Chapter 10
Brody
‘You already started?’ I ask, coming out of the bathroom. Looking down the hall, I see Kate sitting at the kitchen counter with my laptop.
She looks over at me, at my chest. I just took a shower and am only wearing a towel.
I smile a little, knowing she’s checking me out.
She did it last night too when she came in my room to bring me my phone.
I caught her looking at me and she got all embarrassed, her cheeks turning red.
I don’t care if she looks. I was looking at her, too.
There’s nothing wrong with being attracted to someone, and it’s not like she has a boyfriend.
She may have been engaged yesterday morning, but she’s single now.
‘I started a new spreadsheet,’ she says, looking back at the laptop. ‘I hope that’s okay. I thought it’d be better if we start from scratch.’
‘Yeah, that’s fine,’ I tell her. ‘I’m gonna get dressed. I’ll be out in a minute. ’
I go in my room and put on jeans and a henley and top it with my warmest flannel shirt. I have to layer up if I’m going to be shoveling snow all day.
‘Let me see what you got,’ I say, going up to Kate and sitting beside her.
She turns the laptop screen so I can see it.
‘I’ve laid it out like this.’ She points to the screen.
‘Customer names go here, then what services they signed up for, how long their contract is, how much they owe you, when their bill is due, if they’ve paid you, and then all their contact information.
I can add more fields, but I wanted to talk to you before I finish it. ’
‘What you’ve got is good. I just don’t have all that information. And some people don’t have contracts. They just call when they need me.’
Kate turns to me. ‘You might want to consider making everyone sign a contract, just to make sure you get paid. I know you said your customers are friends, but sometimes friends forget to pay you.’
‘Yeah, I got it,’ I say, not wanting a lecture.
I get enough lectures from Nick. And Jason. Jason’s always nagging me about how I run my business. I get why he does it. He invested in this house, and if I’m not making money from my business, Jason’s on the hook for the mortgage.
‘Oh, I was looking at your website,’ Kate says. ‘I came up with some changes you could make.’
‘What’s wrong with my website?’
‘It doesn’t say much.’ She points to the laptop where she has my website pulled up. ‘You don’t tell people about your services and there’s no information about pricing. ’
‘They can call me about that. We’ll talk through what they need and come up with a plan.’
‘That might work if they know you, but it’s less likely for new customers. They’ll go to your website to get information and if it’s not there, they’ll go somewhere else. Anyway, it’s just an idea.’ She moves the laptop in front of her and clicks back to the spreadsheet.
I scoot closer to her. Her hair’s still wet from the shower and she doesn’t have makeup on, but she still looks really hot.
She looks better than she did when I found her on the road, all done up for her wedding.
I don’t mind a girl wearing makeup, but I don’t like when it’s caked on so thick you can’t tell what she really looks like.
Kate notices me sitting closer and sits up straighter, clearing her throat as she shoves up of the sleeves of my sweatshirt.
It’s so huge on her it covers her hands so she has to keep pushing up the sleeves.
The pants are huge on her too, but at least they have a drawstring so they stay up when she walks.
I’m glad she finally changed out of my shirt.
Seeing her in it was causing my thoughts to go to places they shouldn’t.
Last night in bed I kept thinking about her wearing it, unbuttoned in front with nothing underneath.
I’m only guessing she had nothing under it, but it seems plausible since she only has one pair of panties and a germaphobe like her isn’t going to rewear them without washing them first. Shit, now I’m thinking about her without panties and getting turned on again.
‘Brody?’ Kate looks at me.
‘Yeah, looks good,’ I say, realizing I didn’t hear anything she just said .
‘What looks good?’ she says, laughing a little. ‘I asked you what other columns to add.’
‘I’m good with what you got,’ I say, but I have no idea what’s on the screen. It just looks like a bunch of lines and some numbers.
‘Let me show you how it works.’
Kate spends the next ten minutes talking me through it. I’m trying to listen, but it’s so damn boring. I want to be out doing the work, not putting numbers into a spreadsheet. If I could afford it, I’d hire someone to do this.
‘Are we good?’ I ask when she finishes talking. ‘I need to go see if I can get the plow to work.’
‘I thought it was broken.’
‘I’m hoping it was just too cold yesterday and something froze.’ I get up. ‘I’m going to go try to start it up.’ I head to the laundry room to get my coat.
‘Can I help?’ Kate asks, appearing next to me.
I smile at her, trying not to laugh at how she looks in my gym pants and hoodie. ‘I’m good. You can just watch TV or whatever.’
