Janet was in bed lying on her side, turned towards the wall when she heard Eddie come in about an hour after she got into bed. She wondered if he looked for her at the grounds but angrily pushed that thought away as soon as it came to her. Why should she care what he did? He'd made it perfectly clear that she wasn't his concern anymore.
She heard the kitchen faucet turn on and then abruptly shut off. Foot falls to the bathroom and the faucet turned on there and then turned off. Silence. Oh, how she itched to turn around and look at Eddie. How could everything go pear-shaped so quickly in a matter of a day? Eddie and she were just starting to get close and she pushed him away, not entirely sure she wanted him to stay away. Then the pass got blocked and now the contract.
Who signs such a ridiculous contract anyway? Why would anyone agree to terms like that? Moreover, why was it so important to Joe that Eddie get married in order to own land? All questions she was dying to have answers to, but all questions she'd never get answers to because she didn't give him the time of day to explain himself. She just blew up at him the second he said his piece. A flash of those soulful brown eyes, looking so hurt staring back at her. Did she act too quickly?
The sudden thump of the door pulled her out of her thoughts. She couldn't see Eddie's face but she didn't need to, to know that he was still upset about the whole thing.
I'll try talking him tomorrow. If he still wants me to leave, I'll take Emily up on her offer and be out of his hair. The stabbing pain in her chest increased and told her it wasn't what she really wanted at all. But if that's what he wants, it's the least I can do after all the inconvenience I've caused.
The next morning, despite Eddie's instruction, she woke up at the crack of dawn to get breakfast started. Not that she slept well anyway. When she finally managed to close her eyes in the wee hours of the morning, she was shaken awake by the chirp of a bird outside her window. Now as she walked around the tiny kitchen with a slight limp, she made sure to make minimal noise so as not to wake Eddie up. A ridiculous thought, since he was in the barn as usual. Even with the temperatures dropping, he didn't complain about the cold winds once.
Janet must have been lost in thought because she didn't hear the cabin door swing open. Eddie, still semi-asleep leaned against the door frame and yawned before he folded his arms across his chest and watched her. Her back turned to the door and the bow of her apron bouncing rapidly against her behind as she whipped the pancake batter held his attention. Lazily he walked in and the sound of his foot falls on the hard wood floor pulled her out of her daze. She spun around and let out a sharp squeal before she covered her mouth, her eyes wide as saucers.
"Eddie, you scared me half to death!" she breathed out.
"Sorry," he shrugged and walked over to the stove where she was.
He didn't sound upset. But then again he'd just woken up. Give it time, Janet the volcano will blow eventually.
"I told you, you don't have to do that," he muttered peering into one of the four bowls she had on the kitchen counter.
"I know you did. I wanted to. Besides, I promised Ikey," she replied quietly. His presence was overwhelming. She only just remembered how much man he was. Standing over six feet tall she must look miniature to him.
"Sure, can't disappoint Ikey," his low voice rumbled. Was that an edge she heard in his voice?
"Well you have to eat too," she added. She whipped the batter a couple more times and stopped, "Listen Eddie I've been thinking…"
"Forget it," he grunted and continued prowling around her like a wild beast hunting for prey. Her only fear was she was his prey.
"Forget what?"
"Whatever it is that you've been thinking about. Forget it," he said reaching for a piece of beacon only to have her slap his hand away. "Ouch! What gives?"
"Breakfast isn't ready," she replied curtly, "And I was going to say that I think I should move to the barn until… until other arrangements have been made."
Eddie grabbed his puffer from the chair it was draped around, "That's okay."
"I'm not requesting. I'm taking the barn. You can have your bed back," she replied evenly.
"That's okay. As long as you're here, the bed's yours," he replied gritting his teeth.
"Listen Eddie," she began.
"No you listen," he stemmed her words, "The bed in the barn is made of hay and it smells of horseflesh among other things. It's not fitting that you sleep in it. And in any case, I don't think that I could get much sleep in here knowing that you will be occupying the bed I've been keeping warm these past weeks. Much less get my mind off the bed I'll be sleeping in." And with that, he stormed out.
Heat flooded Janet's cheeks and she swallowed hard in shock. Did he mean what she thought he meant? Eddie hadn't shown an ounce of male attraction towards her since she got here. Unless you counted that heart stopping kiss they'd shared out on the porch swing two nights ago. Or the way he looked at her the morning after. Or the way they'd kissed while they danced.
Suddenly Janet needed air.
"Alright Phys, why are we here at the crack of dawn?" Ikey yawned and scratched his head. The temperature was cold and puffs of fog escaped his mouth as he spoke. Phil assembled all Eddie's friends outside Emily's house to discuss his plan.
"Yeah this better be good," Owen grumbled sleepily.
"It's about Eddie and Janet. We need to make them see what they're too stubborn to see themselves," Phil explained and Emily nodded handing him a cup of steaming cocoa. "Thanks sweetie." He smiled at her and she smiled back shyly.
"Hello? Care to make a point?" Nick interrupted.
"Right, sorry. I'll get right to it. Janet and Eddie had a fight last night. We don't know for sure, but we have a pretty good idea that it had something to do with his deal with Roundtree."
"You're kidding," Ikey said much more awake now, "How'd she find out?"
"My guess? Either Roundtree, or Eddie told her about it. Anyway it's not important. The whole thing's got them both mad at each other and she wants to live somewhere else until the pass clears."
