Читать книгу Loving the Country Boy - Mia Ross - Страница 13
ОглавлениеObviously, these men were completely helpless.
Appalled by the minimal basic skills the sawmill’s crew of carpenters seemed to possess, Tess grumbled to herself while she made two pots of long-overdue coffee for the commercial system in the lobby. The trail of donut crumbs leading back toward the saw area told her they’d at least managed to feed themselves, so she got a broom from the supply closet and swept the mess out the front door and off the porch. Boyd and Daisy probably took care of that on a normal day, she thought as she went around opening windows to let in some of the crisp fall air.
But this wasn’t a normal day, and without Chelsea here to get everything organized for her, Tess had a lot of catching up to do. Squaring her shoulders, she strode into the office and took stock. There was no point in sugarcoating it, she realized. The place was a complete wreck. Paperwork, receipts and invoices were strewn across the desk, and a light dusting of animal fur covered pretty much everything. Even though she wasn’t allergic, just pawing through the layers got her sneezing, and she changed tracks. Clean first, then organize.
With the benefit of some perspective, she recognized that was what she should have done yesterday. The problem was she’d been too overwhelmed by her unfamiliar surroundings to be sensible about—well, anything. Her unhelpful deer-in-the-headlights attitude was history, and she promised herself she wasn’t leaving today until everything was processed and neatly tucked in its proper place.
Chelsea’s baby wasn’t due for another eight weeks, and her condition was more delicate than Tess had understood until this morning. Now that she had an inkling of how the rest of the pregnancy might go, it was obvious to her that she’d have to be lighter on her feet than she was accustomed to. In the interest of beginning her new, more independent life, she’d have to learn how to cope when things went awry. It wasn’t just about her anymore, and her family was counting on her to pitch in and keep the business running as smoothly as Chelsea had.
She’d never been in charge of anything before, but there was no one else to take on that responsibility. Feeling way out of her depth, she pushed her doubts away and finished tidying up the waiting area. One task down, she thought morosely as she reluctantly trudged into the office, a hundred more to go.
When Scott poked his head in the door, she snarled, “What?”
Her cousin backed up, his brown eyes narrowing in response to her mood. “Just wanted to let you know we’re firing up the saws. It’s gonna get pretty loud out here.”
“Thanks for the warning,” she replied in a slightly less cranky tone. “I’m sorry for biting your head off. It’s just—”
“This place is a disaster zone, and you don’t know what to tackle first,” he filled in with an understanding smile. “Mostly, you’re worried about Chelsea and the baby. We all are.”
Tess had grown accustomed to managing life’s unexpected curves on her own, and she found it comforting to know she no longer had to hide her feelings and soldier on, no matter what. “Thanks for understanding.” Looking around, she muttered, “Those headphones must be somewhere.”
Grinning, Scott reached around the door frame and plucked them from a hook on the wall. Exactly where Chelsea had left them, of course.
“Thanks again,” she said, feeling slightly ridiculous. Fortunately, he didn’t mention it, which she really appreciated.
“Sure. I’ll come let you know when it’s safe to take them off.”
With that, he sauntered back toward the production floor, sliding the heavy door shut behind him. Built of solid oak, it blocked some of the sound but did nothing to blunt the thumping vibrations that shook the mill house while the equipment was operating at full speed. Tess focused her attention on the bookkeeping and after a while, anything that wasn’t on the computer screen faded into the background. She was sorting through the online orders that had come in when she noticed the screen on her cell phone blinking with a call.
When she saw it was Paul, she ripped off her headphones and hit Answer all in one motion. “Hello?”
“Hey, Tess,” he answered in an exhausted voice. “How’re things going out there?”
“Oh, fine.” Suddenly, she realized everything was ominously quiet, and the floorboards were no longer shuddering beneath her shoes. With the backlog of orders lined up to be filled, that couldn’t be good, but she decided not to mention it to Paul. “I assume you’re calling with news.”
“Yeah. We’re home now, but the doctor doesn’t like the looks of Chelsea’s blood pressure or the baby’s heartbeat. She’s on bed rest for the duration, starting now.”
An argument was brewing out on the shop floor, and Tess cupped her hand around the phone to keep it from reaching her worried cousin. “You sound wrung out yourself, so stay home today. We can handle this place for a day without you.”
“We? It sounds like you’re trying to take over my business.”
“Trust me, if I was going to do that, it would be at a nice little boutique where I don’t have to worry about losing my hearing,” she retorted in her sauciest tone. “Your precious sawmill is safe from me.”
