Chapter 10
“I think we’re finally ready to start,” Wesley said as Birdie met him outside their cottage.
The roofing material was supposed to be delivered on Monday, but it had been delayed until Thursday. Now, it was bright and early on Friday morning, and they were ready to get started. They had gotten Miles, whom Pastor Garnet had recommended, to give them a hand. Pastor Garnet had also come, which hopefully would negate the need for Gramps to do too much work.
“That’s great. I was happy that we hadn’t had any more rain this week. Or you might have had two extra visitors in your cottage.”
“You know you’re welcome anytime,” he said, smiling down at Birdie and thinking about what a great time he had with her every afternoon this week. She’d shown up on the beach, he brought his writing and she brought hers, and they chatted back and forth, helping each other. He’d gotten three more chapters written, and he couldn’t be happier.
His agent wanted an editor to go over them before they were released on social media, so he might have some editing to do, but at least the chapters were written.
He had Birdie to thank.
“As much as you’ve had Gramps and me over to eat, we owe you more than we could ever repay.”
“Unless Gramps becomes a world-class cook and starts inviting us over there. ”
“Thanks for coming up with that idea,” Wesley said immediately. As soon as he’d heard that the materials were going to be delivered on Thursday, he had asked Birdie to see if her grandma would give cooking lessons to Gramps on Friday. It turned out that Gram had volunteered to teach a cooking class for the folks at the church, and since she had been declared the chairperson, she decided that the first meeting of the newly christened group would be Friday morning. Gramps didn’t want to miss it, so they were hoping that would keep him inside and not out trying to put a roof on.
“Not that he can’t do it,” Wesley said, and Birdie nodded.
“I get it. You just want to keep them safe at that age. Although, he gets around as well as anyone I’ve seen, except for Gram. No one can hold a candle to her.”
“I’d like to argue with you on that, because I don’t really like the idea that your family is winning, but... It’s true. Your grandma is quite a lady.”
“She sure is. Did I tell you everything she signed up for at church?”
“You told me that she signed you and me up to help take care of Vera and Dominic’s twins and four other children.”
That had been a shock. He hadn’t really thought the old lady was actually going to sign a complete stranger up for anything. But she had. It almost made him chuckle, because she had signed Birdie and him up to be there together. Which he found interesting. Was the old lady matchmaking? Or was she afraid that he wasn’t going to show and she wanted her granddaughter there for insurance that the job would actually get done?
He hadn’t quite been able to ask Birdie her opinion on it yet, but he planned to at some point.
“It was just you and me, and she did keep us to one thing, which was kind of surprising,”
He laughed, knowing that Birdie probably wasn’t exaggerating at all. “So what did she sign up for? A couple other things? Besides the cooking class.”
“She signed up for cooking class, to be a greeter, an usher, to mow the church lawn, which isn’t hard since Vera and Dominic take care of the cemetery, but still.”
“She signed up to mow the grass?” He shook his head. “Does the church even have grass?”
“She sure did. A little bit of grass, if you look around. It’s mostly weeds. And she actually already did it. She bought a pair of scissors at the store expressly for that purpose and went to the church and used her scissors to cut the grass. ”
“You’re kidding,” he said, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head in disbelief. That lady was something else.
“No. But she did what she signed up for.”
“Was that it?”
“No. She also signed up to visit the assisted living center, take meals to seven different shut-ins, do two ladies’ grocery shopping, clean the sanctuary on the first Sunday of every month, and scrub toilets after every service.”
“Is that all?”
“I might be forgetting a few things. She has it all written down. But the thing is, she’ll do it all, she won’t complain about it, she’ll love it, and, oh! She also is leading the new handbell choir, as director and head handbell player.”
“So she’s a musician?”
“She doesn’t read a note.”
“Wow.”
“I know, and she’s donating the handbells, so the church is going to have handbells, and they’re going to have a handbell choir, and Gram is going to lead it, and...”
“She should have been a general.”
“I know, right?” She laughed, shaking her head. “No fear.”
“I guess it’s not Gramps that I need to worry about coming out and getting on the roof. Seems to me like it’s your gram that we need to try to keep down.”
“Well, the cooking class is pulling double duty with him participating in it and her leading it. Hopefully it’ll keep both of them safe.”
“I should probably take some cooking classes, seriously. I can’t cook a lick. And I didn’t realize how terrible I was until I tried to do it myself. I have a—” He snapped his mouth shut.
They hadn’t talked about their personal lives at all. But there had been this bond that had been growing between them, a bond where both of them knew that both of them were trying to keep their identities on the down-low, to not talk about their actual lives, because they were both famous.
He hadn’t figured out exactly what Birdie was, but he had his suspicions.
She gave him a knowledgeable grin and then wagged her finger back and forth in front of his nose. “Oh. You almost did a boo-boo.” She laughed and then turned back to the cottage, calling over her shoulder, “We’ll be out with some water periodically. ”
“Thanks.”
She was right. He had almost started to talk about his life, because he felt so safe with Birdie. She seemed like such a down-to-earth, regular person. She made him feel that way too. Because she wasn’t always going on about his superstar status, or ogling his muscles, or acting like he hung the moon. That was the kind of treatment he was used to from most people, especially in his hometown where he was pretty well known.
