Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (17 page)

“You’re right,” Danny said thoughtfully
, “but I thought I was pretty big.”

They drank wassail
and visited while Lauren examined all the gifts under the tree until Danny stood up and announced, “I need to go back to the farm so I can get up early to care for my animals.”

“Yes, so well I remember the duties of a farmer,” Laura said with a smile and hugged him.
“I will have a cup of hot cocoa waiting for you when you get here in the morning.”

Two days after Christmas,
Frisker alerted Danny that his family had arrived. The four of them brought Lauren out for her to spend her day with Danny. It had been a while since any of them had seen the improvements or his animals. He enjoyed showing them his pigs that were almost ready to butcher and pointed out the ones he wanted to keep.

He purposely had not put his calves out to pasture knowing that Lauren was coming for the day. She quickly found Kibble and Bit and carried them around as they toured the farm. The weather was brisk but the sun was shining and the wind blew at only about ten miles an hour so it felt
nice to walk around outside in their warm coats.

Laura and Nora were inundated with so many memories as they went from one place to another. They were pleasantly surprised to find chickens in their room where they used to separate the milk. Danny had already built some nests for them in preparation for them to start laying eggs.

“Does this mean that you don’t intend to milk cows?” Nora joked.

“You got that right, Sis.”
They laughed when Danny said pointing his thumb back at himself, “This farmer has no intentions of milking cows.”

He took them into the house
to show them his house plans he had drawn. Each one of them had a suggestion or a modification that they thought he should consider. He listened patiently to each one and said, “I’ll think about it.”

Lauren brought the kittens in and Danny poured them their morning bowl of milk and rubbed their backs. She
knelt down on the floor beside them and continued to caress and talk to them as they lapped their milk.

Nora pulled Jeremy by the hand walking through their old home and exclaiming about first one thing or another. She wanted to see her old bedroom which sat empty except some miscellaneous items that Danny had thrown in to get out of his way.

Laura pointed out the picture hanging on the wall, “I see you mounted the picture I painted for you.”

“Yes,
I think we all should remember our roots. It helps keep us humble.” Then he added, “It’s a treasure to remember and a work of art by my mother which I will always cherish.”

Laura hugged him, “Thank you for putting value on a memory.”

He kissed the top of her head. She looked up and they both grinned. “Remember when you were fourteen and I used to tiptoe to kiss your cheek?”

Art stood back enjoying the banter between mother and son. Danny was the son he always wished he could have fathered, but at least he had a hand in helping raise
Danny through his high school years. He could not have been prouder of a son.

“Uncle Art,
” Danny said motioning him outside with him, “now that you’ve seen my house plans, I want to know what you think of moving the house to the location in back of where the house is now?”

Laura stayed in the house to look at the old kitchen and wondered how she ever managed with so few cabinets. She would be glad when the old house was torn down. She loved her life now. In spite of Danny saying it was good to remember her root
s, she had painted the picture as a tribute to the old house, and then she wanted to eradicate it from her mind. When Danny came home, she knew he might be the only one on the planet who could fully appreciate the picture. She turned her back on the picture and went outside to join Art and Danny.

“Uncle Danny, do you have horses?” Lauren asked after the others left.

“Not yet,” Danny replied. “Next year after I build my house, I plan to build a special barn for horses.”

“Really?”
Lauren asked, her face glowing. “May I ride them?”

“Of course,
Cookie, you’re always welcome to come.”

Lauren watched while
Danny opened the gate to let the calves out into the pasture. The calves hurried vying for position to get out the gate. Frisker stayed close to Lauren, putting his head under her hand often to get her attention and a scratch behind his ears.

Danny looked toward the Dodd farm place thinking about old Tammy which he was sure they would let
Lauren ride. He decided to call them and see if this would be a good time.

Lauren was so thrilled to find all five of the Dodd grandchildren there. When Brad and Tim heard that Lauren wanted to ride Tammy, Brad adamantly recommended, “You shouldn’t ride her. She will knock you off.”

“I don’t think so,” Lauren indignantly stated.

The brothers started to protest but then looked at each other and grinned. This could be fun to watch Tammy knock a girl off on her butt like she did them.

Danny met Angela with a smile, “Hi, Angela. I want you to meet my niece, Lauren.”

Angela had wished she could avoid Danny until she could leave but neighborly manners dictated that she be nice and show his niece a good time. She smiled at the nine year old Lauren and bent over and greeted her, “Hello, Lauren, my name is Angela. I hear you want to ride my horse Tammy.”

“Hello, Angela,” Lauren smiled liking this tall girl with the pretty smile. “Yes, may I ride your horse?”

“Yes, you may.” Angela took Lauren by the hand and led her to the barn. The boys had already climbed on the fence to await the action. Danny sauntered over to stand beside them
and leaned on the fence.

Lauren and Angela found Tammy contentedly munching on some hay place
d in her stall. Angela introduced Lauren to Tammy. Lauren spoke softly to Tammy and rubbed her nose. She brushed her forelock away from her eyes and told her what a beautiful horse she was while Angela placed the saddle on her back.

After a few minutes, Angela led Tammy
with Lauren perched on the saddle out to the lot in front of the barn. “Oh, Man,” Tim complained, “She has reins and everything.”

Lauren patted Tammy on the neck and spoke soothing words to her.
She took command of the reins and guided Tammy in a couple of walks around the lot then nudged her into a trot.