‘Oh, okay,’ she says, sounding disappointed.
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask, putting my coat on.
‘Nothing.’ She shakes her head and smiles. ‘Good luck fixing it.’
I stare at her, knowing she wants something but is too afraid to ask. She’s not someone who’s hard to figure out. Her face tells a lot, and right now it’s telling me she’s disappointed and maybe a little sad.
‘Just tell me.’
She looks up at me. ‘Tell you what? ’
‘What it is you want.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘When I said I was going to work on the plow, you looked disappointed.’
She looks at me like she’s surprised or confused, or maybe both. ‘I um .?.?. I just thought maybe we could do something. But I understand that you need to work. I’ll just watch TV.’
‘What did you want to do?’
She shrugs. ‘I don’t know. Maybe go out in the snow again? It’s so beautiful, the way it’s coming down with those big fluffy flakes.’
I smile at her. ‘You’re saying you want to go play in the snow?’
She smiles back. ‘Not play. Just go out in it. I’ve never done that. Well, not unless I had to. But last night, being out in the snow was actually fun. I was thinking maybe we could do it again, you know, just for something to do.’
I’m surprised she wants to do this. When I met her yesterday she was so damn uptight and worried about everything, and a day later, she’s loosened up, doesn’t care how she looks, and wants to go out in the snow.
‘Let me see if I can get the plow going, then we’ll figure it out from there.’
She goes to the living room while I head out to the garage. I open the garage door and see a drift of snow that’s at least three feet tall. The weather guy predicted a foot of snow, but there’s got to be at least 16–18 inches by now. And it’s not slowing down.
As I’m getting in the truck, my phone rings. I see Jason’s name and almost don’t answer .
It rings again and I pick it up. ‘Hey, what’s going on?’
‘I was going to ask you the same thing. Why haven’t you been answering my calls?’
‘I’ve been busy,’ I tell him, but the truth is I’m avoiding him, knowing he’s going to ask if I’ve paid my bills. ‘I don’t know if Nick told you but the plow isn’t working.
‘Yeah, I heard. So what are you going to do?’
‘I’m working on it now. If I can’t get it going, I’ll have to wait for the part to come in. It’s supposed to be here on Friday.’
‘Friday? It’s Sunday, and it’s a freaking blizzard. You could be making a fortune right now.’
‘Yeah, I know, but there’s nothing I can do. If it’s broken, it’s broken. I can’t get the part around here. It’s a special order.’
Jason sighs. ‘This is why you should’ve had an extra part on hand.’
‘I didn’t think I’d need it. Shit like this almost never happens.’
‘Shit breaks all the time. Think of all the times Dad was fixing the equipment for the orchard. You have to assume shit will break. You can’t be taking risks. Your whole business depends on the plow working.’
‘Like I don’t know this? You sound just like Nick, but at least he didn’t yell at me like you are. He just told me to order the part, which I did.’
‘Nick doesn’t have money in this.’
‘Don’t start with that shit. When you agreed to help me, you said you’d stay out of it and let me run things my way.’
‘If things were going well, yeah, but they’re not. You’re in over your head and if you don’t do something soon, we’ll both be broke. That house was supposed to be sold months ago. I get that you’re behind on the renovations, but I can’t keep putting money into it.’
I wish I’d never taken his money. The last thing I wanted was for my brother to use up all his savings to help me and then I lose it all.
This was supposed to be an investment, for both of us.
But instead, Jason’s been helping me pay the bills for a house that isn’t even close to being ready to sell.
‘What do you want me to say?’ I get out of the truck and walk around, too angry and frustrated to sit still.
‘I can’t do anything. I can go out there with a shovel but it’ll take forever.
I’ll only be able to get a few driveways done.
And it’s still snowing. Anything I do now will just be covered again in an hour. ’
‘Are customers calling you, wondering where you are?’
‘No. I sent out an email letting them know I wouldn’t be out until the snow stops. I didn’t mention the plow. I wanted to work on it more before I did.’
‘I’m surprised no one’s complaining.’
‘Mr. Roberson did, but you know how he is. He complains about everything.’
‘If you don’t get that part until Friday, Mr. Roberson won’t be the only one complaining. People are going to call up another company, probably Santi’s. He hired more people this year and added a couple trucks.’
‘Santi’s charges extra to come to Haydon Falls.’
‘It doesn’t matter. People aren’t going to wait until Friday to leave their house. They’ll want their driveway plowed before that.’