Tuesday Teaser 9/24/19 Gina’s Wolf Part 52

The trials and tribulations with the air conditioner continue. It took two weeks, but they finally brought me a new… no, not a new air conditioner, but a different air conditioner. Two men installed it and left. I was thrilled. However, as a I learned the following day, it doesn’t work very well. It was 82 outside and 84 inside my apartment. I called the rental office again, and they promised to send someone out.

Still waiting. On the day when it was 88 degrees (I think that is about 31 C) I packed an overnight bag and headed out to find a hotel to stay in. I planned to send them the receipt and ask for repayment. I was half way down the stairs when I decided I was being stupid. A friend from church had offered to lend me the portable air conditioner she had bought a few years ago to cool the pavilion tent for her daughter’s wedding reception. It was time to accept the offer.

Elmer, the Portable Life Saver, has been doing a very nice job of maintaining my sanity. The weather has been cooling. Yesterday it was 79 and today was 74. Tomorrow will be 64. So *maybe* the hot weather is done for the year. But then again, 90 in October isn’t unheard of.

Anyway. Now that Elmer is on the job I’ve been able to write again. We are getting close to being done with Gina and Cole’s story. I have a LOT of re-writing to do, but there’s a lot I feel good about keeping too. So, here is the next snip in our story:

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Gina left her mom and Jay and walked down the mezzanine to the stairs, where she found she had to pause for a minute to steady her knees. She used the banister to support her weight as she went down one step at a time. A young man she didn’t know leapt up the stairs. He was young, perhaps her husband’s age, his jeans and cotton shirt showing off his long and lean build, with his nearly white blond hair in two braids reaching almost to his waist.

“Wait! Let me help you,” he said.

He may have meant to be polite, but it was an order, not a request. Clearly, he was related to her husband in some way even though he was blond and blue eyed. And he didn’t bother with giving her an arm to lean on. He picked her up and carried her downstairs, across the room, and into the private dining room off the kitchen, where he placed her solicitously into a chair.

“There.” He stood back and smiled at her. “We haven’t met. “I’m your cousin Taylor Stensrud.”

She had no idea how he fit into Cole’s complicated family tree, but she smiled back. “I’m Gina.”

“Colby’s mate.” He nodded. “Have you eaten?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Hey! Parker! Bring some breakfast for Miss Gina.”

A second man leaned into the dining room, saw her, and ducked back into the kitchen. He came back in only a few minutes with a plate heaped with more scrambled eggs and bacon than she could eat in a week and put it on the table in front of her. He was almost a carbon copy of Taylor. His blond hair was a few shades darker than Taylor’s pale blond. They must be brothers.

“Thank you,” she said.

The two brothers stood, just staring at her until she cleared her throat. “Fork?”

“Oh.” A vivid flush washed Parker’s lean cheeks. He pulled a  fork out of his back pocket. “Sorry. Here.”

They continued to stare at her while she ate. Soon two more young men joined them, and then a third, and Gina imagined an exotic animal in a zoo might feel like this. She waved her fork at them.

“Hey, guys? Is there something I can do for you?”

They shook their heads.

She put her fork down with considerably more force than needed. “Then why are you looking at me? It’s rude.”

The three newcomers blushed. It was clear even through their dark tans. Parker cleared his throat. “Someone hurt you,” he said. “And we’re pissed as hel…er, really angry about it.”

Taylor added, “No woman should be hurt like that, but especially not a woman who belongs to the Clan.”

The other three muttered agreement.

“Good grief.” Gina wondered if they had seen her mom yet and if they considered her a member of the Clan. “Are you all related to my husband?”

Yes, they all were related to Cole, and went into detailed descriptions of how their grandfathers were the brother or cousin or uncle of Taye’s dad. Gina lost track long before Rose appeared in the door.

“Boys,” she said severely, “quit bothering Gina. Mrs. Madison needs help at Mayor McGrath’s house.”

The five young men filed quickly out of the dining room, nodding at Gina. Rose sat down at the table. “Don’t let them bother you. How are you feeling?”

