Chapter 15
B randon pulled onto the homestead, pure energy crackling through his bloodstream.
He wasn’t sure if it was because he was an hour late returning after being gone all day yesterday, or if it was because he was excited to be back, or if the charge in the air meant he really just wanted to see Lenore again.
Or if things simply felt different around the homestead because of their hard work on it these past couple of weeks.
He’d power-washed the barn on Tuesday morning, as the sun lit the day.
He’d sealed all the chinks between the logs and fixed any problems with the roof and wood.
Lenore had said she needed to go shower and that she would pick up the stain at the hardware store yesterday while Brandon was at the funeral, and once they had the wood re-stained, they’d finally get that project crossed off their list.
The barn indeed had good bones, with a solid cement footing, a large tack room and storage space, and three stalls for animals. The loft would hold enough hay to feed a cow and a horse through the winter, and Brandon lamented the fact that he might never get to see alfalfa stored there.
After all, he wouldn’t be here after February first.
“Yeah, but you’re dating Lenore,” he muttered to himself as her cabin came into view. It looked different now without the greenhouse on the north side. Brandon brought his truck to an easy stop as he gazed at the homestead.
Now, he compared it to what it had been the first time he’d come here—all of the leaning posts and dilapidated fencing had been cleared, the piles of debris moved to behind the barn, so Brandon knew what supplies he had at his disposal.
He’d started the chicken coop and worked on it on Tuesday and Wednesday, after showing Lenore how to plane the logs into flat pieces of lumber.
He’d used eight-foot trees of four-inch diameter trunks to lay the footprint for the chicken coop, and he’d stretched industrial animal wire around it, which would keep foxes, coyotes, and hawks away from the birds.
He’d started the house on the ground, but he’d put it up on the foundation once he’d finished it, and he’d asked Dawson and Duke to come help him with that installation tomorrow.
That meant he had to get the chicken coop completed today, and when he saw the gleaming pile of cut lumber, he knew that wouldn’t be a problem.
He smiled at Lenore’s house because she’d been here on the homestead by herself yesterday, and she’d clearly been working.
He eased his foot off the brake and the truck moved forward again, giving him a better view of the south side gardening area.
She’d hauled all of the cinder blocks around the house and brought over the tires using the skid steer, and Brandon grinned at the memory of her behind the controls, mastering machinery she’d never used before.
She’d arranged the tires in a fantastic wind break that went up to the middle of the windows that would seep heat into the greenhouse even at night.
Then she’d filled those with dirt too, and she’d put the cinderblock all around the greenhouse and tires and then filled them with dirt too.
She’d plant in each of those spaces too, and he could practically see the plants spilling out of previously unused tires and cinder blocks in his mind.
She’d selected logs from their pile of felled trees and moved them to the gardening area just before quitting on Wednesday. Brandon could see the things she’d worked on yesterday, as she now had five raised beds in the field, only a few steps from her front porch.
“Way to go, Lenny,” he said, a measure of pride filling him for some unknown reason.
He’d sketched this out for her and told her to do five-by-ten-foot beds with walking paths between them, but she was the one who’d done the work.
They’d talked through using two logs for the beds, as they didn’t need to be very high, and it looked like she still had one last one to finish down at the end.
He didn’t have any of the plastic sheeting or the wiring to make the covering either, and Brandon had to remind himself that every job got done one step at a time.
He’d texted Lenore several times yesterday and had not gotten a single response. Snakes coiled in his gut as he continued toward his cabin, where he quickly unloaded the groceries Zona had sent home with him, downed an energy drink, and headed back out to the homestead.
He’d no sooner closed his front door before he heard the rumbling engine of the skid steer.
He paused on the porch and watched Lenny expertly maneuver it with two more logs balanced on the front shelf.
She’d found bungee cords in the debris pile, and she’d used them to keep the logs from rolling off.
She started to buzz by his house, the skid steer coming to an abrupt halt right behind his truck. Then Lenore poked her head around the end of it. “You’re back.”
“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “I got a bunch of stuff from Arizona for you too.” He came down the stairs quickly and approached her.
He hadn’t kissed her after their date on Monday night, and he had no idea what propelled him forward now—probably the raw urge to hold her and tell her how much he had missed this place yesterday.
Oh, yeah, all of the electric energy in the air belonged to the charge between him and Lenore. His own feelings surprised him, but he swept Lenore into his arms, which left her stumbling for balance.
“Whoa there, cowboy,” she giggled as she looked up at him.
Brandon wasn’t one to ever take things too seriously, but he gazed at Lenore now without a smile in sight. “I missed you,” he said.
“It sounds like you’re just now realizing it.”
“I am,” he said. “And I really missed working here and being here.”
She reached up and fiddled with the collar on his shirt. “How was the funeral?”
“It was good,” he said. “It’s sad, but it’s also joyous, you know?”
Lenore nodded, but Brandon wasn’t sure if she understood. She kept her gaze focused on her fingers at his throat. “You’re not wearing the gauze, and this scratch looks pretty good.”
“You should have seen Zona fussing over me.” He chuckled. “It’s basically a surface wound.”
Lenore looked up at him and smiled, and an alarm bell went off in Brandon’s mind. “I just want you to—” he started, his mouth getting ahead of his thoughts.
She tilted her head slightly. “You want me to what?”
He’d released the beast now, and Brandon wasn’t sure how to stop it. “I just want you to know that I’m serious about us,” he said. “This isn’t some game or joke to me.”
Lenore’s eyes widened. “Okay,” she said. “I didn’t think it was.”
“Good.” Brandon swallowed, wanting to ask her out again.
“I know we don’t have a lot of time to be going to dinner and movies and all that,” he said.
