Instructions for Love Page 4

  “Mom…Bea,” Dane said, “did you want something? Other than to meet Tilly’s niece?”

  Erin peered down at him. “That’s rude.”

  His expression seemed to combine annoyance with confusion.

  “I did want to meet Erin,” Mom Bea said, ignoring him, her bare cheeks almost as pink as her shirt while she smiled. “And I wanted to know, young lady, did you read Tilly’s letter?”

  Remembering the swirling letters of her aunt’s parting words created heat in the back of Erin’s eyes. She blinked, holding back the tears that threatened to spill.

  Erin nodded. “But she only wanted me to read the first page yesterday. Aunt Tilly said that today, I should inspect the plantation.”

  “Yes!” Mom Bea clasped Erin’s fingers, her look sincere. “And…?”

  “And she wanted me to stay here four days. But I phoned my boss, and he wants me back in New York.”

  “Oh.” Mom Bea’s smile faded.

  Beyond her on the ground, Dane was opening the door on his truck. With their last statements, he’d stopped.

  Erin didn’t care. She needed to tell someone, and her aunt’s friend seemed truly concerned. “I told him I couldn’t go yet because of Aunt Tilly’s request. But he insisted that I go home.”

  Mom Bea lifted an eyebrow flecked with white. “Are you’re leaving?”

  Erin’s peripheral vision let her see Dane with his head bent forward, apparently listening for her answer.

  She folded her arms across her waist. “I am not.”

  “Oh, good,” Mom Bea said. “I guess you’ll show that fellow back home.”

  “I really don’t want to show him,” Erin said to the soft woman. “I need my job. But I also need to stay here.”

  “Then you won’t go?” Mom Bea smirked.

  Was that a smirk Dane wore, too?

  Either way, so what? Erin asked herself, trying to ignore him. He stood near his midnight blue truck, his hand gripping the top rim of its bed, while he impatiently gazed up at the two of them.

  Erin peered at Mom Bea. “No matter what Trevor says, I have to carry out my aunt’s request. I adored her.”

  Mom Bea’s smile made her face glow.

  “You probably should make Trevor happy,” Dane said. He stomped up the steps toward them. “I’m sure Tilly would agree.” He gave Mom Bea a harsh stare. The air around all of them seemed to still.

  Erin’s anger flashed. “I’ll do what I want. And you need to learn not to be so rude.”

  “Wow,” Mom Bea said, her face beaming with admiration.

  Dane stopped in front of Erin. She peered up at him. “I thought southern men were known for being polite.”

  “I am polite.” His lips were tight, his expression grim.

  Erin released a sigh of exasperation. This man’s presence was so unsettling.

  She faced Mom Bea. “So you were my aunt’s friend who phoned to let me know she had passed away. Thank you.” She gave Mom Bea’s hands a light squeeze.

  “Tilly wanted me to. She said to call only you.”

  “But why didn’t she let me know she was sick? I would have come down to be with her.”

  “She knew that, and she knew you’d be coming here now. Tilly realized you couldn’t afford lots of flights and time off from work. Besides, she wanted you to remember her as she was.”

  As she was. The image of the curly-headed woman with a lithe body and tons of warmth to bestow on Erin would always remain in her mind and in her heart. “But I wouldn’t care what she looked like,” Erin said.

  Mom Bea gave a compassionate smile. Behind her, Dane seemed to squirm, looking like he was uncomfortable with their conversation.

  “She didn’t have pain,” Mom Bea said, “only symptoms of stomach flu. They only found the growth in her liver two months ago and put her on pain killers near the end.”

  Hot tears rimming Erin’s eyes spilled over to her cheeks. Mom Bea sniffled and rubbed her own damp eyes.

  Dane turned away, his fingertips rapping an angry dance against the porch railing. What was his problem?

  “Then today you’ll inspect the plantation?” Mom Bea asked Erin, shunting away from their morbid talk.

  Erin glanced out at the vast lawn. “It’s pretty. Lots of moss and trees.” She looked at Mom Bea. “That didn’t take long. I wonder what I’m supposed to do with the rest of the day.”

