Chapter 2
L enore Sawyer was having a week filled with shocking things.
First, that anyone had responded to her ad on the temporary job board.
She’d been using other sources to try to hire somebody, but they’d all fled once they found out about the low salary.
Lenore had finally decided to just be super honest about it and see what happened.
So Brandon’s call yesterday had taken her by surprise in the first place. Secondly, he was the first person who’d been able to find the homestead. She’d managed to get two other people to respond to ads on TwoCents, but neither one of them had been able to navigate their way here.
She knew she lived off-grid, but how hard was it to use your phone’s GPS to navigate to a pin? Obviously not that hard, as Brandon Rhinehart had done it.
Of course, Brandon Rhinehart looked to be the type of cowboy who could do anything, and that was exactly what Lenore needed.
Third, he hadn’t run screaming off the property yet. That alone was shocking.
And while Lenore had definitely been praying more than she ever had in the past two months since she’d run—literally—into Brandon in the hardware store, she doubled down now, begging God that he wouldn’t jump back in his truck and hightail it out of there.
She could barely believe that the only cowboy who’d managed to look past the low salary and get himself here was the handsome man she’d made a fool of herself with.
She’d counted on never seeing him again, and yet there he stood in the flesh, reaching down to pat Admiral.
Once Susie-Q saw he wasn’t a threat, she went over to greet him as well.
He doesn’t have much time , she reminded herself, and she stopped staring and stepped forward. “I’m Lenore Sawyer.”
“It’s great to meet you. Again,” Brandon said easily, a quick smile coming to his face.
Oh, so he was an optimist, and Lenore actually found herself returning the smile, because she definitely needed an upbeat outlook to get this place in shape.
He shook her hand and then pulled away, tucked his hands in his back pockets, and looked around.
“She’s in rough shape right now,” Lenore said, deciding that the honesty about the low salary had gotten him here, and perhaps if she just laid everything on the line, he would stay.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Brandon said. “You live here by yourself?”
“Yes,” Lenore said. “My momma and daddy passed away a little over a year ago.”
Brandon’s wandering eyes came back to hers and locked into place. “Oh, I’m real sorry to hear that,” he said. “My daddy’s getting a lot older, and I don’t know how much longer he’ll be with us.”
Lenore nodded, accepting his condolences. “I’m really good with gardening,” she said. “I have a decently-sized garden that I just harvested, and we’ve managed to build a greenhouse onto the side of the house that does okay in the winter.”
“That’s great,” Brandon said.
Lenore turned and faced more of the homestead. “But I can’t keep my chickens contained, no matter what I do, and I lose a couple every month to predators.”
Brandon nodded and fell into step beside her as she started away from the cabin. “What kind of predators you got?” he asked. “You talkin’ coyotes or hawks?”
“It’s the birds that get them,” she said. “But I have seen coyotes and foxes out here as well.”
He nodded and kept looking around. Lenore knew he was the kind of man who would catalog everything.
She tried not to feel like he was judging her, though he had to be.
She’d done her best, and she’d gotten to the point where she simply couldn’t do more.
She’d swallowed her pride and asked for help.
Thankfully, the usual humiliation she felt at having someone come to the homestead and see its condition only stayed for a moment.
“I have the space for turkeys,” she said. “And goats, which would give more eggs and more milk. And long term, I want to add a couple of beef cattle that I can raise each year for meat and a dairy cow for milk.”
“Mm hm.” Brandon said nothing, and she thought he probably hadn’t wanted to speak out loud so that his disbelief wouldn’t shine through. But Lenore didn’t know how to keep living if she didn’t have dreams.
And the idea that she could get the homestead to the point where it could support cattle and goats meant that it could support her—and that she wouldn’t lose it.
She’d written that down on a whiteboard in her kitchen, and she’d magneted pictures of beef cattle and dairy cows and goats, turkeys, chickens, and even ducks to it.
“I wouldn’t mind putting a pig on the property either,” she said. “I have twenty-five acres.”