“But maybe you could come over to my place tonight and I’ll make you dinner and we can watch a movie on my laptop.
” He raised his eyebrows. “What do you think?”
“I think you probably eat dinner about the time I go to bed,” Lenore said. “It’s ten-thirty in the morning already, cowboy.”
“Yeah, I was thinking like eight-thirty.” He grinned at her. “Which is not that late.” He leaned closer. “I’ll let you fall asleep on my couch if you want.”
She scoffed. “You’re not selling this.”
He laughed, glad when she joined in. “Well, think about it, okay?” He stepped back. “I have to get to work before my boss fires me.” He threw her one last flirtatious grin and stepped past her.
“That whole box in the back is for you,” he said over his shoulder.
“Load it on top with your logs there and skid-steer it over to your place.” He turned around and walked backward, grinning at her.
“Everyone will be here tomorrow at nine to help raise the chicken coop, and Zona is going to be here at ten with the birds.”
Lenore, once again, wore a look as if he’d just hit her with a two-by-four, but she nodded.
“Your garden area looks amazing, Lenny,” he said. “And it looks like you cut enough wood to start the mobile mini coops and your gardening shed.”
“Maybe,” Lenore said, having to yell the word so he could hear her. “I’m gonna finish the last raised bed, fill them with dirt, and then I’ll do some more measuring.”
“Can I come for lunch?” he called.
Lenore finally smiled. “Yeah, I’ll see you at lunch.”
With their reunion out of the way and a date on the horizon, Brandon turned around to walk forward, his goals for the day suddenly clear: finish the chicken coop, start staining the barn, and figure out a plan for his first kiss with Lenore.
“Are you going to stop for lunch?”
Brandon looked up from where he’d been painting the chicken coop a bright white. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been working since returning to the homestead, but in that moment, his stomach growled and he realized he’d finished the entire coop. So it had been a few hours.
Lenny held a sandwich in her hand, and she extended it toward him.
“I only have a little bit more to go,” he said.
“You need to take a break.” She glanced up into the sky. “Are you wearing sunscreen? And I don’t see any water out here.”
Brandon’s mouth definitely felt a little dry—but that could’ve been because of the sexy woman in front of him, demanding he take a break and come get a drink.
He got to his feet and stepped back to look at the chicken coop. “What do you think?”
“I think their house is probably nicer than mine.” Lenny grinned at him and gave the sandwich a little shake.
He took it and bit of a big piece. A groan pulled through his chest when he realized this was not peanut butter and honey, his usual fare.
“This is jam,” he said around the mouthful of bread and peanut butter and, yes, deliciously sweet raspberry jam.
“I made it,” Lenny said, a hint of pride in her voice.
“Did you grow the raspberries?”
She handed him a bottle of water, and he uncapped it, swallowed, and drank half of it.
“No,” she said. “Do you think we could grow raspberries here?”
“I think if you got a heat-tolerant variety, you could,” he said. “And we definitely need some sort of shade for them. A raised bed would probably work, but you’d need a lot of water.”
He didn’t say more, because the fury of Arizona would be unleashed on Lenny soon enough.
Zona had checked his neck wound several times, given him a new cream for it, and insisted he take a picture of it and send it to her that evening.
She never let him leave without a couple hundred dollars’ worth of food, and this time, she’d also sent a box of warm weather clothing from one of her sons, who had never worn it.
Brandon loved his sister-in-law, her fiery temper and tendency to be overbearing simply part of her charm. She took exceptional care of those around her, and Brandon counted himself lucky to be one of them.
Arizona was buying all twelve chickens she’d bring to the homestead tomorrow, and Brandon knew she wouldn’t go for the cheap pullets.
She’d show up with fully mature and ready-to-lay hens that would probably cost a couple hundred dollars each.
She’d also bring more food, and she told Brandon she planned to ask Lenore to come to Thanksgiving and about allowing her and Duke to pay to drill a well here on the homestead.
No matter what Brandon had told her, Zona would not be swayed in either offer, and all Brandon could do now was pray.
He finished his sandwich and his bottle of water and readjusted his hat on his head. “Thanks for bringing this out, Len.” He hooked his arm around her and pulled her close. “I just wanted to get this done. Then I’m gonna come look at your raised beds, and then we can start on the barn.”
“I think I got the beds figured out,” she said. “That last one just took a little bit more shaving than the others.”
“I’m sure you did.” He placed a kiss to her temple and looked at the coop. “This one will hold about twenty. I’ve got all the nesting boxes and perches inside. The mobile mini-coops will contain four to six, and I can get started on those next week.”
She had not brought up Conrad or building out the solar system since Monday, and Brandon didn’t want to poke the bear today either.
“This is amazing,” she said. “I never dreamed of having a coop like this.”
“You’ve done an amazing job on the beds and the greenhouse,” he said. “We’ve almost got three things done in only a couple of weeks.”
Lenny let out a contented sigh and nodded. “Yeah. It’s been amazing.” She looked up at him, the emotion plain in her eyes. “Thank you so much for coming to do this for me.”
“I’m not doing it for you,” he said, his voice lowering and turning husky. “I’m doing it with you.”
She smiled and curled her fingers around to the back of his head, brushing the long hair there. “I’m glad you’re back,” she whispered.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“And it’s not about the work.” She looked at him, open vulnerability on her face.
Brandon had always been able to read women exceptionally well, and without another word, he leaned down and touched his lips to Lenny’s.
He’d kissed plenty of women, but nothing had ever felt like this before. This softness, this sweetness, the way she melted into him, and how they fit together so well.
Everything male inside him came to life, and Brandon took her face in both of his hands and deepened the kiss knowing he never wanted to kiss anyone but Lenny for the rest of his life.