Chapter 3
Chapter Three
“You need to eat a few more bites,” Brendan told Jameson as he picked at his food.
“I’m full. Can I go play?” Jameson asked.
“You need to finish three more bites of your steak and three bites of potato.” It was usually like this. Jameson was in such a hurry to go play that he didn’t eat all that much, and yet he’d be hungry in an hour.
“How do you think I got so big and strong?” Lucas said to Jameson, like he was sharing a secret. “I always ate my steak and potatoes.” He winked, and Brendan turned away, pretending not to see or to laugh. Jameson, on the other hand, picked up his fork and began eating once more.
“Thank you,” he said softly as Jameson returned to his dinner.
“I need to go to my place and get my things. I don’t have all that much. But I thought I’d check things out before I left and then I’d come back in the morning. The place came furnished, such as it was, so what I have will fit in my truck.”
Brendan nodded slowly. “Sounds good. Is living light a decision you made? As you can tell, I try that sort of thing, but Jameson has other ideas. He takes after my father. Dad kept everything. It took months for Mom and me to clear out the clutter. The attic and basement were full of things my father thought he might use someday. Most of it ended up in a dumpster. But I did find some treasures.”
“Like what?” Lucas asked.
“There was a box in the basement of bridles and things. Inside were some old pieces. The leather had dried out and nearly fell apart, but the decorative pieces turned out to be silver. I reused them on a number of bridles and show pieces.” He sighed.
“Jenn took most of those, claiming that I had given them to her. There was a ton of glass and ceramics. He seemed to have an eye for it. Mom took some of it. I put the rest in the cabinet over there. It adds color, and Dad would be pleased that we are using it. Mostly there was just old junk that we had to pitch.”
“Living light is kind of a necessity, I guess. The place came with the job, and I stayed there. It wasn’t mine, and it didn’t seem like a good idea to go collecting a bunch of stuff that I was going to have to lug around with me when things changed. And they always change.”
Brendan couldn’t argue with that. “Every time I think things are going to settle down into a normal routine, something blows it up, and I’m running to try to get things back on track again.”
Lucas shrugged. “Mostly I just go with it.”
“Can I play now?” He had eaten almost everything.
Brendan nodded. “Go on.” Jameson climbed down and raced into the living room. “I wish I had his energy. He goes and goes, and then suddenly he’ll fall asleep. It’s like his tank is out of gas and needs refilling. Then once he’s recharged, he’s off again.”
“I’ve never spent much time around kids.
I was an only child, and my parents were older when they had me.
Mom didn’t think she could have kids. There was some sort of problem, and then when she was in her late thirties, I came along.
My cousins were all much older than me.” He shrugged.
“I think I’ve held a few babies over the years, but that’s about all. ”
“Do you ever think about having kids?” Brendan asked.
Lucas shook his head. “Not really. I couldn’t have my own without a whole bunch of hoop-jumping, so I guess it’s never been on my radar.
Not that I don’t like kids or anything….
” He tugged at the collar of his shirt, and Brendan lowered his gaze to his plate, pleased that Lucas was uncomfortable about something.
The guy seemed to put together, and Brendan always seemed to feel like he was going to come apart at any moment.
The horse farm supported him and Jameson, but just barely sometimes.
“Do you grow anything on the farm, like crops?”
Jameson ran in and placed a blob of blocks on the table. “That’s great, buddy.”
“It’s Gazelle,” he pronounced.
“You mean Gizelle.” He ruffled his son’s hair.
“She’s one of our goats. We have half a dozen.
I also have a dozen lambs that we raise for meat and four steers that I have for the same reason.
The farm itself is four hundred acres, most of it hayfields for the horses.
We’ve done the cutting for the year. Right now I keep the horses out in their paddocks as much as I can.
That way they eat on their own, and it preserves the hay stocks.
I might get a few more weeks of that, and then I’ll need to start taking them inside. ”
“Do you grow corn?”
“Not really. I feed the cattle any hay that isn’t good enough for the horses. My neighbor grows corn, and he has a couple horses for his daughters, so I keep him in hay all winter, and he supplements my cattle feed with some of his corn.”
“Sounds like you’re pretty self-sufficient,” Lucas said.
