Thicker Than Water

Chapter Seven

By the time the Barkley ranch came into sight, Leah and Bryon were sound asleep. Bryon was curled up on the buckboard, while Leah had sat on her father's lap and had her head against his chest. Heath had one arm around her while holding the reins with his free hand. Needless to say, Heath was more than relieved to have the main house come into sight, though he couldn't help but let out a soft, low whistle when he saw it. He'd seldom seen any house this size in his life. Not even Mr. Stokes fancy home was anything like this. Heath didn't know why; but all of sudden he could see himself at twelve years old, standing in the small house his mother shared with Hannah and his "Aunt" Rachel. He was asking, almost demanding that his mother tell him more about his father. She'd taken him outside on the back porch to talk to him privately.

"Son, your father is a good man. He's also a very important man and well respected. He travels a lot."

"If he's so good why isn't he here? If he's so important and has money to travel, why do we have so little?" Heath snapped, angry at the thought his dear mother had to work from morning to night, angry he had to live with the label of a bastard and had to drop out of school to help. He'd instantly been ashamed at his outburst as his mother had turned away, but not before he'd seen the hurt in her eyes. Because he didn't know if it was because he'd snapped or the fact that they didn't have that much and she felt guilty, Heath quickly apologized and silently promised never to talk about his father again, though he found resentment towards his father plant itself in his heart.

"Are we there yet?" Leah opened her eyes as she felt the wagon slowing down.

As Heath drove through the main gate and saw Jarrod and Nick, he smiled at his daughter and answered, "Looks like it."

Leah shifted her weight and was soon sitting with her back against her father's chest. Her eyes fell on the two Barkley brothers. Heath didn't know whether to hide or not as Leah lifted her arm, started bouncing wildly and cried out excitedly, "Look, papa! It's the cowboy in black!" Her reaction to seeing Nick might have had embarrassed Heath, but it didn't exactly hurt Nick's feelings and gave Jarrod some ammo to tease the hot tempered rancher with.

"I see you made it okay." Nick stepped forward and took Leah from Heath as the man climbed down from the wagon. By that time Bryon was also awake and trying to get out of the wagon. His father held him. Soon the lad had his small arms wrapped around his father's neck and his feet wrapped around the man's sides.

"I'll get your bags; you'll be staying in the main house tonight." Jarrod said as he grabbed the two suitcases that sat in the back of the wagon, towards the front. "We can get McCall or one of the hands to take your wagon down to house you'll be using. It's small, but it has two bedrooms. We'll help you move in tomorrow." If things worked out, Jarrod knew the family could look at adding a bedroom once Leah got a little older. Of course, he wasn't about to voice that thought out loud to a man he'd only recently met.

"Mother and Audra want to meet you." Nick said as he turned towards the house with Leah in pretty much the same position on him as her brother was on her father.

Heath would have preferred to simply head to the house he and the children would be using. However, he didn't want to be rude to the Barkley matriarch, nor did he wish to offend the man who was providing employment for him…even if it was, as far as he knew, simply to do the late Mr. Stokes a favor, and to make sure the children had a roof over their head.

Victoria was glad she was sitting down on the sofa when Nick walked in carrying Leah with Heath and Bryon following behind, while Jarrod carried the bags straight up to the rooms Heath and his children would be given for the night. One look at Heath and it was as if someone had reached up, taken a hold of the hands on the clock and turned them back faster than she thought possible. He bore a striking resemblance to her husband Tom when he was that age. If her husband hadn't grown a beard shortly after he'd turned thirty and gone prematurely gray, she was sure Nick would have seen the resemblance between their father and the man who now stood in the family's living room. Why Jarrod, who had been ten at the time his father started growing a beard, wasn't seeing it she didn't know. That is, unless it was simply that too many years had gone by.

Standing up, Victoria held out her hand. "Hello, Mr. Thomson. May I call you Heath?" she forced herself to address him as she would any other guest in their home. Because of her promise made on the verandah, Victoria addressed him formally and asked if she could call him by his first name.

Because of being so engulfed in looking around the home he'd just entered, the normally observant Heath missed the shaken look that had appeared on Victoria's face for a split second. By the time he'd looked her way, she had composed herself once more. "Heath's fine, ma'am," Heath took the offered hand. "This is Bryon." He looked down at his son who had a tight hold of his leg. He was about to say something else when Leah let a shrill of delight, one that had everyone but Nick, who was holding the girl on his lap, jumping three feet in the air. Due to having his eyes on the young child, Nick too had missed his mother's initial reaction when she'd seen Heath. As it was, he was smiling at Leah's reaction to the gift he'd just given her.

"Candy Cane, Papa! Cowboy gave it to me!" Leah smiled from ear to ear while the Barkley's chuckled at the name the child had given Nick. Even Heath had a small lopsided grin appear, momentarily, upon his face. He then grew serious.

"His name is Mr. Barkley. What do you say to him?" Heath gave his daughter a kind, but firm, reprimand.

She turned and tilted her head up to look at Nick. "Thank you, Mister Barkley." She then had everyone in stitches, including her father, as she point blank asked, "Can't I just call you Cowboy?"

Before Heath could say anything, Nick was nodding and tapping the young child's nose very lightly. "You bet you can. It's what I am, isn't it?"

The rest of the evening was spent eating supper and visiting. Actually, the Barkley's and Leah visited with Heath throwing a comment in now and then; Bryon never said a word as he sat by his father. Truth be told, the blond haired cowboy was more than happy when it came time to get the children to bed. Since he had to report early to work and move things into the house they'd be using the next day, he used those two reasons as an excuse to retire early himself.