“Good to know.” She heard a muffled back and forth, then he came back on the line. “Chelsea wanted me to remind you the printer’s been repaired and is waiting for you at the office supply store in town. Unless you want to write everything down by hand for the crew, you’ll need it.”
Tess swallowed a groan of frustration. Apparently, this was going to be one of those days. “Right. Now go get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Actually, if you can make do without me, I’d like to take Thursday and Friday off, too. Chelsea can’t go up and down the stairs for the next few weeks, so I have to hurry up and finish the extra bathroom I’ve been working on to get everything she needs on the ground floor.”
“Not a problem,” Tess assured him, hoping she came across as more confident than she actually felt. “Chelsea and the baby come first. Take all the time you need.”
“We’re not going anywhere, so call if you get stuck on something.”
“Will do.”
After she hung up, she summoned every ounce of her patience and went to see what the fuss in the back room was about. The sliding door was even heavier than it looked, and it took a determined push for her to get it open. Once she did, she wished she hadn’t.
It looked like several pieces of machinery had exploded at once, spewing oil over everything from the equipment to the hewn lumber that had been stacked according to size in the center of the room. Scott and Jason hadn’t escaped the deluge, and they were standing by the long saw run, arms folded stubbornly while they glowered at each other and debated what to do. As their argument escalated into an all-out shouting match, she shook her head in disgust.
Boys. No matter how old they got, they could still be the dumbest creatures on the planet. Since they didn’t seem to understand that yelling wouldn’t solve anything, she strode in to impose some kind of order. She waited a few seconds for them to notice her then realized they’d probably go on like this until one of them either conceded or ran out of air. Being Barretts, neither of those was likely to happen anytime soon.
Filling her lungs, she yelled, “Hey!” That didn’t make an impression, so she tried again. “Shut up!”
Nothing. Exasperated beyond belief, she recalled the advice her grandmother had given her earlier and went for broke. “If you two morons don’t cut it out, I’m calling Gram.”
That one got through, and her ears rang in the sudden quiet. Shaking her head to clear them, she went on. “Will you please tell me what has you guys at each other’s throats?”
They started in together, and she held up her hands. “One at a time. Start with explaining to me why the saws aren’t running.”
They glared at each other, but fortunately, Jason backed down. “You’re older. You go first.”
“As you can see,” Scott began with a dismissive motion toward the archaic equipment, “everything went haywire. Paul’s the only one who knows how to fix this relic, so I think we should call him.”
“And I don’t,” Jason chimed in, his jaw set with determination. “He needs to be with Chelsea right now, not worrying about this place.”
“You’re both right.” While she relayed her brief conversation with their big brother, she watched as their obstinate expressions gave way to worry. “Isn’t there someone else on the crew who can help with this?”
“Hank and Joe are gone all week for their annual fishing trip,” Scott replied. “We’ve got part-timers starting up next week, but we can’t run any more raw material without the saws. If we can’t figure out how to get them running, we’ll have to close down till one of those three comes back.”
Tess was hardly a manufacturing expert, but she understood that losing even a day or two of production this time of year would be a major setback for any business that was so reliant on the holidays for their annual revenue. Judging by the spreadsheets she’d been working on, profit margins at the sawmill were razor-thin as it was. If they lost any ground at all, the company her family had fought so hard to resurrect might very well end up back in bankruptcy.
It wasn’t only the Barretts who relied on sales of the custom furniture for their income, she knew. While the small staff of carpenters and assemblers worked only part-time, for many of them the extra money they earned made the difference between living comfortably and barely scraping by.
“You’re the college girl,” Jason teased her with a grin. “Any ideas?”
“No, I—” Inspiration struck, and she snapped her fingers. “What about Heath?”
“Mechanical genius,” Scott agreed, “but he’s got a job, remember?”
“Maybe I can talk Fred into giving him the afternoon off. You know, as a favor to us.”
“I’m married to his niece,” Jason pointed out. “So I’m practically family. I can go into town right now and ask him.”
His older brother vetoed that idea with a firm shake of his head. “You’ll stop by to have lunch with Amy, and I won’t see you the rest of the day. I can’t run this place by myself, y’know.”
Considering how they’d been going at it just a few minutes ago, Tess expected that to start another argument. To her relief, Jason conceded with a sheepish grin.
“Okay, you got me there,” he admitted. “Guess that means it’s up to you, Tess. Meantime, we’ll go outside and get some fresh lumber ready to go.”
In the time she’d spent getting to know the Southern branch of her family, she’d learned that was the Barrett spirit. They took their best run at Plan A, but if that didn’t work, they regrouped and tried something else. While she headed back to the office, it occurred to her that she must have inherited some of that natural resilience, too. If she could find a way to tap into it, maybe it would help her reboot her life. Solving this particular problem might not be a huge deal to some people, but for her it was definitely a step in the right direction.
