Commitment

Part 4

Over the week Regan did her best to meet with them for dinner, to sit together with them late in the evenings, as she tried to establish some sort of relationship with them. Loretta would usually chatter away, recounting various episodes with amazing clarity and impeccable comedic timing. Sam and Gray tended to sit listening quietly, though with Sam it seemed to be a companionable silence whereas with Gray it seemed to be a brooding silence.

Regan worked hard to include him in conversations and usually received one-word answers for her hard work. On her way home from work she had even started trying to think of questions that would force him to say more than a single word. Yet, despite her best efforts he seemed equally determined to find a way to only provide one-word answers. But then he was aided and abetted by his sister who seemed to jump in quickly to flesh out her brother's responses.

Despite his sombre outlook, it was obvious that Gray loved being on the farm. He loved working the land. In the short period of a fortnight he had taken the once run down dilapidated out-houses and transformed them. He liked working. And he worked hard. The buildings were now once again ready to handle livestock. The fact that he was surly and uncommunicative was vexing. But the fact he had put in some serious hard labour to make those outbuildings useable, was some measure of compensation.

He spoke to Regan when he had to, but more often than not she thought he deliberately avoided saying anything. And that was something she was not used to. Everyone liked Regan. She was easy to like.

Regan's childhood meant that the adult she had grown into had developed strategies to ensure that people liked her. Though, as a consequence, people often took advantage of her inbuilt mechanism to offer support no matter what the circumstance. Most people liked her. Most apart from Gray, it would seem.This man clearly did not like her, not one little bit. Even though she had put herself out for him and his family. He barely spoke to her, but his body language spoke volumes. He didn't like her. And he didn't mind her knowing that. Though he never actually put anything into words, his whole demeanour shouted out exactly what he thought about her. She'd watched the tiny muscle beat at his jaw line as waited her out, and she could see from the way he held himself that he was irritated. But that didn't stop Regan trying to befriend him. If anything, that made him even more surly, more reticent and more truculent. She just didn't understand why.

Regan bent over backwards to accommodate his family. Gray did his best not to roll his eyes at her obvious strategies. If Regan didn't talk to him, he rarely said anything to her. Most times he avoided her and just got on with the job. He liked what he was doing. Taking something and rebuilding it. The place was a shambles. But bit by bit he was making some headway in getting things sorted. It was fulfilling.

Regan took it upon herself to seek him out, and though she often felt as if she was simply talking to herself when she caught up with him, it never stopped her from having a monologue with him! She was never sure whether he appreciated her daily visits or whether he was simply biding his time. He probably though that given she was for all intents and purposes, his boss, that he should put up with her morning talks and with her constant presence. He rarely showed any emotion and spent most of his time getting on with the job, even when she was trying to talk to him. Most people would have considered him rude. She just considered him in need of companionship and company. So she sought him out, day after day, while he did his best not to speak to her at all.

It struck Gray as incredibly odd that the woman simply didn't get his signals! He would prefer it if she just left him to get on with the job. She unfortunately had other ideas.

She seemed to talk about the most inane things, he decided as he did his best to ignore her ramblings. Even now, instead of asking about the farm, or his plans for her soon to- be-acquired-herd, she simply reported on various events going on in Wellington. Why she thought he was even vaguely interested in anything she had to say was beyond him. He worked for her. The end. There was no need for this routine morning chatter, which was a complete waste of time as far as he was concerned. He saw no reason to contribute nor any reason to encourage her. Liar, a small voice nagged in the background. He had come to expect her every morning. In some odd way he found himself waiting for her to arrive. Knowing she'd show up, he found himself wondering about her topic of monologue for the morning. That had him smiling. The woman was tough! He told himself, given she tolerated his rudeness and never reacted in kind.