Gina took a bite of bacon. “Not too bad. A little tired now.”

“That’s to be expected.” She examined Gina’s face. “I bet that hurts.”

It did, but as long as she didn’t move too much it was bearable. “It’s okay. You know, I can’t eat all of this.”

Rose smiled at the still heaping plate. “One of those boys got it for you, I bet.”

“Parker. Or Taylor. I can’t remember which is which. But they aren’t boys. How old are they? Mid-twenties?”

Rose shrugged. “I suppose so. I just think of that whole generation as boys.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I feel so old.”

“You don’t look old.”

Rose giggled. “Thank you. I guess I’m pretty well preserved for a woman who was born almost ninety years ago.”

How strange, to think this woman sitting at the table with her had been born in the Times Before, when people traveled in airplanes and could speak to people hundreds  or even thousands of miles away. “What was it like in the Times Before?”

Rose shrugged again with a half-smile. “Different. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.”

“Do you miss it?”

“No. “  rose considered. “I miss some of the conveniences, and sometimes even now I miss my mom, but this is where my life is. My children and my mate are here. I wouldn’t go back without Sky, and Sky would have hated the Times Before.”

 Gina wondered if she would have liked living then. She couldn’t imagine it. Would Cole have liked it? “I wonder where Cole is? Has he come back from getting Ray?”

Rose’s eyes unfocused and her head tilted, as if she was listening to a distant noise. “No, not yet, but he will be here soon.”

Only a couple of minutes later Cole and Taye came into the dining room. Cole came immediately to her chair. He eyed her still heaping plate. “Eat,” he urged.

“I’ve already had enough. I’m stuffed. You want some?”

Carla came in. “Silly question.”

Cole sat down, took her fork and began shoveling in eggs. Taye put his arm around Carla and kissed the top of her head. Gina hoped that meant they had made up.

“How is Ray doing?” Carla asked. “Is Patia with him?”

Taye nodded. “We’ll bring her back after supper. Ray is tired, but doesn’t want to sleep when he can snuggle with his fiancée.”

Gina wasn’t sure if Taye approved of the snuggling or not. “Sky is at the mayor’s house,” he told Rose, who nodded. “At one o’clock this afternoon we are meeting with General Atwater to sign a treaty.”

“A treaty?” Carla’s voice was cautious. “Those didn’t work too well for your people back in the old days.”

Taye brushed a kiss over the top of her head. “This will be different. Atwater promises to never use what’s left of the Kansas-Missouri army to attack anyone ever again. We and Omaha promise to not take any more revenge.”

Cole growled.

“I know.” His dad put a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “After what they did to you and others, they are getting off lightly.”

“If you can call killing more than seventy-five percent of their army ‘lightly’,” Carla said with a touch of sarcasm. But the sarcasm was nearly drowned by satisfaction.

Gina swallowed. So many dead. How many of them had she known? Were the privates who had guarded the ladies’ tent among the deada? Guilt tried to prick her. She silently told it to go away and put the blame where it belonged: squarely at her stepfather’s feet.

“We could have killed them all,” Cole said harshly. He put the fork down, the plate empty now. “This Atwater knows it. He’ll march what’s left back to Kansas City.”

“Don’t envy him,” Taye said. “Telling the mothers that their sons are dead won’t be easy.”

Gina shuddered. “Aren’t there any wounded?”

“Sure. A few hundred. Some of those won’t live to see Kansas City.”

Some of them were just kids who joined the army because they were drafted. But that was Gerald Todd’s fault too. Cole leaned his weight against her arm.

“Don’t cry for them,” he said quietly. “We didn’t kill anyone who wasn’t wearing a uniform.”

She leaned into him. “I know. It’s war, and you didn’t start it.”

“No,” Taye agreed. “We finished it. Do you want to witness the treaty signing?”

Gina thought about it. “Is Cole going?”

Her husband nodded.

“Then, no. Cole can tell me all about it tonight.”

Cole kissed her lightly. “Every detail you want,” he promised.