They reached the barn, and Lenore didn’t have to open the door, because it hung sideways on its hinges. “This got broken last week,” she said. “When we had that terrible wind.”
“Sure,” Brandon said once again, keeping his answers short and clipped.
She led the way into the barn and found it easier to confess her lack of skills when she wasn’t looking directly at such a handsome man.
She told herself she would have trouble admitting this to anyone, not just Brandon.
But he’d shown up in jeans and a gray t-shirt with a hiking boot print on the front, the biceps far too tight around his muscles.
He wore a dark brown cowboy hat and boots, and she actually couldn’t wait to see him really dirty.
She tamed her thoughts and continued. “I’m not real great with a hammer and nails,” she said.
“So repairing structures and building new ones is difficult for me. I need help organizing the barn and making it more functional, so that I can bring the animals inside during storms. I need the chicken coop redone and fenced, so that the birds can’t get in through the top from overhead.
I want a turkey enclosure, goat pens, and a pasture properly fenced.
I may not be able to afford the animals for a while, but that would give me physical facilities for them, and… .”
She trailed off, so many things already having been spoken.
She turned to face him, fierce determination coming into her body and soul.
“And I can’t do it. I’ve tried and I’ve failed multiple times.
My daddy got hurt about a year before he died, and me and my momma did our best, but neither one of us could keep up with the physical demands of the homestead. ”
Brandon wore sympathy in his gaze too, but also something strong and fierce in the set of his jaw. “Yeah, my daddy got old real fast,” he said. “So I understand what that’s like.”
“Yeah, but you’re able to help,” she said. “Actually help.”
“I’ve got two brothers as well,” Brandon said.
Aha , Lenore thought. That’s why he doesn’t want to work his family ranch. She’d intended to ask him why he wanted this job, but now she didn’t have to.
“How good are you at building things?” she asked. “And with a chainsaw?”
“I can do all that for you, so it won’t be a problem.” He gave her a tight smile and added, “My brother is excellent at farm management. I can ask him what he would do out here to make things easy for you, getting animals in and out, storing feed and supplies.”
She nodded, not quite daring to hope that his offer to ask his brother meant that he would take the job.
She didn’t want to waste either of their time, and she turned back to the entrance of the barn as she asked, “Are you considering the job, or are you offering so you won’t feel guilty when you drive away? ”
“Wow, someone’s honest,” he said from behind her, a light laugh following. “I’ll join you there, Lenore—this place needs a lot of work.”
“Don’t I know it,” she grumbled, barely loud enough for herself to hear.
“I’m not sure the two of us can even get it where you want it in three months,” he said.
Lenore wasn’t sure of anything other than the fact that she couldn’t do this herself.
She only had enough money to pay him for three months, and then she’d have to hire herself out to other operations, so that she could feed herself and keep the land.
She’d toyed with that idea plenty already, because there were always places looking for good people.
“You said you had the capability for solar?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “My daddy had these big wheels from an old sprinkler system, and we got the solar panels for free when a neighbor threw in the towel and left their homestead.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Brandon said.
“Yes.” It had been nice, but the solar panels had been leaning up against the side of the barn for years now.
She led him outside and around the corner and indicated them.
“Daddy’s idea was to build a rotating panel with these that we could adjust to the angle of the sun throughout the year that would feed our generator and store power in batteries as well. ”
“You got the batteries?” he asked.
“Two or three is all.” She kept it to herself that eventually, if she could get this place more operational, she’d be able to afford more. “I’ve been charging my phone in my truck,” she said. “By driving to the truck stop and back.” She cleared her throat. “That’s where I shower too.”
She found herself drawn to him again, and their eyes met. “Full disclosure, there’s no running water here. I have to haul it all in for drinking, and it makes bathing a little bit difficult.”
“Shower at the truck stops only—what?” he asked. “Four-fifty?”
She nodded, her jaw tight because it was four-fifty to take a shower.
“How far is the truck stop?” he asked, though he had to have passed it on the way up.