The boys sat with their jaws gaping open. Angela joined them at the fence and commented, “She’s pretty good.”

Danny also impressed agreed, “I’ll give her that. I heard that she had taken a few lessons but I never saw her ride before.”

Brad begrudgingly said, “Tammy knocked us off her back with that limb over there.” He pointed at the tree on the other side of the lot.

Angela lightly punched him with her elbow, “You might want to take lessons from a girl.”

The boys looked at each other and frowned.

Danny asked, “How are you coming with your plans for your greenhouse?”

Angela turned and looked toward the greenhouse. “Those plans are on hold right now.
”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“No, Danny.” Angela turned her face away to keep him from seeing the anguished look that came across her face. Her mouth formed a hard line when she spoke again. “I needed to earn some capital before I launch my business.”

Danny realizing that he must have touched upon a sore subject, called to Lauren, “Are you ready to give one of the boys a turn?”

Lauren with a smile and flushed cheeks expertly brought Tammy to the fence where they waited. Angela helped her down and Brad mounted the horse. He clicked the reins and Tammy started walking away. A big smile beamed from his face, “Hey, this is a breeze using a saddle and reins.”

The rest of them laughed
. “Amazing how well that works,” Angela retorted.

Sara
h and Janie took the opportunity to introduce the cats to Lauren. They went inside the barn to play. Four year old Tommy also had gone into the barn but he went past the girls to find his own amusement.

Brad climbed down from Tammy’s saddle and Tim took a turn. He let Tammy have the lead and she quickly brought him back to them, but he felt a little nervous on Tammy’s back without Brad. Angela helped him down and the boys took off.

Danny went through the gate and walked with them into the barn to help Angela remove the saddle. The girls sat on some bales of hay near the horse stalls. When Lauren saw Angela, she said, “I smell something funny.”

At the same time Tammy neighed and tried to pull away from Angela. That’s when they smelled the smoke.

“There’s smoke,” Danny called out. “You girls go to the house and get your grandpa.”

They grabbed up the cats and hurried to the house. They burst into the back door yelling, “There’s smoke in the barn.”

Greg immediately jumped up from the couch where he was watching a rerun of an old ball game, and rushed out the back door running for the barn. Aimee gathered the children around her praying that it was nothing serious, but she noticed little Tommy wasn’t with the others.

Angela took Tammy back outside
with her still trying to jump up and break free. She put her out to the pasture with her saddle still on her. She ran back into the barn about the same time her dad arrived.

By that time Danny had found the culprit and stamped out the fire. Angela rushed over and grabbed Tommy up in her arms. “What happened?”

Danny reached down and picked up a small box of matches and held them out. “He had these with him.”

Greg let out a large sigh of relief that the emergency had already been assuaged.

Angela rebuked, “You are never to play with matches, Tommy. You know better than to play with matches.”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to see if I could make a fire.”

“Well, now you know,” She admonished. “You could have burned down Grandpa’s barn. Your Daddy’s going to hear about this.”

Tears sprang forth from his eyes. She turned to take him into the house.

Danny followed her into the house, made his goodbyes and collected Lauren. Before Lauren left she begged for Sarah and Janie to come home with them. Danny agreed. With big pleading eyes the girls persuaded the grandparents to allow them to visit with Lauren until supper time.

At Danny’s house Lauren and the girls ran from the pickup to the barn to get Kibble and Bit to bring to the
house to play with. Frisker loped along behind them wanting to be included in the action.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Danny had just entered the house when Frisker ran tearing out of the barn
barking. Danny went to the old back porch to see a late model black Lincoln Towncar pulling into his driveway. He stepped off the porch as the car door opened and a black haired woman stood up looking all around. When she turned her face toward Danny a big smile broke out on her face.

Danny sucked in hi
s breath like he had been punched in the gut. There stood Lisa, the woman who had been tormenting his dreams. Her beautiful black flowing hair, her creamy perfect complexion, and emerald eyes surrounded by long black eyelashes still could bind him speechless. She closed the car door and walked up to him smiling and said, “Hi, Danny.”

Frisker sniff
ed around the car, the ash tree swayed with the breeze that had come up, the pigs made their pig noises that they made when they wanted fed, and the girls were returning to the house carrying the kittens.

Finally, he got his voice back and
walked toward her and said, “Hello, Lisa. This is a surprise.”

“Did you get my letter?” Lisa asked and looked at him curiously. “I told you I planned to come.”

“Yes,” he looked out to her car to see if she was alone. He shook his head as if to clear it. “You never mentioned when. I expected you to call first.”

Lisa smiled
confidently, “I wanted to see how you live now, Danny. So this is the place that you worked all your life to buy?”

Danny looked around trying to view it in her eyes. He knew that it fell way short of her vision of what a home
should be. He nodded, “Yes, it is. This is the home that five generations of Ray’s have owned and now it’s mine, the sixth generation.”

She looked around speculating, “It has some promise.”

Danny relaxed a bit and said, “It was really run down when I bought it. It is a work in progress.” He didn’t want to say that it hadn’t been much better when his family lived here.

By this time the girls approached, “Who are these lovely ladies?” Lisa smiled looking down at the girls.

Placing his hand on Lauren’s shoulder, he said, “This lovely lady is Lauren, my niece.” Lauren smiled up at her while rubbing her face against Bit’s soft fur.

“How do you do?”
Lauren replied.

“These other two lovely ladies belong to the neighbor’s next door, Janie and Sarah.”
They both responded with a smile.