Chapter 12
B randon walked into church, already scanning for Conrad, Glory Rose, JJ, Clara Jean, or any other Walker. If it were him, and his mother or grandmother had passed away yesterday, he wouldn’t be sitting in church the next morning.
And the Walkers weren’t sitting in church. They were standing.
To Brandon, they had always been part of the fabric of Three Rivers.
They’d bought the ranch where several of them lived and worked, and the seven Walker Brothers had slowly come to town after Brandon had been born—he’d only been three or four, his dad said— but Brandon wasn’t surprised at all to see his mother and father waiting to give their condolences to Rhett and then Jeremiah.
Brandon reached JJ first, and he pulled the younger man into a hug. “I’m real sorry, brother.”
JJ held him tightly, gave him one strong clap on the back before he stepped away. “She was really old and lived a really good life,” he said.
Ruby sniffled at his side, and Brandon pulled her into an embrace too. He expressed his condolences to Clara Jean and Tate, Micah Walker and his wife Simone, Wyatt and his wife Marcy, and then the triplets—the three younger than Conrad and his family—before he made it to Conrad himself.
He stood with his daughter, Sarina, in his arms, and she cried. But Conrad didn’t. In fact, he wore a smile, though Brandon suspected it was a facade that hid something much sadder and much more depressing.
“Grams died,” Sari said.
Brandon took the little girl from her father. “Yeah, I heard, pumpkin. I’m so sorry.”
Tears ran down her face, and in the high-pitched voice of a little girl angel, she said, “It’s for the best. God needed her in heaven, and now she can be with Gramps.”
She hugged Brandon tight around the neck, which didn’t feel all that great, though the gauze protected his injury.
“Oh, baby doll, you’re not crying again, are you?” Glory Rose asked.
Brandon shifted the little girl to her, and she gave him a grateful smile and then turned with Sari to go sit down. Glory Rose had obviously been crying too, and Brandon decided that just because someone had lived a long, good life didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be missed on earth.
When he finally got a chance to hug Conrad, he said, “You let me know if you need anything. I’m there.”
“Thank you,” Conrad said. He smiled at Brandon as they separated. “I don’t see how that’s gonna happen, though. Aren’t you out at that homestead now?”
Brandon nodded and swallowed, thinking of Lenore and how he’d left things with her yesterday. When he’d realized he’d walked out without saying another word to her, he’d texted her about Penny Walker’s death.
It had taken her a while to respond, but he’d quickly packed a bag and left the homestead, staying in his cabin at Hidden Hills last night so he could be with family today and attend church.
He’d seen Lenore working in the greenhouse—the skid steer only a few feet from the entrance of it—when he’d driven by, and he figured she was just busy.
He’d asked for a rain check on dinner, and in that moment, standing there with Conrad and everyone else, waiting for the sermon to begin, he realized she’d never answered him.
“Yep, I’m out at the homestead now,” Brandon said. “It’s a lot of work, but I think we’re making good progress.”
“Did you get the electricity sorted out?” Conrad asked.
Brandon shook his head. “Called all around, but nothing. I’m gonna build that solar system.”
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” Conrad said. “Can I come help?”
“I’m not going to turn down help,” Brandon said with a grin. “But you really don’t need to.”
“The funeral is on Thursday,” Conrad said. “Then I’d love to have something to keep me busy.” He owned a ten-acre farm and at least thirty miniature donkeys, plus cared for his wife and daughter, so Brandon knew he had plenty to keep him busy.
“I’m hoping to get to it late next week,” Brandon said. “But in all honesty, it’ll probably be the week after that.”
He thought through the other projects he wanted to finish first, including the chicken coop, the barn, and Lenore’s gardening area. Then he would tackle solar and water.
“I thought Angel had a real interesting idea about putting in a five-thousand-gallon drum of water,” he said. “Then you guys wouldn’t be driving to town all the time.”
“It’s a good idea,” Brandon said. “I’m still scouting out a place for it as we do a few other things. And I haven’t given up on digging a well.”
