Chapter Seventeen
Taking the hives on the road was a royal pain.
Sealing them up so the bees could breathe but not escape, muscling them onto the truck, securing them so they wouldn’t go sailing off when he hit a bump.
You had to do it right or you could piss off a lot of bees.
So Glenn was glad Lilah was coming along to help.
He hadn’t even asked, and here she was wheeling the dolly out of the shed.
“You want it in the truck?” She already had her bee jacket on; he hadn’t had to remind her about that either.
“Yup. No reason to wheel them across the yard.” He took the dolly from her and hefted it into the truck bed.
The dolly wasn’t regulation bee equipment, just a cart like UPS guys used, but Lilah had painted it bright blue and christened it Dolly.
Some beekeepers put clamps on the sides to hold the boxes in place, but he’d found if he kept the angle right they didn’t slide off.
“You have your veil too?” He’d already backed up to the shed, then they’d drive over to the hives and lever them up from there.
“Already in the truck!”
“Okay.” He gave her a thoughtful look. “You know we won’t be back until late, right?”
“That’s okay. How many hives are you bringing?”
“Twenty should be enough. He only has ten acres in flower right now.”
“Is this the apple guy?”
“Peaches.”
“Where?”
“Easton, not far from the apple guy.”
Lilah was a good lieutenant when she was in the mood.
Last year, the apple farmer had been taken with her, impressed that a girl so young had her own bee suit and knew a thing or two.
Glenn had been quietly proud, and they’d stopped on the way home at their favorite ice cream shop, a little shack in Ridgefield, which was out of the way but had the best soft-serve around.
“Remember that time his wife gave us fritters?” Lilah reminisced.
Glenn grinned. “I remember. You scarfed down a whole one and had diarrhea on the way home.”
“I did not!”
“Oh, yes you did. I know exactly where we stopped, that Shell station on 57.”
“Oh my God…” She collapsed with laughter. “How could I forget something like that?”
He tousled her hair on his way back to the shed. “Because you were six.”
“But how come I remember the fritter?”
He gave her an amused look. “Who wants to remember diarrhea?”
“Not me! That’s for sure.”
Whatever the reason, Lilah was in a fine mood.
A good thing too since Cassie was coming and she knew absolutely nothing about moving bees.
He’d been half kidding when he invited her along, but she was game.
He wanted her to see what his life looked like.
All of it, not just hiking or dinner, but what he really did.
The gritty work of dragging bees around to pollinate.
Nothing glamorous about that. Not that she was under the impression he lived a glamorous life but if anything was to develop between them—and he very much wanted it to—she needed to look under the hood, so to speak.
And yeah okay—he was hoping Lilah and Cassie would hit it off. They’d only met briefly a couple of times. Maybe they’d stop for ice cream on the way back.
“Rope’s on the peg behind the extra frames,” he said, nodding to the shelves at the rear of the shed.
“Got it.” She brought out a length of rope that he’d wound neatly, then looped through itself.
His bee shed was orderly, the way he liked it.
You could never be too organized when it came to bees.
And you needed to have all your supplies at hand.
Once things got away from you, they spun out of control fast. When he was first starting out, he made the mistake of extracting honey in the yard instead of inside the shed.
Within minutes, every insect within five miles had shown up for a free meal.
Wasps were the worst—just plain nasty—and they could sting repeatedly. He never made that mistake again.
He motioned for Lilah to take the other end of the ramp, and they hiked it over to the truck.
Now he just had to staple lightweight hardware cloth over the entrances and get the hives on board.
It was nearly dusk, and most of the bees should be back from foraging by now.
You didn’t want to take off too early and leave stragglers with nowhere to go.
“So what’s the story with you and Cassie?” Lilah said.
“What?” He nearly dropped his end of the ramp. Oh geez, now she was going to ask him a bunch of questions. “I um…we uh, well I like her.”
She arched an eyebrow. Where did girls learn that? “Duh, that’s obvious.”
“It is?” Was he being obvious? Did Cassie think so?
Lilah grinned. “So what’s the story?”
He got a better grip on the ramp and they hoisted it into the truck, which bought him a minute.
“We’ve gone out a few times. That’s it.” He felt his face getting warm.
This was way embarrassing, his daughter interrogating him about his girlfriend.
Wait. Was Cassie his girlfriend? He hadn’t thought of her that way until now, when the word suddenly popped into his head.
When did someone become a girlfriend, was there a requisite number of dates?
He wasn’t even sure she’d be around much longer.
“I like her,” Lilah said. “I mean I don’t know her that well, but she seems nice.” She stopped to rub Charlie behind the ears. “And she liked Charlie.”
Glenn chuckled. “Everyone likes Charlie.” He opened the back door for the dog to hop in. He would put him in the house before they left but let him believe he was going somewhere for now. “Want to get in?” he said to Lilah.
She climbed into the passenger seat, and he started it up.
“So it’s good you’re seeing someone,” she said.
He had his foot on the brake, about to back up, but he turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“I just mean, it’s nice, you know.” She seemed flustered all of a sudden. “You won’t be lonely.”
He gestured to all the crap in the back of the truck. “Do I look like I have time to be lonely? What are you now, worrier-in-chief? That’s my job.”
“I just—” She buckled her seat belt, then threw it off. She looked overheated.