  Dane sniggered. “This plantation has three hundred acres.”

  “Oh. Then I guess I should see them.”

  Dane shook his head, the set of his mouth like that of a person who was sorry he’d spoken.

  “Yes, you should check out the whole place,” Mom Bea said to her with a giant nod.

  Dane gave the woman an angry stare. “Mom…”

  “Dane can take you,” Mom Bea told Erin. “He knows where everything is.” She flitted toward the screen door.

  Dane eyed her without speaking. As she went through the door, he said, “And what will you be doing while we’re out checking the place?”

  “I’ll make y’all a nice chicken and sausage gumbo for when you’re finished.” She pushed into the house. “Y’all go on now. Have fun,” she called back to them.

  Chapter Five

  Minutes later Erin strapped herself into the passenger’s seat of Dane’s truck and spied him taking deep breaths as though maybe he weren’t pleased. He looked annoyed while he put the truck in gear.

  The truck smelled of him, a male scent, it seemed to Erin, similar to the one she’d noticed in her bedroom. This vehicle he drove into the fields also carried an odor of the earth. A light coat of dust topped the dashboard. The mat beneath his boots held dried mud and a splattering of small shells from the driveway.

  Erin’s side of the truck, however, looked as though no one had ever ridden in it.

  An Atlanta Braves cap lay on his seat beside his sunglasses. She stared at the other item, partly sticking out from beneath the cap. “You carry a pistol?”

  “Yes.”

  He gave no explanation of the weapon’s presence, sending a ripple of fear through her. She took breaths and willed apprehension away, assuring herself she was safe around the man. Her aunt would have warned her if he might cause a problem.

  He drove without speaking, his steering seeming on autopilot through the curvy roads while he glanced from one side of the road to the other as though inspecting each minute space.

  Erin noticed the deserted chicken coop near the banana trees beyond the garage, which was set apart from the house. Behind the house, she spied what appeared to be a flower garden, but he drove by too fast for her to see what types of flowers grew there. The road beyond made a slight dip and then curved up between groves of trees. In an opening just beyond stood a large barn with fences holding grazing cows. A few chickens scampered behind three large pigs.

  “Animals,” she said with delight, glancing back at the piglet nearing what must be its mother, disappointed when she couldn’t see them any longer. She glanced at Dane. “Do you ever work with them?”

  “Not anymore.” He spoke without looking at her. He kept his firm chin level as he now gazed forward, the cool aloofness of his demeanor annoying Erin. Had he become too much of a big shot now, as overseer of the plantation, to be concerned about pigs and cows? His detached manner kept speaking volumes to let her know he didn’t want to be bothered with bringing her out here. But Aunt Tilly wanted her here, and she had been this man’s boss, his only boss after Cliff died.

  New considerations made Erin uneasy. Maybe taking orders from a woman was what bothered him. After all, he was from the South, and southern men, especially, were known to expect their women to be meek.

  Well, she thought, straightening her back, he might not have really liked her aunt, and he certainly wouldn’t like her.

  Another deep arc in their path led them to a long gravel road. Lush, straight stalks filled the fields as far as the eye could see and made Erin gasp. “That’s sugar cane, isn’
t it?”

  Dane’s expression softened. “It’s sugar cane.”

  “Wow, it’s everywhere.” She peered out at tall green blades in countless dirt rows, determining that was where the truck’s dust came from. “I can’t imagine how we get the sugar in bags from those stalks.”

  To her surprise, Dane uttered a soft laugh. “It’s a long process.”

  “I guess you know how every step works.”

  Amusement flickered in the eyes meeting hers. “I do.”

  Erin relaxed during their drive through more of the same. Grassy roads stretched at the ends of sections where tire grooves rutted the grass. A few men worked in various places, driving large machines through rows of what seemed only dirt.

  “They’re planting,” Dane told Erin. He gave each man a wave, accompanied by a smile that created small dimples in his cheeks. He seemed much more pleasant, his demeanor gaining her notice.

