Chapter 24
It was Saturday afternoon by the time Lauren was able to check the barn’s new paint job. The crew had finished yesterday while
she’d been stranded at the trapper’s cabin with Jonah.
Jonah.
She didn’t even want to think about him or the flicker of desperation in his eyes when she’d stood in his doorway yelling
at him. She had every right to be upset. She never should’ve learned about her job like that. He should’ve told her after
the accident when it became clear she didn’t remember.
No sense dwelling on it now though. It would only make the hours till Olivia’s call drag out. She pushed all thoughts of Jonah
and the job away.
Graham trotted ahead on the trail, tail wagging. Then he turned and waited for her, wearing that doggy smile she was becoming
familiar with.
“Are you excited to see the barn? Huh? It’s just so exciting, isn’t it?”
Moments later as they broke through the clearing, Lauren smiled too. The barn was the perfect shade of rustic red, and the
white trim set off the windows and new barn doors in just the way she’d imagined.
A crew would be out to reshingle the roof next week, and then the new windows would be installed. The barn would be dried in by the end of October just as she’d hoped. The kitchen and bathrooms would be framed by then, just in time for electrical and plumbing.
She walked the perimeter of the building, inspecting the work. The crew had done a terrific job. She’d leave a nice review
online. When she reached the barn doors again, she slid them open. They glided along the track without a single squawk.
Graham bounded inside the dank space and she followed. Nothing new in here, but she couldn’t resist the urge to view it again,
to make certain she hadn’t forgotten any component of the project. There would be no time for mistakes if it was going to
be finished before her departure in December.
If she would even be here that long. If Olivia offered the job to the other woman, would there be any point in staying?
She shut off the negative thought and pored over every square foot of the space, making notes on her phone as she went. Questions
for the flooring crew, for the electrician and plumber, the heating and cooling people. There was a lot of work to do in just
two months.
Her gaze snagged on Graham who stood near the wall on the far side of the barn. He sniffed the ground, tail tucked low. “What’s
wrong, buddy?”
The instant the words were out of her mouth, she realized. That was where she’d fallen. She joined Graham, but he continued
his incessant sniffing. A dark spot stained the wood. Blood. She envisioned her body lying there on the floor, sprawled and
still, as Jonah had described.
Her focus moved to the ladder propped again on the wall near the loft. It stretched upward about twenty feet, and for the
first time she envisioned herself falling. She could almost hear the thud of her body hitting the wood floor. The thunk of
her head striking the ground.
She winced. A chill swept down her arms. She was glad she couldn’t remember the accident. Imagining it was bad enough.
As if he was reliving the accident, too, Graham whimpered. She reached down and comforted him. It could’ve been so much worse. She could’ve died. It happened sometimes—a hard knock to the head like that. She could’ve died at the age of twenty-six with her whole life ahead of her.
Thank You, God.
She’d been so busy mourning the decisions she’d made over the summer, she hadn’t stopped once to be thankful she’d survived
that fall. It could’ve all ended on September seventh. She never would’ve gotten the chance to realize her career goals. Would’ve
never had the chance to marry or become a mother.
She would’ve missed the opportunity to have any kind of closure with her own mother, who Lauren assumed was still out there
somewhere living her own life. Would Lauren have regretted that? As always happened when she thought of her mother, the boulder
returned, weighting her chest.