It occurred to her that none of them had questioned whether or not Heath would agree to lend a hand with the cranky old machinery. Where she was from, that kind of assumption could get you in all kinds of trouble, but it seemed that here people pitched in when and where they could. She only hoped that once he diagnosed the problem, Heath didn’t discover he’d taken on more than he bargained for.
She was about to dial the number for Morgan’s Garage when another thought materialized. This wasn’t Los Angeles, it was Barrett’s Mill. Around here, folks probably didn’t ask for this kind of special consideration via email or over the phone. Basically, Fred would be giving up an afternoon of Heath’s valuable time, reassigning those jobs so his employee could go help someone else. If she wanted to do it right, she’d go in person.
She had to pick up the printer anyway, she reasoned as she got her purse and went out to the truck. While she was in town, she’d get some lunch for all of them. With the way things had gone today, it would be nice to eat something more than sandwiches out of paper bags.
Driving toward the main road, she glanced at the mill in the rearview mirror and allowed herself a little smile. She’d been here only a couple of days, but already she was actively involved in the family business. After being consumed by the fateful twists and turns she’d been trying to navigate, she’d finally taken off the blinders to find that her life held much more potential than she’d realized.
And it felt wonderful.
Even though it was late morning now, she had no trouble finding a parking spot near Mill Office Supply. Just another difference between the crowded streets she was used to and this charming village. No circling the block waiting for someone to pull out of a space barely long enough to accommodate a compact car. When she got back to LA, she’d have to remember to brush up on her parallel parking. She didn’t doubt that after a two-month break, she’d be sorely out of practice.
Inside the shop, she found the clerk perched on top of a ladder, arranging binders and composition books on one of the higher shelves. “Good morning.”
“Hang on just a sec,” she replied, taking the last few notebooks out of the box before dropping it to the floor. Brushing off her hands, she descended the steps and gave Tess a bright, helpful smile. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m Tess Barrett, and I—”
“Oh, I know who you are.” Laughing, the friendly young woman offered a hand. “Paige Donaldson. I’ve heard all about you from my grandma Lila. She and your gram are like this.” She twined her index and middle fingers together like a pretzel. “How are you liking our little town so far?”
“It’s beautiful,” Tess replied with sincere enthusiasm. In the short time she’d been here, her father’s hometown had really grown on her. “And the people are so friendly.”
“That’s us,” Paige agreed with a bright smile. “Beautiful and friendly. I’d imagine you’re here to pick up that printer Chelsea dropped off last week. How’s she doing, by the way?”
Unsure of how much to say, Tess opted to keep her response vague. “The doctor’s keeping a close eye on her and the baby.”
“Well, next time you see her, tell her we’re all keeping her, Paul and the baby in our prayers. And give her a hug from me.”
Again with the praying. She’d encountered more religious people in the past few days than she had her entire life, and she couldn’t help wondering if maybe they had the right idea, after all. Tabling the possibility for another time, Tess thanked her and wandered through the aisles while she waited. She picked up a few odds and ends for the office and met Paige back at the counter.
“These holiday brochures were ready early, so that saves you a trip,” the clerk announced cheerfully, patting a box that sported a label from a print shop located in nearby Cambridge.
“Great. I’ll take a look at them when I get back.”
They settled the bill and Paige helped her lug everything outside. When she got a look at Tess’s wheels, she laughed. “This truck’s like a hot potato in your family, isn’t it?”
“I guess it is,” she agreed. “As long as Heath can keep it running, anyway.”
“He’s notorious around here. There’s not a girl within fifty miles who could walk past that man and not take a second look.”
Did he look back? Tess wondered before she could stop herself. They barely knew each other, so it was absolutely none of her business who he admired or ignored. She wasn’t normally the jealous type, so her reaction made no sense whatsoever. Then again, so little in her life made sense these days, she’d kind of gotten used to it.
“Is that right?” she asked to be polite.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Paige added hastily. “He’s a great guy, but we’re more like cousins than anything. But if he ever took it into his head to change that, he wouldn’t have to ask me twice.”
She punctuated her confession with a wink, and Tess wasn’t sure how to respond. Finally, she settled for a nod and a quick good-bye before heading for the other side of town.
Before she knew it, she was making the turn into Morgan’s Garage. She didn’t find its owner in his office, but in one of the large bays, wrestling lug nuts from the tire of a delivery truck whose bright color made it look like a huge lemon on wheels. When Fred caught sight of her, he rose to his feet, wiping his hands on a rag he took from his back pocket. The motion reminded her of Heath, and Tess firmly brought her mind back to her very important mission.