  Erin looked away. “You could stand to smile more often,” she said. “The main emotion I’d seen you express is anger.”

  She heard nothing but the air conditioner. If this man grew angry too often, and if his anger wasn’t controlled, might he use that gun on the seat?

  She yanked her mind away from fearful thoughts. “I’m glad Aunt Tilly and Mom Bea became good friends. I’m sure my aunt stayed around the kitchen to chat while Mom Bea cooked for her and her husband.” She glanced at Dane. “Maybe Mom Bea was also their housekeeper?”

  He stared at her. A moment of quiet passed while his expression turned decisive. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

  Oh, great. Now maybe he’d carry on a conversation. What a nice change of pace. “Yes?” Erin said, eyes wide with expectation.

  “This is my plantation.”

  Chapter Six

  Erin swallowed. Dane was staring at her with the plane of his tanned cheeks firm, the set of his mouth grim.

  “You own this plantation?” she asked, arms jerking to her sides. Her left hand tapped against stiff leather, the holster holding his gun on the seat.

  Dane nodded.

  “Of course you do.” She yanked her hand back to her lap. This man was too hotheaded to argue with, especially with that pistol as his friend.

  His gaze swerved to the road ahead and then back at her. “I mean it. This plantation is mine.”

  Erin’s teeth held together while she forced her lips into a smile. She answered him with a nod, a big one.

  His eyes appeared harsh, locking with hers. His stare seemed to be making certain she got it.

  “Thanks for telling me.” She tried to keep her voice from quivering. Erin made her expression tell him she’d heard what he said and agreed with him.

  He stared at the road. “I don’t know how all that foolishness came up with Tilly and…” He shook his head.

  “Mom Bea seems like such a loveable person,” Erin said, the hole in her own life creating a crunch of pain in her heart. “I know why everybody calls her Mom. She makes you feel as if she could be your own mother.”

  Dane glanced at her, his expression quizzical. He faced forward and drove in silence.

  Erin watched tension gripping his face. She was not really afraid of this man. Faint lines outside his eyes creased his skin. Someone should be able to touch him there, to stroke the lines and send them away. To touch him even deeper.

  She cleared her throat and glanced out the window. This portion of the road held more bumps. She could feel each one of them beneath her hips, her awareness of the quiet man near her growing.

  She steered her thoughts in another direction, forcing away the pressure building inside her.

  So maybe he thought he owned this place. And quite possibly, he did. Maybe her aunt and her husband Cliff, whom Erin never had the pleasure to meet, had willed the plantation to him.

  “My mother marries for money and then divorces her husbands,” she said, not sure why she’d said it to him, except that the cab of the truck seemed too quiet. And thoughts of her aunt’s happy marriage contrasted so much with her mother’s experiences.

  A flicker of concern held in Dane’s gaze at her. He lowered the air condition and studied the fields.

  This overseer of her aunt’s land inspected everything on that land with a keen eye. He might be disillusioned by thinking he would inherit the whole place. Or maybe he would. And that would be fine with Erin. She certainly wouldn’t want the place. And her mother’s encouragement to find a man with a healthy bank account had only made Erin decide she’d want the opposite.

  She glanced from one side of the road to the other, seeing the same thing, and wondering what Dane searched for. Maybe he was wondering about a will. But Tilly’s brother and his family would probably have a share in this place, even if they hadn’t been too close to her these last few years.

  Warmth struck Erin’s eyes. She wiped them. She missed her aunt, missed her boisterous laughter and wayward acts.

  “You know Aunt Tilly loved to dance,” she said, gaining Dane’s attention. Erin couldn’t help but smile. “She especially liked line dances. One time she got up on a stage and did the Chicken Dance all by herself. She didn’t have many inhibitions. Everybody enjoyed her.”

  Dane’s expression softened. “I enjoyed knowing Tilly.”

  “Me too.” Erin sniffled and peered out, noticing only that they turned to another gravel road fringed by the same thing. This man might soon possess all of these fields and the big house. “I wouldn’t want to have much money.”