But Raspberry Ridge was growing on him, and he definitely wouldn’t mind staying here in the off-season. He wasn’t even sure he would mind moving here. Especially if he had some incentive, like a beautiful neighbor who was also funny and sweet and helped him be a better version of himself and lived here year-round. He would definitely have to think about it at that point.
Sighing, he saw that Miles and Pastor Garnet had just pulled in, stopping between the cottages since there was no spot to park the pickup.
Miles brought a ladder, so he walked over to give them a hand carrying it over. He had thought about renting a scissor lift, but with how small the cottage was, they could handle it themselves. A scissor lift would be overkill. He really didn’t even think it would take the entire day to put the metal pieces on. Once they got them started, they went really fast, and the pastor had said Miles was an experienced roofer,
“Wesley, you got a beautiful day to put a roof on,” Pastor Garnet said as he came around the end of the truck.
“Somebody must have an in with the Being who controls the weather. He gave us a nice day.”
“I’ve been praying for a good day. Not too hot. This feels perfect.” He turned to the man who walked up beside him. “I want to introduce you to Miles. He’s one of our neighbors, lives just a little bit outside of Raspberry Ridge on the northern side. His wife and my wife will be here shortly.” Pastor Garnet paused, then said, “Actually they are pulling in now.”
Pastor Garnet’s eyes lit up as he looked toward his wife. He took a moment to watch as she drove and then said, “They’re going to participate in the cooking class and make sure that we have plenty of water and anything else that we need. If I need someone to run to town for screws or anything else, she’s going to do it for us.”
“That’s great. We have our own gofer. ”
“That’s right. And she has Miles’s wife with her. That’s Norma Jean.” He spoke as the lady stopped and got out of her car.
“Nice to meet you, Norma Jean.” He’d already met Mertie, the pastor’s wife, at church. She seemed like a nice lady and wholly suited to be a pastor’s wife. She had the decorum but also seemed to have a sense of humor and a compassion for people, as well as an ability to roll with things. Like showing up for cooking class and a roofing session on Friday morning.
The ladies went on into the house, and he and the pastor and Miles stood and chatted for a bit about their plan of attack. Miles had done the most roofs, although the pastor had helped with some and Wesley had done some with his gramps back in the day. He hadn’t put too many of the metal roofs on, because they weren’t really a thing back when he was doing it.
As he thought, the roof went on quickly, with the ladies bringing out an occasional drink, and eventually delicious smells wafted out of the cottage as well.
“I think the cooking class is a success,” Pastor Garnet said as they screwed on the last piece of metal.
They had a little bit of trim work to do, and the gutters needed to be attached, but the roof would not leak.
“As long as they get that out of the oven in time,” Wesley said, knowing from experience that leaving something in too long totally negated any type of talent one might have when one was cooking.
“Speaking from experience, I presume,” Miles said with a wink.
“I think you might have a little bit of that same experience,” Wesley said, just judging from his expression.
“I cooked a few meals on my own, and I kept my daughter and myself from starving, but that’s about all I can say about that.”
“Inability to cook seems to be at epidemic levels here in Raspberry Ridge, and here at the Independent Bible Church, we are doing our best to fight that terrible, insidious encroachment upon our dietary sensitivities.”
Pastor Garnet had used a fake radio voice starting out, but he kind of puttered out at the end, like he had run out of ideas. Which made it even funnier, and everyone was laughing as they climbed down from the roof.
“I really appreciate you guys giving me a hand with this. ”
“Not a problem. You just give me a call when the gutters come in, and I’ll be out to give you a hand putting them up.”
“I’ll do that,” he said, shaking Miles’s hand, and then the pastor’s as well, before they went to gather up a little bit of garbage that was lying around on the ground.
“Hey, guys, I was sent out here to see if you might be interested in stopping for lunch? I think it’s gonna be pretty good. Grandma was teaching everyone to make her chicken divan, and I’m pretty sure it turned out really, really good.” Birdie came out, an apron tied around her slender waist, a little flour on her nose.
“Does that take flour? Because I’m pretty sure I see something that resembles that substance on your face.”
“I think you’re trying to get me to tell you what we’re having for dessert,” she said, putting a hand on her hip and lifting a brow at him.
He liked her little sassy expression and the way she tossed her head.
“I might be.”
“Smells like apple pie to me,” Pastor Garnet said, walking by Wesley. “And if you’re not going in, I can eat yours and mine too.”
“Seems to me like the pastor is not used to physical labor and he worked himself up an appetite today,” Wesley said, slapping Pastor Garnet on the back and exchanging a grin with Miles.
“I’m not allowing any defamation of the pastor in my house,” Birdie said with a grin.
“See? She’s gonna make you be nice there, Wesley. Now that I’ve done all the work for you.”
“I did twice as much as you,” Wesley said, following him into the kitchen and laughing when Birdie rolled her eyes.
“When are you boys ever going to grow up?”
“I’m mature,” Miles said.
“He’s just trying to get seconds on the apple pie,” Wesley called over his shoulder.