“Mornin’, Tess.” Well-lined from what she assumed was a lifetime spent outside, Fred’s weathered cheeks crinkled with a smile. “It’s not often we get treated to such a pretty view in here. How’re things with you?”
Since coming to Barrett’s Mill, she’d been asked that more times than she could count. She was gradually getting accustomed to it, and she had a smile ready for him. “Aside from the time difference, I’m doing well. How about you?”
“Can’t complain, and if I did nobody’d listen, anyway.” With a good-natured chortle, he continued. “Olivia’s car needs more work than we thought at first. Parts are on their way, but it’ll be out of commission another day or two.”
“I’ll tell her later, but that’s not why I’m here.”
While she outlined her reason for coming, he gave her a frown that said he could easily relate to what they were going through. “Of course you can have him. That mill’s real important to folks around here, so we need to get it up and running. I’ll go fetch him for you on one condition.”
In her experience, conditions weren’t good for the one asking the favor. But the boys were in a jam, and beyond dragging Paul away from his ailing wife, she didn’t see any other options. Knowing how devoted he was to the family business, she suspected he’d agree to just about anything to get the benefit of Heath’s expertise, so she braced herself for Fred’s terms. “Okay.”
“If this turns out to be over Heath’s head, give me a call.”
“I’m sorry?” she said, totally confused.
“My granddaddy—God rest him—worked his whole career as a sawyer at that mill, raised six kids and had a good life because of the Barretts. Come to think of it, if you need me, I’ll be happy to come out and lend a hand myself.”
The sweet, generous offer just about floored her, and it took all she had not to gape at him. She’d never been around people who stepped up when things got tough for their neighbors, simply because it was the right thing to do. Even before his niece married Jason, Fred had felt a kinship with her family and was willing to put aside his own obligations to help them out. Beyond tradition, it was something she’d seen so rarely, she almost didn’t recognize it.
Honor.
Humbled and gratified all at once, she beamed at him. Suspecting he wouldn’t take kindly to any feminine gushing, she kept it simple. “Thank you, Fred. I’ll let Scott and Jason know.”
With a brisk nod, he headed out the large front door and around the side of the building. While she waited, she went out to the mill truck and took one of the freshly printed brochures from the box Paige had given her. Leafing through the matte pages, she admired the way it was laid out with more pictures than text. It gave the impression that you were strolling through the display area of the mill yourself, rather than just reading about it.
Boyd and Daisy were featured in several of the pictures, and while the folksy approach was nice enough, she wondered if there was a better way to showcase the company’s offerings. The current material might speak to buyers who lived in the country, but many city dwellers might consider it hokey and not look past the presentation to appreciate the superior quality of the handcrafted furniture.
“Nice, huh?”
Heath’s voice descended on her from nowhere, and she jerked back in surprise, turning her ankle in the process. Her high heel buckled underneath her, and she instinctively started windmilling, desperately grasping for something to keep her from falling.
Just when she was convinced she was doomed to hit the pavement, two strong arms reached out and rescued her. Heath guided her to her feet as if she didn’t weigh a thing, circling his arms around her to keep her steady.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
It was the second time she’d heard that from him in as many days, and it was getting old. With her heart trying to slam its way out of her chest, she took a couple of deep breaths to regain her usual composure. Just when she thought she had a grip on her nerves, she looked up.
A pair of warm blue eyes gazed back at her, filled with an emotion she couldn’t begin to define. Not concern, but not humor, either, it was a look she hadn’t yet seen from him. Or from anyone else, for that matter.
Get a grip, Tess, she scolded herself impatiently. Say something. “Yes.”
Her answer was more clipped than she’d intended it to be, and she regretted the dimming effect it had on him. Releasing her, he took a step back. A big one.
“Fred said you wanted to talk to me.”
For a few moments she couldn’t recall why. Then it came to her, and she felt her cheeks warming with embarrassment. She was acting like a teenager with a crush on the school’s star running back, she realized, disgusted by her own foolishness.
While she explained why she’d crashed his day, he listened carefully, nodding and frowning in all the right places. Avery had never paid such close attention to anything she’d said, and she had to admit that despite the serious nature of her errand, she liked being treated with so much respect.
When she was finished, he gave her a bewildered look. “I can come out and take a look, but I don’t know much about nineteenth-century gadgets. It could take me a while.”
“While you get your tools together, I’ll head over to The Whistlestop to pick up lunch for the boys. I can add an order for you, if you want.”