"Wow," Owen breathed, "Eddie will never go for it."
Phil grimaced.
"I'm telling you. He'll never go for it," Owen repeated.
"Be that as it may he doesn't own her. And she can move out any time she wants. So we don't have a lot of time."
"What do you have in mind?" Nick inquired.
Phil looked at Emily and back at the boys, "Well we think she's going to ask one of us to put her up until she can leave. So I'm thinking we keep putting her off. That won't be a problem for Ikey. His living with his mother is enough to put any girl off."
Owen and Nick snickered behind their hands.
"You better watch it Phys. Before I pull out my shut-in jokes."
"Alright play nice," Emily warned.
"Okay, sorry," Phil apologised, "What I'm saying is that while we make it impossible for her to move out of Eddie's we show he all the ups to living here in Knight's Ridge. Permanently."
"Permanently.. meaning…?" Nick narrowed his eyes.
"Meaning we show her what a life with Eddie would be like."
"How do you suggest we do that if they're not speaking?"
Phil raised his eyebrows, "For starters, we're a part of Eddie's world. She should get to know us better."
"Okay, she falls in love with us. Then what?" Ikey asked.
"We show her how important she has become to our equation."
Owen raised his brows, impressed by the thought that went into Phil's plan. "What happens if she and Eddie never speak again."
"We can make sure that changes. Fast."
"How would you do that? Force them in a room and ask them to kiss and make up?" Nick smirked.
"Not your worst idea. But I was thinking more like… we kind of use gentle persuasion to get them together. But we may not need to go that far. For now, we just box them into living with each other a while longer."
As the plan took shape the guys' grins grew as they nodded their heads.
"Honey I'm home!" Ikey bellowed as he took the steps to Eddie's cabin two at a time and opened the door.
Janet was already making her way to the door with four bowls balancing on her hands.
"Oh! Let me help you," Ikey sprung into action as he took a couple from her to the table that was set up on the porch. "This smells amazing," he marvelled as he took in the scrambled eggs with beacon bits and chives and the fried sausage.
"Tastes even better," Janet replied coming out onto the porch with more bowls. There was no cockiness in her comment. Like she was stating undisputed fact. Ikey smiled.
"Hey I'm glad you got here before everyone else did," Janet said quietly, "I needed to talk to you about something."
Uh oh, this is it Eichorne.
"Oh yeah? What's up?" he asked casually.
"Um," she looked around nervously and clasped both her hands in front of her, "Well, it's hard to explain exactly. But… well I was just wondering. Uh… could we sit?" she gestured to the swing.
"Sure," he dropped into the swing drawing out a loud wrenching sound from the chains.
"Well… Ikey. This is awkward for me to talk about. I know we haven't known each other long enough but I… I have no one else to talk to about this…" her voice broke.
Oh no, please don't cry…
"Eddie and I… we sort of had a fight last night," she laughed a little at how that sounded. They weren't anything significant to each other and yet saying they fought sounded like a lover's spat.
"About what?"
"Do you know about his contract with Joe?" she asked directly looking him in the eye.
He gulped, "Uh yeah, I know about that."
"He told me about it last night at the festival," she mumbled and looked down at her hands.
"He did, huh? What do you make of it?"
"I don't know. All I know is that he freaked me out. And I remember yelling at him and telling him that the only reason he wanted me here was to make good on his deal with Roundtree." She turned towards him abruptly on the swing, "Oh Ikey… I think I may have wrecked everything. He was so upset. You should have seen him."
Ikey's heart went out to her. Poor Janet. "Janet, Eddie is not that guy," he said firmly grasping her hand tightly. She nodded solemnly.
"I know. I don't know why my mind always thinks the worst of people. And now I did it to someone who has been nothing but kind to me. And I don't know if I can change it."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. I'm sure if you sit him down and explain your side to it he'll be willing to forget the whole thing," Ikey assured patting her hand.
"But that's just it. I don't want him to forget it. I can't forget it," Janet whispered. How could she explain to Ikey what really irked her about her fight with Eddie? That in the heat of the moment he owned up to caring about her but not loving her? Sure he talked about taking marriage seriously. And not doing it lightly. But didn't he realise that love was a big part of making that promise?
"I don't understand," Ikey's brows knitted together, "I thought you wanted this to go away."
"I guess I want a little more than that," she admitted, "I've never really thought about settling down with anyone until…" she froze. Did she just admit to wanting to marry Eddie Latekka?
"Until you met Eddie?" Ikey asked shocked, "You've thought about settling down with Eddie." It was more a statement than a question.
"Uh, well I…"
"Hi, hi, hi," Phil greeting walking up the pathway towards the porch, Ronnie, Nick and Owen close in tow.
"Phil!" Janet leaped out of the swing a little too eager to get away from Ikey and went towards Phil, "What took you guys so long? Hurry up the food's getting cold."
The men did as they were told with no complaints. They relished the food and were half way done when Eddie made an appearance. Climbing into the seat next to Nick and across from Ikey. The men stared at him for a moment and then went back to eating when he grunted a greeting to them in general.
Ikey followed Eddie's gaze and it landed on Janet, whose jeans were a tad more snug than they should have been. When Eddie realised he was caught he cleared his throat and looked back down at his plate.
Ikey caught Phil's eye and they both did everything in their power to fight the grins itching to surface their faces. The plan may have been unnecessary after all.