Chapter 21
“Okay, y’all listen up,” Jack said on Monday morning when everyone had gathered in the rec hall.
Lottie let out a long sigh. She had been ready for what was coming next for more than a week, and she didn’t like it.
“Thomas tells me the framing crew will finish the last cabin by noon today,” Jack said. “When that’s done, I want all five of you to move down to number one this afternoon and help get all the finish work done this week, so Mandy and I can move into it the middle of next week.”
“Sure thing, Jack,” Eddie agreed with a nod.
“I appreciate all of you working so hard, from framers to you finish carpenters who only arrived today. If everyone can keep at it until Mother’s Day weekend, I believe all six of the cabins will be ready to move in.
That’s all. Have some doughnuts and coffee, and if this project is done a week early like I think it will be, everyone will get a nice bonus,” Jack said.
“So much for being ahead of schedule,” Lottie grumbled under her breath. If it wasn’t for leaving Knox, she would have much rather hooked up her trailer and been on her way to El Paso.
“Don’t mind her,” Gabe told Knox. “Jack saw to it that she learned to do everything from holding a nail gun to staining cabinets, but…”
“I’m standing right here,” she barked, “and I don’t hide the fact that I don’t like any of the business except but framing work.”
“Why?” Knox asked.
“Framing is fast, and I can see results on a daily basis. Finish work is tedious and slow and tests my patience,” she admitted. “But if it will help Aunt Mandy and my folks get moved in quicker, I’ll do it.”
“Without complaining?” Gabe asked.
“Nope. I’ll be grumpy until the last cabinet is installed and the final door is hung.” She turned her focus toward Knox. “Think you can live with that?”
“We’ll have to wait and see,” he answered. “We still have separate trailers that we can escape to each evening. Hopefully, the trip to New Iberia next weekend will sweeten your mood.”
“What is New Iberia?” Thomas asked.
“It’s a town in southern Louisiana. I’ve bought some land between Spanish Fort and Nocona, and I need to go to where the owner lives now to finalize the deal,” Knox answered.
“Lottie and I are flying down there for the weekend, but we’ll be back Sunday night to help finish up this project.
I would really like to be back at home for good on Mother’s Day. ”
“If we can get it done, that will give us a week to spend with our families before we head to El Paso. Has anyone heard from Walter?” Thomas headed back toward the equipment room with the other four of their team behind him.
“Not me,” Lottie answered.
Usually, the framers finished their job and left the site the next day for the next job.
They barely had time to drive from one place to another.
Forget about having a day or two for anything like visiting parents or a short vacation.
Only twice in the years she had worked for Jack had she been asked to help by doing the finish work, and she’d hoped it would never happen again.
“I’ll call him tonight,” Eddie said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants our team there as soon as we can make it.”
“We are the first responders, so to speak,” Gabe said.
“Nobody works until we get the framing done. And this job is a big one even for us. Ten two-story houses in an exclusive community with all kinds of rules. I understand that there will be monthly inspections to be sure they are up to code. It’s going to look like the Hamptons from the pictures I saw, and it will take at least a year to get everything ready. ”
“They better hire gardeners,” Thomas said as he headed across the lawns toward the last cabin, “and have sprinkling systems. El Paso’s temperature is definitely not like the Hamptons’.”
Lottie remembered how sweltering hot the weather had been when she visited her brother in that part of Texas the summer before.
Forget about sitting outside in the evenings.
The sunsets might have been beautiful and peaceful if a person could withstand the swarms of mosquitoes.
Add that to sweating gallons of water in the sweltering heat, and she swore she would only come back to that place in the winter.
She figured she was going to have to eat her words as she helped Knox put together the last four trusses for the roof. She bit back a groan when she thought about all those weeks without Knox. If she was honest, she would even miss Cheeto’s crowing in the mornings.
* * *
Having grown up with only brothers, Knox was not an expert on women.
He had learned a little about sisters when he moved to Spanish Fort with Brodie and Tripp, but even that much wouldn’t fill up a small coffee cup.
He was wise enough to read Lottie’s expression and know that the best thing to do that morning was to let her work out her anger on her own.
Legally, he had been hired to help frame out six cabins, so if he wanted, he could load up his kitten and chicken and go home at noon that day.
But Jack had been good to him in the past, and he couldn’t treat him that shabbily.
Besides, even if she was moody, he wanted to spend the next couple of weeks with Lottie.
When all six cabins were completed, he might not see her until fall—and that seemed like an eternity.
They finished at noon with hardly any words between them except for the few times someone needed a nail gun passed to them.
They took their equipment back to the rec hall and went to their own trailers for a noon break.
Knox was in the process of making two thick sandwiches when Lottie opened the door just a crack and peeked inside.
“Am I welcome?” she asked.
“Of course. I made lunch for both of us in hopes you would be over your snit,” Knox replied, and motioned for her to take a seat.
“I owe you an apology,” she said. “After that amazing weekend, and last night in my trailer, you don’t deserve the cold treatment I’ve given you all day, so I’m sorry.
There’s no excuse, but I was hoping we would be done today and could spend a few days at your place before I had to head to El Paso.
But evidently, we’ll be helping out all the way until Mother’s Day weekend. ”
He set the plate of sandwiches on the table and got two bottles of sweet tea from the refrigerator. “That will give you time to spend with your folks in the evenings before they go on their cruise.”
She took a bag of potato chips from the cabinet on the way across the floor.
“Yes, it will, and I should not have been such a whiny baby this morning. Mama called when I got to my trailer. She was so excited that she and Daddy would have some time here before they leave. That way, they won’t have to put everything in storage.
I felt super guilty for only thinking about what I wanted. ”
He sat down beside her. “We do have the weekend in Louisiana to look forward to all week when we are putting in door facings and baseboards.”
“And laying floor tile and doing the finish work on the cabinets. The place where Uncle Jack gets them custom made does not do stain and varnish. Are you any good with a spray gun?”
“I’m not too shabby,” he answered.
“Do you like that kind of work?”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “I love anything that means I get to work with my hands.”
She giggled for the first time that day. “I’ll remember that treatment in the bathtub when I’m helping get Uncle Jack’s cabin ready for them to move into in a week.”
“Oh, really?” Knox asked. “Will the visions in your head make you breathless?”
“Probably so, but the thoughts of my reward at the end of each day in one of our trailers will really make me pant,” she answered.
“Save some of that for the afterglow,” he teased.
She slid over closer to him and nibbled on his earlobe. “There’s always plenty in storage for that. Want a sample before we go back to work?”
“I would never turn that down,” he said, “but first we better finish our lunch, or we’ll run out of energy before five o’clock.”
“Then eat fast,” she said.
After lunch, when they all met in front of the first cabin, Eddie grinned and asked, “What happened to you over the past hour?”
“What makes you think anything happened to me?” Lottie fired back.
“You don’t look like you could chew up two-by-fours and spit out toothpicks,” Gabe answered.
“I had lunch, played with a couple of cats, and worked out my frustrations. Are y’all ready to go to work, or do you want to stand out here and analyze me all afternoon?
If you want to play like therapists instead of carpenters, then we’ll have a go at it.
But remember, what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.
If you pick my brain, then I get to do the same with each of you. ”
“Including Knox?” Thomas grinned.
Knox threw up both hands in a defensive gesture. “Not me. There’s no way I’d attempt to try to figure out what’s in a woman’s mind. I’d rather try to outswim a hungry alligator.”