He would go that route at any cost, because five-thousand-gallon drums for water weren’t free either.
Not even close. The difference would be thousands though, and if he could get Lenore to put in a better watering system, she’d only need to schedule the water truck to come to the homestead once a month.
“My aunt is getting up,” Glory Rose said as she hurried toward them. “Come sit down, Conrad.”
Brandon nodded to him, and he watched as Glory Rose led her husband to a pew with the triplets and his parents.
Brandon turned suddenly, feeling more alone than ever. He found a seat quickly, glad when Shiloh and April sat down beside him.
He gave Shiloh a side squeeze and patted April’s shoulder. “Hey, guys.”
“What happened to your neck?” April asked, and Brandon hurried to flip up the collar on his leather jacket.
“Nothing.”
“Has my mom seen that?” Shiloh asked.
Brandon glared at his nieces. “I’m fine.”
“She already has a list of things to talk to you about,” April said, a wicked smile curving her lips. “I can’t wait to see what she does when she sees your whole neck covered in gauze.”
Brandon couldn’t think of a response before Willa Glover said, “Welcome, my dear friends. There is no greater place to be than in the arms of the Lord.”
And Brandon couldn’t argue with that. He’d deal with Zona when he had to.
“All right,” he said, nodding to the chainsaw in Lenore’s hand. “You’re going to pull it just like I showed you, and when it’s going, you’re going to cut straight down—right there.”
He indicated the notch in the wood that he’d made with a hatchet.
Instead of going immediately into felling trees, he thought he might try Lenore on simply cutting a log into pieces. He’d demonstrated it, as well as how to start the chainsaw, and now it was her turn.
She looked at the log that he’d prepared, then at him, and then at her chainsaw. He watched as she breathed determination into her lungs, gripped the pull cord, and yanked. The saw acted like it wanted to start, but it didn’t.
“You throw it away from you,” he said. “Remember, throw it with your left hand. Pull with the right. Throw with the left, pull with the right.”
“Throw with the left, pull with the right,” she muttered. She did just that, and the chainsaw roared to life. She looked up, her eyes wide behind those safety glasses, and she was the most beautiful creature in the world in that moment.
She laughed—a sound Brandon had not heard her make before—and pure joy streamed from her as she held the buzzing saw. “I did it.”
“You sure did, sweetheart,” he called over the noise of the machine.
He nodded to the log. “Straight down. Remember, it’s like bowling. You gotta have a stiff wrist.”
She nodded, swallowed, and focused on the task at hand. She cut straight through the log, pausing as she got near the end.
“Let it fall,” he said. “Just let it fall. You don’t need to catch it.”
Another inch, and the log indeed fell.
Brandon clapped and said, “Way to go, Lenny. Okay, pick another section and cut it.”
She looked at him for a moment, and he said, “Look at the saw. When that thing’s on, you’re watching it. Right?”
“Right, right.” She focused on the saw again. She moved down a couple of feet, positioned the running chain, and started to cut.
With that one done, he said, “Red button.”
She pushed the red button, and the chainsaw settled into stillness and silence. The wind had stopped, and the whole world seemed to hold its breath.
“You’re incredible,” he said.
Lenore laughed again, and she lifted her chainsaw and shook it. “I cut up some wood!”
“All right,” he said, chuckling. “You think you’re ready to cut down a tree?”
She looked over to the woods. “I don’t know. You’re going to have to show me.”
Brandon grinned. He’d texted her yesterday during the first few minutes of church, and they had a date set up for that night. And lunch with Duke and Zona…Brandon pushed the whole afternoon out of his head. After all, he needed to focus with a chainsaw in his hands too.
Not only that, but because of their first date, they’d agreed to quit working at five-thirty, and he’d pick her up at her place at six-thirty. He still had several long hours before then, and he had no time to be stewing over Arizona and her mothering way.
He went with Lenore over to the edge of the trees. She came right to his side, and Brandon could admit that everything about her was attractive to him.
“We’re going to start with some of these small ones,” he said. “We’ll use them for the chicken coop, and we can add them to the wood pile too. They’re pretty little, so it’s not going to take much to get them down.”
