Chapter 10
Brodie had to make a quick run out to the farm to feed and water Pansy that morning, so he was the last one to arrive at the barn site.
He had expected to see Joe Clay’s flatbed trailer loaded with equipment, since he and his brothers had helped load it the evening before.
But he was surprised to see several other trucks lined up between the old house and the barn.
Remy and Shane were already on top of the roof, and Parker and Maverick were organizing things on the ground.
“Hey!” Knox waved. “Look who all showed up to help.”
“Noah would be here, but he has to work at the café,” Remy said. “He said he’ll take a break as soon as the lunch rush is done and bring us some burgers.”
“And Luna is going to bring over some cold tea and cookies that she baked last night,” Shane said.
“Well, thank you all,” Brodie called out so they could all hear.
“That’s what family does,” Parker said. “Some of us can’t be here every day, but we’ll all come around every chance we get.
I’ve done a fair amount of carpentry. I’ve been up on the roof, and we can probably throw some four-by-eight sheets of plywood on what’s already there and then lay the sheet metal roofing on top of that.
That will put it in the dry so we can work on the inside no matter what the weather is like. ”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Knox said with a nod.
“Then let’s get on with it,” Joe Clay said. “Man, I’m glad to have a job today. Mary Jane is working on a deadline, and Bernie is all wound up looking for another woman for Brodie.”
Brodie jogged over to help Shane bring a sheet of plywood out of the barn, where the folks from the lumberyard had unloaded supplies the evening before. “Bernie might as well save her energy. I’m not going out on any more blind dates,” he said.
“Bo and I will sell tickets to see the show when you tell her,” Maverick said in a serious tone.
“She fussed the whole time me and Bo were seeing each other. When we moved into the trailer together and started getting the old store in shape to sell musical instruments and teach piano lessons, she really threw a fit. It’s only been since y’all arrived on the scene that she took a step back and declared that she was using reverse psychology on us. So, thank you.”
“You are welcome, I guess,” Brodie said.
“She liked me from the beginning. I guess being a preacher helped,” Parker said.
“I’m the golden boy,” Remy chuckled. “Bernie did everything she could to get me and Ursula together.”
Brodie would bet dollars to cow patties that not a one of the brothers-in-law had a problem like he would have if he asked Audrey out on a date.
***
Audrey shoved the MP3 player down into the bibbed pocket of her faded jeans and got her earbuds situated.
She started her playlist and listened to the Pistol Annies sing “Hell on Heels” as she affixed the seeder to the back of her smallest tractor.
She crawled up into the seat of the tractor and set a cooler with several bottles of water on the seat beside her and a brown paper bag holding a couple of sandwiches and a bag of chips on the floor.
She settled into the seat, put the tractor in gear, and sang along with the songs on her playlist. Every song reminded her of Brodie—his walk, the way his eyes twinkled when they argued, but most of all the heat when she kissed him.
The sun was out and not a single cloud dotted the sky, but she could feel the sparks of an internal storm going on between her and Brodie when Miranda Lambert sang “Storms Never Last.” She was like a wild Texas tornado, and he was the worst hurricane possible.
Nothing but disaster could possibly survive when the two of them collided.
The south wind kicked up a few dirt devils in front of her.
She wondered if the song was right when the words said that bad times would pass with the wind.
“There’s my answer,” she whispered. “The wind never stops blowing in Texas, so why would I expect an easy relationship of any kind with Brodie Callahan? In this case, the storms will most likely last until we are both knocking on heaven’s door—just like they did with Uncle Ira and Grandpa.”
As if on cue, “Holes in the Floor of Heaven” was next on the playlist. The lyrics didn’t exactly fit her situation, but as she listened, she wondered if the Tucker brothers had settled their differences in the afterlife.
At noon she pulled off to the side of the field and slid off the seat for a fifteen-minute break. She rolled her neck to get the kinks out and did some stretches to relieve the stiff muscles in her body. Then she picked up the sack lunch and got a bottle of water from the cooler.
“Hey!” Walter called from the end of the field.
“What are you doing out here?” Audrey asked.
“Hettie has been trying to get a hold of you all morning. She said to tell you to come to the house. She wants you to drive her to the convenience store in town to get some milk. Seems she’s got a mind to make chocolate pies this afternoon,” Walter answered.
