Forbidden love for a Barkley

Part one:

"Sunshine Day"

It was a beautiful sunny day. The sky was its beautiful blue self, no cloud in sight and the birds were singing their beautiful songs. This particular day seemed perfect for a lot of reasons; One, nothing could go wrong on such a beautiful day. Two, the fresh air, the beautiful land so far and wide with fresh flowers, grass, and crops, and the birds singing plus the animals doing their thing just added to the essence. Lastly, with such a beautiful day, it would be perfect for horseback riding, especially for one Nick Barkley and one Heath Barkley, who were horseback riding and just taking a break from the responsibilities of the Barkley ranch. They along with Jarrod and Audra have needed a day off like this, especially since now that Victoria was fully recovered from the flu. While Jarrod was off in San Fran on a case and Audra & Victoria were holding down the fort on the ranch, Nick and Heath were out horseback riding and getting a breath of fresh air.

"Up here, big brother." Heath spotted a beautiful tree that was so big that it gave the whole area a lot of shade, before riding off to the tree.

Fascinated by the tree and ready to take a breather, Nick rode his horse over to the tree his half brother spotted. Once there, he got off his horse and joined Heath in the shade.

"Nice day today, isn't it?" Heath leaned back against the tree, resting his head on his hands.

"It sure is, Heath. It sure is. Never in a million years did I ever think that there would be a beautiful day like today. I mean the sky is beautiful and all plus the crops, grass, and the animals being out about about adds to it, but with mother having had that darn flu, I never thought there would be a day like today. Mostly, because of all of us worrying about mother, even after she told us not to worry which irked me, because well...she's our mother and she used to worry about father whenever he was away & about Jarrod, Audra, and me when the three of us were little and the times you've been in danger or something bad befell you, so why not worry about her when the time comes?" Nick sat next to Heath and also leaned against the tree.

"Ah, you know mother, Nick. As she puts it and I quote: 'The parent is supposed to take care of the child. Not the other way around.' unquote." Heath recited Victoria's exact words, in a high pitched voice, before switching back to his own.

"Now, you know mother doesn't sound like that." Nick tried hard not to chuckle.

"I know, but unfortunately, that's the best female voice impression I can do." Heath sounded a little embarrassed after admiting that.

"You do a female voice impression thing better than I do. However, you did sound a bit like Audra when she's all teed off." Nick still fought the urge to chuckle.

"Don't her hear you say that." Heath chuckled and shook his head, before standing up.

"Where are you headed?" Nick sported a confused look on his face.

"Over to those flowers." Heath pointed to some flowers in the distance.

"Awww! You gonna get flowers for mommy?" Nick teased in a lighthearted way.

"Mommy? We all call her mother, Nick." Heath was kind of caught off guard by Nick's remark, before adding, "I suggest you do the same. It'd be a nice thing to do for her."

"I was teasing, Heath. Have a little sense of the thing we call humor." Nick mildly shot back, before standing up and following him over to the flowers.

"I'll go over to these orange ones. You check out those blue ones or whichever ones you think would be nice for mother." Heath told him, before going off to the group of orange flowers.

Nick nodded and walked towards another group of flowers. Unbeknownst to him, a girl carrying a basket was walking the opposite way to the apple tree that was far ahead, only for Nick and her to bump into to each other and fall down, her basket falling off her arm, spilling its contents everywhere.

"Well, that was a little-" Nick sat up and cut himself off when he saw the girl still laying there and her basket plus its contents everywhere.

"Ooh." the girl said while rubbing her forehead.

"Oh, pardon me. I'm terribly sorry, miss. Didn't see ya there." Nick walked over to the girl and extended his leather gloved hand in order to help her up.

The girl looked up at Nick and stared at him for a moment, before taking his hand and standing up with his help.

"Here, allow me to pick up everything." Nick knelt down, grabbed her basket and started collecting the spilled contents.

The girl, clearly fascinated by Nick's good looks, continued to stand there and stare at him.

"There you go. Good as new." Nick smiled while attempting to hand the girl her basket back.

The girl, still in awe of Nick's good looks and his kindness, didn't make a single movement.

"Something the matter?" Nick asked.

The girl didn't say anything.

"What do you see? Is there something wrong?" Nick was starting to get concerned about the girl.

"Thank you." the girl finally spoke after a few minutes of silence.

"Ohhh! You do speak after all." Nick chuckled.

The girl looked sheepish and just nodded.

"You're welcome. I hope you're not hurt from bumping into me." Nick smiled, before making another attempt to hand her, her basket.

"No, I'm not hurt at all. Are you?" the girl asked as she took her basket back.

"Oh no. I don't get hurt easily." Nick told her.

"That's good. Ummm...Uhhh...I really should be getting on my way." the girl nervously smiled at Nick.

"Yeah...I...uh should be carrying on myself. I'm gonna pick some flowers for my mother." Nick sounded a wee bit nervous, while trying hard not to. After all, it wasn't like Nick Barkley to be nervous about anything.

"Really? I'm going to pick some apples and a couple of oranges for my mother and some grapes for my father to make his wine, maybe I could help you with the flowers if you'd like?" the girl suggested, still a little nervous.

"I'd love to if you don't mind me helping you pick the fruit." Nick dusted himself off.

"I'd appreciate it, mister...I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." the girl started walking to where the fruits were.

"Oh, where are my manners? The name's Barkley. Nicholas Jonathan Barkley. Everybody calls me 'Nick'." Nick started to walk with her.

"Nice to meet you, Nick. Y'know, Nick is a nice name." the girl told him.

"Why, thank you." Nick smiled, before asking, "May I ask what your name is?"

"Stefania Lucia Mangano." the girl replied.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Stefania." Nick stopped walking and gently shook her hand.