“Mom used to have a huge vegetable garden, and that was something she was really good at. Me, not so much.” He groaned and wiped his hands down his face. “I forgot all about the trees out front. They’re loaded with apples, and I need to figure out what to do with them.”
“What did your parents use them for?” Lucas asked.
“Mom and Dad used to make cider. They’d press the apples and put it in barrels to ferment.
I’m willing to bet that the equipment is still here.
But I just don’t have the time.” There were never enough hours in the day to do all the things that he wanted to get done, and doing something with the apples wasn’t a high priority.
He got up from the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher.
Lucas brought his over, and Brendan took care of them as well before tidying up the kitchen.
“Let me go check on things around the buildings, and then I’ll take off and see you in the morning.
” Lucas left through the back door. Brendan shamelessly watched him through the window, loving the view from behind.
Damn, the man was huge, but his waist was much smaller, and his backside was a thing to behold.
“Daddy, come play with me,” Jameson said, pulling him out of the imaginings that he shouldn’t be having. It didn’t matter if Lucas might be interesting or hot as all hell. He worked for him, and it was not worth getting involved with an employee, even one that set his heart to pounding.
“Okay.” He turned away from the window and followed Jameson into the living room, where Legos and train tracks were spread everywhere. Apparently, Jameson had decided to meld his wooden train set with the Legos. “What is it you want?”
“A train city,” Jameson explained before the two of them got to work.
“Morning, Mom,” Brendan said when he opened the front door. “Thanks for coming.” He had so much to do.
“Of course. Is Jameson still in bed?” It was a little before seven, but after all these years, his mom was still an early riser.
“Yes. He should be waking up soon. I have a new client coming in an hour, and I need to get that last stall looking decent.” He hadn’t rented it out because it needed work, but it was the chance for additional income.
“No problem. Maybe Jameson and I will pick apples. There are tons of them this year.” She patted his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, that wasn’t a dig at you. They’re having a fall festival in a few weeks at the Village, and I said I might have a real cider connection.
” She met his gaze. “They’d be willing to pay if it’s good.
So I thought I’d see if I could make some like we used to, and we could split the money. ”
He shook his head. “If you do the work, then you get the money.” It was that simple as far as he was concerned. “That’s what you and Dad did for me.”
“How about we put the money into Jameson’s college fund?” She took off her jacket and went right into the kitchen. “Go get your work done. I’ll call you when breakfast is ready.” A knock made her jump. “You expecting someone?”
“I am.”
She hurried to the door and opened it. “Hello. And you are?”
“I’m Lucas, and you must be Brendan’s mom.” Lucas smiled, and his mom slowly stepped back.
“Lucille, and yes.” She turned to him and then looked back to Lucas. “I think I’m going to need to make a lot more food than usual.” Mom went to the stove as Brendan joined Lucas outside.
“I got my things, but I can unload them later. Let me check that no one has been sneaking around, and then you can put me to work.”
“Oh, I got plenty for you to do,” Mom said through the back screen door. “He can help us with the apples later this morning.” She turned away, and Brendan sighed.
“Mom decided to make cider.”
“Cool. Let me get the lay of the land and then we can get things done.” Lucas jogged off to make his rounds, and Brendan hurried into the barn to begin making repairs to the stall.
What he found was both worse and better than he expected. The frame of the stall was good, but the other boards all needed to be replaced. Brendan measured and then cut the boards, stacking them inside the stall before cutting out the old ones and starting the replacement process.
“What do you need help with?” Lucas asked from outside.
“I need to pry up the top rail without damaging it. Then I can slip in these new boards and lock the top rail back into place.” He gently hammered it upward.
“Hold on,” Lucas told him, and grabbed a screwdriver. “Here’s the issue.” He tapped a wooden pin through and into the stall, followed by another one.
“I didn’t see those from my side.” Brendan thought that it had been nailed into place.
He lifted the top rail, then pulled out the old boards before inserting the new ones.
In a few minutes, they tapped the top rail into place, the boards sliding into the channel on the bottom.
Lucas replaced the pins, and the side wall was secure.
Then Brendan replaced the manger and trough liners before standing back.
“You know, this should be fixed too,” Lucas said as he examined the other wall. “Do you have the supplies?”