“Guess I had the music turned up too high to hear my phone,” Audrey said.
“I would have taken her, but you know how she likes to talk to whoever will listen when she gets out and about. We’d be gone for a couple of hours, and I get antsy waiting that long for her,” Walter said. “I’ll finish up this job while the crew works on the corn.”
Audrey handed the paper bag to Walter. “And besides, you’re tired of listening to her gripe about the Callahans and their fence. You might as well have my lunch. There’s water and tea in the cooler.”
“Thanks. I had a package of crackers and an apple at break time, but I wouldn’t want a couple of good sandwiches to go to waste,” he said, and sat down on the running board. “I hear the Callahans have started work on the old barn, so that should fuel Hettie’s temper.”
“Sweet Lord!” Audrey groaned. “We have to drive right past the barn to get to the store. Are you sure you don’t want to take a break and drive her to the store?”
“I’d rather face off with a hungry grizzly bear,” Walter laughed. “But I will come by the house on my way home and pick up a pie. She’s making an extra one for me. I’m sure she’s being nice to try to entice me to stay another year.”
“I’d make you a pie a week if you’d promise me another five years,” Audrey said. “I still have a lot to learn.”
Walter patted her on the shoulder. “Baby girl, you learn by doin’, and you were ready to take over six months after you arrived.”
She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “I’ll miss you so much.”
“You don’t need to worry about me leaving. Not until we see these sunflowers and the corn harvested, and we won’t even say the words on my last day. We’ll just say, ‘See you later,’ and I’ll walk away,” Walter told her. “Now get on home before Hettie gets mad at me for keeping you.”
Audrey took a step back. “We couldn’t have her mad, now could we? She has such a sweet, kind temperament that getting upset might give her a stroke.”
Walter laughed out loud and shooed her away with a flick of his bony wrist.
She started up her music again as she crossed the field.
She could visualize the video she’d seen on YouTube as Deana Carter sang “Strawberry Wine.” She remembered a time when she was about seventeen and had come to spend the summer on her grandpa’s farm.
A young man with dark hair and brown eyes had come along with the harvest crew, and she had gotten her first taste of love down by the river on a hot July night—just like the lyrics in the song said.
That was the story of her life—every relationship ended in a loss, whether it was a relative like her mother and father or a boyfriend who had stuck around for a while and then left like her first love had done.
“Why do I even want…” she said out loud as she left her boots by the door and went inside.
“Want what?” Hettie asked. “And why didn’t you answer your phone? I could’ve already had the pies made, and you could have had a piece for lunch if you’d come home and taken me to the store.”
Audrey pulled her earbuds out and wrapped the cord around the tiny machine. “Aunt Hettie, I’ve got a farm to run. I can’t drop everything and drive you to town on a whim. You know what it’s like to try to get the seed in the ground so we can have a harvest.”
“Don’t you preach at me about a harvest. Me and Amos ranched, and some years we had a rough time making the bank note,” Hettie snapped.
“I want to make chocolate pie, and someone drank all the milk. Besides, you inherited me with this farm. Frank made you promise you wouldn’t throw me in a nursing home and that I could live here as long as I was alive, so there, young lady.
You can take time to eat a bowl of soup before we go to the store.
I’ll get my sweater and put on my good shoes while you have lunch. ”
Audrey dipped up a bowl of soup and carried it to the table. “I would never put you in a nursing home.”
But if you knew how much I’ve thought of Brodie all morning, you might put me in a convent, Audrey thought.
She had only taken a couple of bites when Hettie came back, wearing her best shoes and sweater. She’d even put on her fancy black funeral hat.
“Did someone die?” Audrey asked.
“While I was waiting on you to finally come to the house, I heard that them Callahans have started working on the old barn this morning. I’m wearing the hat that I usually wear when a friend dies.”
“Who passed away?”
“Nobody yet, but it might bring me some pre-type of luck with them Callahans,” she said.
“Aunt Hettie!” Audrey almost choked on a mouthful of soup.
Hettie tipped up her chin. “A woman has to do what she can do. I haven’t got years to wait to get these two farms put back together. What did you do to your cousin Zelda, anyway, to make her so angry she wouldn’t sell to you?”