He glanced at her, concerned. “What’s the matter, you okay?”
She squirmed for a second, then blurted it out. “Mom asked me to spend the summer in Colorado.”
He put the truck in park. “The whole summer?” he said faintly.
She looked at him anxiously. “Right after school gets out.”
His chest felt uncomfortably tight. “The whole summer’s a long time.
Why don’t you go for a week or two?” Sophie was notoriously unreliable and had no concept about parenting.
How could he hand Lilah off to her for the whole summer?
He wouldn’t see her from the time school got out until it started in the fall. He felt bereft just thinking about it.
She twisted the zipper on her jacket. “I was worried you might be lonely but now you won’t be, right?”
“What does this have to do with me being lonely?” His irritation sparked. All this helpfulness had just been positioning for Colorado. No doubt cooked up by Sophie.
“Because of Cassie. You’re seeing Cassie now.”
He took a breath. “Look, I’m glad you’re concerned about me, but let’s slow down. You spent four days with your mom, and now you want to go for the whole summer? I don’t think this is such a good idea.”
“Why not? You said you were happy I went to Vermont. You told me that. What’s the difference if I go to Colorado?”
“The difference is that this is the whole summer, and Colorado is halfway across the country.” And fucking Sophie hadn’t even bothered to consult him. That galled him more than anything. Putting a twelve-year-old up to it.
“It’s only two hours earlier. I can talk to you all the time.”
The tightness in his chest had traveled up into his shoulders and neck and created a hard knot. “It’s not the time difference. I didn’t even know about this until this minute.”
Her voice faltered. “Mom said she was going to call you.”
“Well, she didn’t. Your mom has a lot of big plans, but half the time she doesn’t even call you back.”
Her face fell and he immediately regretted it. Shit. He’d broken his rule about not badmouthing Sophie. But she’d gone behind his back—not even the courtesy of a phone call!—and dangled this tantalizing plum of a summer in Colorado without consulting him.
He plowed on perversely. “What are you going to do when you get there, and she’s too busy to spend time with you? Have you thought about that?”
Lilah blinked back tears. “You just don’t want me to be with her because you hate her. You’ve always hated her! You want me to be disappointed, don’t you?”
“Why would I want you to be disappointed?” His gut churned unhappily.
Now he was fighting with his daughter, the last thing he wanted to do.
How had he made such a mess of this? “Listen—” He reached for her, but she jerked away.
“I’m sorry. It came out wrong what I said about your mom.
I don’t hate her, I know she’s trying. It’s just that a weekend in Vermont is a lot different than the whole summer. ”
“You didn’t even want me to go to Vermont! You acted all fake happy that I had a good time.”
“What? That’s not true. I was not fake happy.
I’m glad you had a good time.” But even as he said it his face warmed like she’d caught him out.
Was he glad she had a good time or had he secretly hoped she’d come back with tales of Sophie’s neglect.
How she’d traipsed off to her art show and left Lilah with an ailing grandmother she hardly knew.
But apparently that hadn’t happened. Sophie had acted more or less like a grownup.
“I don’t believe you.” Lilah was crying now. “You never want me to see her, you don’t want me to be happy. You don’t want me to do anything.”
“Oh peanut. Of course I want you to be happy. That’s all I ever want.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. It flat out killed him when she cried. “Look, I have to get the bees loaded. Can we talk about this later?”
“Don’t call me peanut!” She jumped out, slamming the door so hard it shook his two-ton truck. “Have fun with your girlfriend! Let her help you.” She stormed off across the grass, then spun dramatically. “I’m going to Colorado. It’s not up to you!”
He heaved himself out of the truck. “That’s about enough, young lady.
” How did she do this to him? Two seconds ago he’d felt terrible, and now he was on the verge of losing his temper.
He didn’t want to lose his temper. But this was outrageous.
One phone call with Sophie and Lilah was spouting attitude.
True, he hadn’t helped the situation, but where did his twelve-year-old daughter get off talking to him like this?
“First of all,” he said, closing the gap between them, “let me remind you that you don’t tell me what you will or won’t do. Last time I checked, I’m the adult here and I make the decisions. I’ll decide if you go to Colorado, and right now it isn’t looking good.”
For a moment she looked like she might cry again, then she drew herself up. God she was channeling Sophie. She even had her hands on her hips, which would have been laughable if he hadn’t been so pissed. “You don’t get to decide everything! Mom’s an adult too in case you haven’t noticed.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he said through gritted teeth. And then, because he couldn’t bear for the evening to flame out this way, he mumbled, “I’d still like for you to come.”
“No way.” She marched off, hair swinging, and clumped up the porch stairs in her work boots—a pair just like his own. He had no doubt she would have slammed the door, but sliders didn’t slam in a satisfying way. She left it wide open instead, which she knew drove him crazy.
His whole body deflated like he’d suffered a puncture. How had this happened? He hardly ever fought with Lilah. It made him physically sick.
He climbed into the truck and slumped in the driver’s seat. Charlie shoved his head forward, and Glenn stroked the soft fur on his neck while the dog assailed him with his meaty breath.
He sighed and patted the passenger seat. “All right, come on up.”
Charlie clambered up front, drooling on the console as he went, astounded at his good fortune. Normally Glenn would have wiped it off. With his sleeve, at least. But he didn’t bother.
Dog slobber was the least of his problems.