  She immediately wished she hadn’t said it. Maybe he didn’t have much of his own.

  He stared at her. Erin needed to hurry and say something else. “The flowers on her casket were beautiful.” The fragrant lilies had also been expensive. Maybe Mom Bea and other friends sent the spray. “Do you know who ordered them?”

  “I did.”

  “Oh.” She realized Dane had spent a lot of money choosing those flowers instead of others that would have cost much less. And if he couldn’t afford to even rent his own place, he had probably overextended his finances to send Tilly off in a grand manner.

  New admiration was sinking through Erin for the man whose presence filled the truck cab. She almost wanted him to become owner of the place.

  “You and Trevor aren’t too serious?”

  Erin had to stare to make certain he’d asked the question. Dane’s eyes stayed focused ahead and only shifted toward his left, away from her. He waved at a man driving a large machine.

  “Not quite,” she said. “But our relationship has been growing.”

  He gave her a glance.

  “We work together,” she said, needing more talk in this space. “He’s the producer, and I’m a fairly new writer for Shadowed Lives. Maybe you’ve seen our program.”

  “Don’t believe I have.”

  “It’s a soap opera.”

  He snickered. “My mother watches those.”

  “Aunt Tilly did, too. She loved our show.”

  Dane awarded Erin a smile. At the same moment a roar overhead made her jump. A small yellow plane swooped low and circled.

  “That must be a crop duster,” Erin said. “Aunt Tilly told me those planes sprayed for borers and other pests.”

  Dane nodded, looking pleased with her knowledge. “They also spray to make the cane ripen faster. Then we can start our harvest early.”

  He pulled to the side of the road, parked, and stepped out.

  Erin wasn’t sure what she should do. She opened her door and slid out, assailed by dusty air. She walked around the truck and found Dane inspecting the base of a cane stalk.

  Up close, Erin could see the stalk growing inside the blade-like leaves that were about the same height as the cane. She reached inside the leaves to where he was staring. Running her hand down the cane, she found the stalk stiff, with bumpy links at the ends of smooth sections. And the man near her exuding too much attraction.

  “But the planes can’t get everything.” He pointed to red streaks o
n the stalk she touched. “There’s a sign of borers.”

  She spied a tiny hole beyond the streaks. “That sounds like trouble.”

  “Right. But nothing we can’t deal with.”

  Not as bad as dealing with you, Dane decided.

  “Would you like to taste the cane?” he asked.

  “Sure. You can eat this?” The innocent delight of her expression made him laugh.

  He pulled his knife out of his toolbox and selected a healthy stalk. “In a few weeks, it’ll be much sweeter.” Whacking a chunk off, he sliced the hard outer shell and handed her the softer white portion from inside. “Chew on the pulp, but don’t swallow it.”

  Erin chewed, joy reaching her eyes. “This ought to be sold in stores. It’s great.”

  He chuckled. “I imagine you can buy most anything in all your big-city stores, but cane pulp would be difficult to preserve.” He stepped back up to the driver’s seat of the truck.

  She darted around and resumed her place, still too close to him. He wished she weren’t so near when she’d bent to stare at the borers. He wished her fair skin and her innocence weren’t so attractive. This wasn’t a woman he’d want to spend only a few hours with. But he could offer nothing more, to her or any other woman.

  At least now she understood that this plantation was his. After he finished showing her around, she would go home. Back to that guy who’d made her so unhappy on the phone.

  His peripheral vision let him see her looking tense. Her shoulders appeared rigid, her neck muscles tight. Was she thinking about that man and how she’d solve the troubles with him?

  Dane sure couldn’t help with that. Crop problems he could handle. But his marriage to Anna didn’t include problems, at least none they hadn’t quickly solved. And he didn’t need to spend time worrying about this woman and her male friend that was her boss and probably her boyfriend. After she went back to him later today, Dane could return to concerning himself with work. And tomorrow he would do the same thing.