Hey guys, sorry to leave you hanging after that last chapter, real life got majorly in the way and trust me when I say that it was a lot more painful for me than it was for you. This one is not as long as it was going to be, but I couldn't finish tonight so I thought I would put up what I had and the rest will be here soon. As I mentioned earlier. The end of this story is written so I am definitely finishing it, it just might take a while.

I would appreciate your feed back to this, whether you love it, hate it or just think its a bit far fetched. I am attempting to make this historically accurate and so am bringing in issues and themes which would have been relevent for the times.

Chapter 6

As far as Danny was concerned, the next few days were…awkward, to say the least. He did not get a chance to talk to Lindsay on Monday morning before breakfast as she was ensconced in the barn milking right up until the food was laid out and twice her mother had called her. Their eyes met over the breakfast table whilst they were both supposed to have their heads bowed saying Grace, however the moment their he caught her eye she looked away, reddening when she realised she had been caught staring at him and quickly averting her eyes and looking with interest at her blank plate.

As well as this, although they spent all day together working to weed and tend to the fields, he could never seem to get her alone. Either her brother or Frank always surrounded her. He couldn't sense any hostility from her, just embarrassment and awkwardness.

Finally, finally, on Friday night he had a chance to speak to her. They were not alone, but there was a popular comedy show on the radio and everyone was gathered in the living room of the main house to listen. When Danny had entered the room, still clutching the baseball they had been tossing around outside, he had spied a free space on the couch next to where Lindsay was sat with a book in her lap, her thumb holding her page as she chatted with her mother in the chair next to her. He quickly made a beeline for it and perched on the edge of the seat. She looked up and glanced at him as he sat, before smiling faintly and diverting her attention back to her mother.

"It's next week sweetheart, you must have forgotten", Anna Monroe said. She noticed Danny sit and nodded her head at him, acknowledging his presence.

"I must have", Lindsay answered, "it might be fun though, I could pick up some cloth in town tomorrow, now that the farm work is easing, we might even finish this one," she finished wryly. Mother and daughter seemed to share a private joke as they grinned at each other chuckling.

"Shhhhhhhhh, it starting", appealed Mr Monroe from across the room and their conversation ended abruptly as they all stopped to listen.

It was actually quite funny, Danny conceded as he chuckled along with the rest of the room, half listening to the radio and tossing the baseball between his hands. He had not expected much from a local comedy show if he was honest, however the more time he spent in Montana he was coming to appreciate things which he never thought

he would before. The slower pace of life was…refreshing, and he found a lot of satisfaction in the manual labour that he was doing, earning his living with his blood and sweat out in the fields. The change of scenery and the new outlook in life also meant that he was saving for the first time in his life and trying to think more about his future.

And then of course, there was the other thing. The thing sitting right next to him who was causing him to only be able to half listen to the radio and the warmth of whose leg he was so keenly aware of when it brushed lightly against his own.

He could not get that kiss out of his head.

He needed to talk to her and he was going to do it tonight, or be damned.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She had opened her book back up and was leaning one bent elbow on the side of the settee with her hand idly twisting around a curl in her hair. He leant away from he slightly to see the title of the novel held in the other hand. The Picture of Dorian Gray it read embossed in Gold along the spine. It was an impressive looking thing, blue leather bound and with thick creamy pages. Danny vaguely recognised it and quickly surmised it was from a collection that Mac owned, And I'm betting that her parents don't know about the personal life of the Author, he silently mused. If Mrs Monroe was not a fan of Catholics she would have a fit if she knew her daughter was reading a book by someone who was openly gay.

She shifted slightly in her seat and her thigh moved inexplicably closer to his. He tensed up immediately, Yeah, we really need to talk, he thought again.

When the show was over a buzz took over the room as people began talking again and getting up to stretch their legs. Mrs Monroe leaned away from the couch that held Danny and Lindsay and was chatting to her husband on the other side, and Danny seized his opportunity whilst everyone was talking to have a discrete conversation with his couch-mate.

"Wasn't bad was it," he said gesturing at the radio.

"Huh," she said looking up from her book, "oh, no…quite enjoyed it actually".

The conversation stalled. Danny continued to fiddle with the baseball in his hands, spinning it between his fingers. He took a deep breath before continuing quietly.

"I've been hoping to talk to you actually…about last weekend." He stopped to glance up at her and confirm she was still listening. She had gone slightly pink and rotated her head swiftly checking that no one was paying attention to their conversation. Satisfied that no one was listening, she turned her attention back to Danny.

"I'm sorry", Lindsay blurted out, "and I don't want you to think I go around kissing all the workers on the ranch."

Danny had not been expecting this. She must regret it. Of course she didn't feel like he did. She was his employer's daughter and he was just the unskilled labourer. All this week she must have been worried he would think she was some sort of easy girl.

"Naw, naw of course not" he answered, putting as much bravado and swagger into his Staten Island accent as he could. "Of course I know you don't. And I initiated it anyway. We can just forget it if you want." He tried his best to sound nonchalant and relieved that they had put it behind them. Lindsay looked at him for a moment, really stared into his eyes, before nodding, seemingly resigned and giving him a half-smile half-grimace.

"Friends then?"

"Definitely", he answered.

He madly searched for a less painful topic of discussion and landed on the book again.

"One of Mac's?" he asked gesturing to the volume with the ball still clutched in his hand.

"Yeah, I'm going to send it back tomorrow though. I promised I would as soon as I finished it and I only have a few pages left."

"You're going into town?" she nodded the affirmative and he had a sudden rush of inspiration. She might not like him romantically now but he could have a fair shot at convincing her with his natural charm, "mind if I catch a lift with you?"

"Of course", she looked pleased, "Jem and I are leaving at 8am". She rose from the couch then and bid the room a good night before disappearing out of the door.

Damn. His brilliant plan to spend more time with her was now going to be chaperoned by her brother. Brilliant.

He shook himself out of the slightly shell-shocked daze she had left him in when he caught Mrs Monroe giving him a concerned look. He decided now might be an opportune time to depart as well.

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