He stepped over to the first tree, which had a trunk only about four inches in diameter. “Sometimes we can just strip the branches, cut a little notch, and push it over,” he said.
He yanked the cord on his chainsaw, and it came to life. He rolled the blade up the edge of the bark to cut the lower branches, where he then grabbed onto them and tossed them away from him.
That done, he silenced his saw again. “Then, what we’re going to do is we’re going to put a little notch on one side. This is the direction the tree is going to fall.”
He paused and looked at her. “Got it? You put the notch where you want the tree to fall.”
“Notch where I want the tree to fall,” she said. “So we want it to fall out into this open area, right?”
“Right,” Brandon said.
He side-stepped around the tree. “So I’m going to notch it on the front there, right where I was standing.” He powered up his chainsaw and cut down in at an angle. “This is the top cut, and we do it on an angle.”
He pulled the saw out and added, “Then you cut straight in to meet it. That’s the bottom cut, and it makes a notch.” He made the bottom cut, then straightened and toed the notch out with his boot. “See?”
Lenore nodded, and he moved around to the backside of the tree. “Come on over here, Lenny. You gotta be out of the way. The tree is going to fall that way.”
She scurried behind him. “Right.”
“With smaller trees, sometimes you can just push it with your foot,” he said. “Or we can start to cut right across from the horizontal part of the notch.”
He bent down and placed the teeth of the chainsaw against the trunk. He only had to go in about an inch before the tree leaned into the notch and started to tip.
“You keep cutting,” he said. “When it’s going for sure, you pull straight back.”
He pulled straight out and turned off his chainsaw. The tree landed with a thud on the ground in the exact direction he’d wanted it to go.
“These little ones aren’t that big of a deal,” he said. “You don’t flail around with your chainsaw, but if the tree’s coming at you, you gotta get out of the way.”
She nodded. “I can get out of the way.”
“All right. You want to try this little one?”
He nodded down two feet to the next tree with a four-inch diameter trunk. Lenore moved around to the front of it, and Brandon stood off to the side, out of the way.
“Top cut,” he said. “It’s about forty-five degrees. Then straight in for the bottom cut. Pull that notch out.”
Lenore fired up her machine, muttering to herself. She moved a lot slower than Brandon would have, but she got the top cut made, then the bottom cut, and she turned off the saw and wiggled the notch out with her hand. She held it and beamed at him.
He chuckled. “I like watching you learn new things,” he said.
She moved around to the back of the tree, easily making the cut that toppled it forward.
As the leaves rustled and settled to the ground, Lenore turned off her saw and said, “This is the best thing I’ve ever learned how to do.”
Brandon laughed. “I’m going to find you all over the homestead with a chainsaw now, aren’t I?”
“You bet you are,” she said with a grin.
“Two down,” he said with a sigh, despite her enthusiasm. “Only one hundred to go.” He faced the forest just as Lenore came to his side and bumped him with her hip.
“Not one hundred,” she said. “You only have to do fifty. And I’ll do the other fifty.”
With that, she moved to the next tree, pulled on her saw, and started back to work.
Brandon moved out of the way, ducking his head to hide whatever might show on his face.
He really liked watching Lenore work. It was rare to find someone with such a hardworking and determined spirit.
She wanted to learn, and she picked things up quickly.
He loved seeing her get joy and satisfaction from doing something she hadn’t done before.
They traded off, moving from tree to tree until they’d felled the front row. Then Brandon showed her how to get the limbs off and debark the trunks. He’d seal them with a weatherproofing coating before he built the chicken coop.
As he watched Lenore finish a log, pick it up, and put it in the pile that was ready to be used for building, he couldn’t help remembering what it felt like to hold her in his arms—if only for a brief few minutes.
If his phone hadn’t rung, he would have kissed her. Then he wondered if he’d be brave enough to do that on their date tonight.
He’d never kissed a woman on the first date before, but he’d also never lived next door to and worked alongside the woman he was going out on a first date with either.
So anything was possible.