"Do you always wear gloves?" Stefania was a little taken aback by Nick's gloves.

"Well, from where I come from, ya never know when you're gonna have to have a knockdown drag out fight plus I run a ranch owned by my family. My family is pretty well-known and well-respected." Nick explained.

"So's mine and you fight people?" Stefania asked.

"Well, I don't intend to, but when it comes to family honor & loyalty plus when push comes to shove, well the gloves are off or in my case, the gloves are on. Occasionally, they're off, but usually, these babies never leave my side or in my case, my hands." Nick chuckled a little.

"You sound just like my father." Stefania told him.

"I-I do?" Nick asked.

"Yeah. Whenever it comes to defending our family honor or anything like that or in some cases, a wise guy getting to be a neck pain, well he can get feisty and scrappy. Well, that was back in Italy before we came to the United States and settled in California. So far, he hasn't had to do any of that, yet." Stefania started picking some apples.

"You're from Italy?" Nick started to pick some oranges.

"Yes, I am. Is there something wrong with that?" Stefania stopped picking apples for a brief minute and got a confused look on her face.

"Oh no. Not at all. I've always been fascinated by the Italian culture and met some very pleasant Italians in my time. Italians who have settled here of course." Nick quickly explained.

"I'm glad you don't find anything wrong with me being Italian." Stefania went back to picking more apples.

"Are there people giving you trouble over it?" Nick put the oranges in her basket.

"Well, after my family and I settled here, some people welcomed us and others...not so much. Apparently to some, being Italian is filthy." Stefania sighed.

"People can be stupid at times. Ignorant, too. That being said, any moron gives you trouble, you just tell me and I'll teach them a lesson." Nick tried to reassure her.

"Thank you, but I wouldn't want to cause trouble for you." Stefania put the apples in her basket and went back to picking more.

"Ah, no trouble at all. Besides, people know better than to mess with a Barkley or at least they should." Nick chuckled some more.

"Okay. As long as you don't mind or anything." Stefania put some more apples in her basket.

"If I minded, I wouldn't have offered." Nick replied.

Stefania smiled and went back to picking a couple more apples.

*A few moments later*

Stefania and Nick had just finished picking the apples, oranges, and grapes she needed to get to her family. Now, they were just walking around and talking while Nick was still deciding on what flowers he should bring to Victoria. Little by little, they were learning so much more about each other, even though they barely met. Nick even got into a little detail about his late father and all that he taught him before nearly choking up when he had to mention that his father was no longer alive & the reason behind that. Normally, the second Barkley son would never choke up about anything, but seeing as he was speaking to a woman he was starting to warm up to and the fact that in just a few shy days it would be the birthday of one Tom Barkley if he were still alive plus the fact that Victoria was ill with the flu & since recovered, well it was only natural for Nick to loosen up a little bit, but just a little bit. Anyways, Nick was just about to make a decision on the flowers when Heath walked up.

"Hey, big brother. I didn't know you had company." Heath nodded at Stefania.

"Oh, pardon me. Her name's Stefania. Stefania, this is my half brother Heath. Oh and Heath, might want to take your hat off. There's a lady present." Nick introduced the two, before pointing at Heath's hat.

"Pardon me.." Heath chuckled, before taking off his hat and shaking Stefania's hand, "It is very nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Stefania shook his hand.

"Nick, did you finally pick some flowers for mother?" Heath turned to Nick.

"I was just going to make that decision when ya walked up, little brother." Nick playfully slapped Heath's shoulder, "Did you pick any?"

"Yup. These beautiful orange ones. If I were you, I'd get pink." Heath joked.

Nick gave him a look that said 'Ha, ha! Really funny!', before picking a bunch of purple flowers.

"Okay, we got the flowers. Now, I guess we head back to town and give these to mother." Heath saw that the sun was beginning to set and started to walk off, "It was nice to meet you, Stefania."

"Not quite. I'm gonna take this little lady home." Nick put his arm around Stefania.

"Nick, I'm sure she can get home fine without being chaperoned." Heath teased.

"Would you cut that out?!" Nick barked, before turning to Stefania, "Ignore him. He's jealous."

"You know I heard that." Heath replied.

"I was meaning for you to hear it. Now, I'm gonna take her home. I'll see you at the ranch, later." Nick told him before making his move to walk Stefania home.

"Why later?" Heath asked.

"Don't worry about it." Nick got a little snippy, before walking off with Stefania.

*Later on*

It was dinner time and every Barkley was at the table except Nick and Jarrod. Now, she wasn't worried about Jarrod as he was in San Francisco defending a case, but Nick, on the other hand, knowing that brawls had been happening and idiots had been crawling around Stockton lately plus despite knowing he was an adult who could take care of himself, Victoria was a little worried about her second son. Usually, Victoria wouldn't be this worried, but seeing as her late husband's birthday was coming up and just thinking about how Stockton had idiots crawling around when he was murdered, well who could blame her.

"Don't worry, mother. Nick is bound to show up." Audra tried to reassure Victoria.

"I sure hope so, because whenever this time comes, I get very worried." Victoria sighed.

"I understand, but I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation." Audra told her.

"Heath, you're awfully quiet tonight." Victoria looked over at Heath, who was just sitting there quietly.

"I am? I didn't even notice." Heath sounded a bit sheepish.

"Heath, is there something you're not saying?" Victoria asked.

"Hmmm?" Heath replied.

"Heath, is there something going on with Nick that you're not saying?" Victoria asked again, a little bit stern this time.

To Be Continued...

Author's note: This is my first Big Valley fic, so be patient and be nice. I do NOT own The Big Valley or its characters. The only thing I own is Stefania.

Audra: Heath, where could Nick be?

Heath: Wait till the next chapter.

Audra: Huh?

Nick: R&R!