of relationship did they have? It was a puzzle he needed to solve, soon.


  He moved away from her and she sent him a pleading look. Mark had sat down at the table and he sat down with him, praying that Lana would be able to do it on her own.

  “How are things going?” Pete asked halfheartedly.

  “So-so,” Mark replied. “Had some work to do today. Didn’t you have anything?”

  “I managed to finish it earlier and I came home to eat.”

  “Same with me,” Mark said. “Lana looks like a natural now.”

  Pete turned back to Lana and had to admit that she did look right in their kitchen, with the apron on her and her hair tied back. There was something attractive about her, but he didn’t dwell on it. It wouldn’t do any good to get himself all worked up with nowhere to expend the energy. Instead, he tried to focus on his conversation with Mark, watching as Lana layered everything. In the middle, there was a yelp and he almost jumped out of his chair to help her.

  “I’m okay,” Lana said, breathing heavily. “The pot was too hot and the milk spilled on me, that’s all.”

  He sat back down, even more worried and annoyed at Mark’s expression of indifference. Lana seemed to be handling herself well and after a while, the others came in as well and they all sat around the table. Lana lingered by the counters, staring at the oven as her potatoes cooked.

  After a while, Drew got up and started to lay down a place but to Pete’s surprise, he laid down five spots and he couldn’t help but smile. They were finally accepting her. Lana took out her dish from the oven and sighed. She placed it on the table with a bowl of salad, looking as surprised as he was at the extra place.

  “Sit down,” Jaimie said. “Let’s eat together.”

  She nodded and sat down beside Pete and Drew. But as Pete sneaked glances at her, he saw that she had taken the napkin to dab at her eyes. He smiled at it; she really was a softhearted person. They served themselves and as he took a bite, he was glad to see that it was good. She had done it.

  The others ate everything until there was nothing left and he could see her smile grow wider as they did so. Jaime started a conversation and they were soon laughing and talking like they were one family.