11. Chapter 8
Chapter 8
" H ey," Jon grunted.
"Hey." Elijah's smile was warm but vanished again in an instant, the light going out of his face like a veritable eclipse. He looked away as he passed Jon in the rough wooden corridor between the pig and cow sections of the barn.
Jon's gut did a little twist. He was glad Elijah was the kind of person who knew how to leave well enough alone. Or so Jon told himself as he let himself in through the old door to the pig barn to check Elijah's work.
He appreciated that Elijah had the good sense not to bug him. Some people—a lot of people—couldn't read a room and insisted on being in your face yakking away when it was the last thing you wanted. But Jon had the feeling Elijah didn't miss much when it came to reading a room.
Jon liked solitude. Eddie and Samuel were busy enough with their own work that they didn't get in his hair. Samuel could be a bit motherly at times, especially around meals, but generally, they left him be. So, thank you , Elijah, for not being a pest, Jon thought, even as part of him wanted to go hunt the kid down and pry past those enigmatic eyes. It had been over a week, for god's sake. Ten days of Elijah working around the barn and not saying a word.
He didn't think Jon was that much of an ogre, did he?
After lunch, Jon motioned to Elijah as he came out of the farmhouse.
"I was gonna check on the pig trough," Elijah said, avoiding Jon's gaze. "Seein' as how the pigs are in the pasture today."
"Never mind that. We've got somethin' more important to do."
Elijah obediently followed as Jon walked to the big storage shed beside the garage and pulled open the double doors.
"What is all this?" Elijah looked around the shelves with puzzlement. He poked a finger at a three-foot hairy spider, a look of disgust on his face.
Jon supposed it was pretty weird, if you weren't used to it. "Halloween decorations. We need to get them set up today."
Elijah looked dubious.
Jon sighed. So much for handing off this task to the newbie, as he'd hoped. "Look, I'll show you where everything goes. Then…" he was going to say, then you can do it next year. But he doubted very much Elijah would be around next Halloween. God, he hoped not. "Then, uh, we'll be ready. You've heard of Halloween, right?"
Elijah nodded. "Seen stuff in the tourist shops. Pumpkins and such like. But this…." He picked up a large metal sign that had a cartoony witch on a broom. He politely refrained from finishing the thought.
Jon shrugged. "Eddie loves holidays. Besides, on Friday, we have an open house. People bring their kids to see the animals and get candy, so the farm needs to be decorated."
"Okay."
Jon showed Elijah how to attach the cart to the little John Deere tractor and started loading it. And he literally showed him, without saying a word. Because why talk? Last year, he'd spent time after the holiday arranging the decorations on the shelves to save time. Now he was able to quickly load up all the decorations for the front area of the farm.
"Get on," he said, climbing into the driver's seat. Elijah seemed surprised at the offer, but it would take forever if Jon had to wait for him to walk from place to place, and he had other things to do today. But it meant Elijah had to sit close because the seat was barely big enough for two. Jon ignored the firm press of his shoulder and thigh and manfully resisted the urge to turn his head and get a glimpse of that pale elfin face and big dark eyes from inches away.
Elijah was, Jon grudgingly admitted, attractive. If you liked cute and petite. Or if you, perchance, had a weakness for big brown eyes.
Which Jon did. To both traits. Or he had, once upon a time.
But Elijah was too young. Far too young. And sort of orphaned-waifish, which, if there wasn't a law against taking advantage of such a person, there ought to be. If Jon were even capable of feeling attraction again after Trish. Which he wasn't. He kept his gaze focused ahead.
He drove to the end of the driveway and pulled over. They attached sprays of corn stalks and black spiderwebs to the big white sign that said "Pig Bottom Farm" and a big spider to the mailbox. A few hay bales and pumpkins were set in place at the bottom of the sign. They got back on the tractor and headed up the drive. The front of the stone farmhouse got a large harvest wreath made with fake leaves in gold and orange, orange sparkly spirals, and black and orange glass ornaments. More massive spiders and orange bows were affixed to lampposts and more pumpkins were set in the recessed front doorway.
Then they had to return to the storage shed to load up more.
"What's the point of Halloween?" Elijah asked as they reloaded the cart.
"The point? What's the point of a sunset or an apple pie?" Jon said with a verbal shrug.
Elijah considered this. "We don't celebrate Halloween. There's a harvest get-together though. With lots of gut food."
Jon wasn't going to answer. He didn't suppose Elijah expected him to. But Elijah sounded so wistful, like he was missing home. And, well, Jon wasn't that much of a jerk. He was about to say, I guess Halloween is because sometimes we have to acknowledge the darkness. Life isn't all sweetness and sunshine, you know. But that was just morbid.
"It's fun for the kids," Jon said. "They can dress up and go trick-or-treatin'. Come on. I wanna get this done."
The patio was next. It was a broad flagstone slab about fifteen by ten right outside the sliding glass doors to the kitchen. They set out hay bales for seating, put the witch sign on the door, added a scarecrow on a stand by the BBQ grill along with yet more pumpkins. Jon had brought the small ladder, and he and Elijah strung white fairy lights between lampposts at either end of the patio and along hooks on the stone exterior wall.
They'd have paying guests for Halloween—always did. Eddie liked the patio to be ready for entertaining. But it was so frigging cold this year, it would probably go to waste. Still, Jon thought, his was not to reason why. He was paid either way.
He turned on the lights to test them. Elijah's face brightened with a smile as he looked up. "Pretty."
It was sweet. But he seemed to regret saying it immediately, turning away to clean up some loose hay and put it in the cart.
Jon felt a pang of remorse. He didn't want the kid to be afraid of him. And it was a shame that those smiles he glimpsed now and then were on Elijah's face so briefly. That smile lit up his eyes and turned his face into something a less cynical person would call beautiful.
Man. Whatever.
"Come on. We have more to set up at the barn."