“Thirty-five minutes,” she said. “I get all my potable water there as well, and they have a pretty decent little grocery section that I buy meat out of.” She turned away from the solar panels. “Your cabin is over here.”
She led him across a parched piece of land that could probably be brought back to life.
But Lenore poured all of her energy into the greenhouse and the garden, and she let the rest of the land do whatever it wanted.
The second cabin on the property sat nestled back in the trees, about fifty yards from the barn, and closer to where Lenore thought she might be able to drill for water.
She’d keep that to herself for now, because she didn’t even know if Brandon would agree to come work for her.
“I’m afraid it’s as neglected as a lot of the other parts of the homestead,” she said. “I lived here for a little bit, and the cabins are at least the two things that won’t fall down.”
Brandon said nothing, which actually said a whole lot. She could feel his doubt kicking up behind her as she walked up the front steps. His boots clunked against the solid wood as he joined her, and he actually stomped on the porch and said, “Huh, you might be right.”
“My grandfather was a master carpenter,” she said. “He built both of the cabins.”
“Not the barn?” he asked.
“The barn was here before my grandparents bought the homestead.” Lenore nodded to the door. “I’ll let you go in and explore by yourself. It’s two bedrooms, one bath. The idea was that a small family could live here, or two cowboys as hired help.”
Brandon took a couple of steps toward the door and then turned to face her. “Are you hiring two cowboys?”
“No,” she said. “I can only afford to hire one, and only for three months.” She’d made that very clear, hadn’t she?
“Good,” Brandon said. “I’m sick of sharing a cabin with someone.
” He muttered something else that Lenore didn’t quite catch as he turned and opened the cabin door.
It sailed open smoothly, like melting butter, and Lenore smiled at the truth she’d spoken.
Her grandfather had built the cabins to last, and even if they were the only two structures on the homestead that didn’t seem like they were one breath away from collapse, that made Lenore happy.
She sat down on the front step, glad when Susie-Q came up the steps to meet her.
Admiral stayed down at the bottom, where he lay in a patch of shade and simply kept watch.
She wasn’t sure how long Brandon stayed inside, taking in the mess that was the cabin, but when he returned, he settled onto the top step beside her, a sigh hissing out of his mouth.
“There’s more,” Lenore said without looking at him. “I’ve got piles of tires sitting around that need to be disposed of, and debris and other materials that we need to organize and perhaps use.”
“I’m sure,” Brandon said.
“You’ve probably seen enough to know whether you want to commit yourself to this purgatory or not.
” Lenore looked over to him and smiled, something hopeful raising the corners of her mouth.
“You don’t have to decide right now, but you’re the only cowboy who’s managed to even find the homestead… so if you want the job, it’s yours.”
He gave a couple of curt nods and then got to his feet with a groan. “I’ll think about it,” he said.
Lenore wanted to ask for more than that, but she actually couldn’t, so she joined him, and they walked in easy silence back to her house and his truck.
“Well, you’ve got my number.” She tried not to let her heart crash to the ground when all he did was grunt, but it did anyway.
Something hot and sizzling still passed between them, but Brandon didn’t seem to react to it at all.
Perhaps he couldn’t feel it. Maybe he had a girlfriend or even a wife.
Lenore’s gaze dropped to his left hand, but she didn’t find a ring.
Doesn’t mean anything , she told herself.
Lots of cowboys didn’t wear their wedding bands, as they worked so much with their hands and got dirty and banged up.
“I have your number,” he said now. “I’ll be in touch.” With that, he got in his truck, started up the engine, and backed away from the cabin.
Lenore stood there, all the stars in the heavens falling to the ground—and bringing the sky with them. He simply had to take the job.
Her desperation lifted on the air like a foul scent.
Then Brandon’s brake lights came on, and he brought his truck to an abrupt halt.
Lenore’s heart started to pound, but she didn’t dare hope for anything, and besides, Brandon didn’t get out of the truck and stride back to her and tell her he’d take the job.
She folded her arms, trying to keep her emotions stable, as she waited for what he would do next.