Chapter 13 Olena
OLENA
With the temperature having dropped significantly overnight, my breath fogs in front of me as I step out of my car at the Faulkner property. Threatening rain, the morning sky is an overcast, pale gray gloom that is so typical in Lennox as late winter gives way to early spring.
I shrug on a coat over my hoodie. This morning, remembering how ill-prepared I had been for moving soil yesterday, I dressed for physical work in warm leggings and hiking boots with thick socks.
Along with my layered t-shirt and sweatshirt combo, it helps to keep out the chill.
Zipping my coat, I’m grateful for each cozy layer hugging my body.
I could get used to this, I think to myself. It’s like wearing pajamas at work.
I sweep my hair up into an organized mess that will stay out of my face, squinting at my reflection in the side window of my car. I open the back door to grab my bag and notebook.
“I thought you weren’t coming until late morning,” Jude’s voice rumbles from over my shoulder.
I’m smiling before I’ve even finished turning around to face him. It’s nine o’clock. “Yeah, I finished the design renderings last night and figured there was no reason to wait to come out and help.”
I don’t tell him I was also pacing in my bedroom for the better part of an hour this morning, trying to shake off the desperate urge to see him before eventually giving up and driving here.
“Well, I’m glad you did, because Steph called in sick,” he says, shaking his head.
Dimitri walks by, carrying a heavy piece of lumber. “Morning, Olena.” He adjusts the wood on his shoulder with a grimace. I look in the direction he’s walking and see he and Teddy are busy framing out the pathway from the cliff-side to the sunken garden stairs.
“Good morning,” I say to him, throwing Teddy a wave, which he returns. “Looking good so far with the pathway.”
“Thanks,” Dimitri nods at me over his shoulder.
I turn my eyes back to Jude. “Well, boss?” I smirk. “What’s the plan?”
He smiles and turns to the truck, digging out a pair of thick gloves and a set of safety glasses for me. “Got any carpentry experience?”
I shake my head, take the gloves, then scrunch my nose and shrug. “High school shop class, I guess. And I watched my dad a bit, growing up.”
He nods.
I raise a curious eyebrow. “You do carpentry?”
He smirks. “One of my many talents.” He cocks his head toward the chestnut tree. “Follow me.”
We spend the morning cutting deck planks and stair stringers on a portable table saw to build the stairs that will sit under the bench swing. By late morning, sawdust covers everything I’m wearing and clings to the outside of my safety glasses. I feel like I can taste it.
“I’m gonna go get a drink,” I say to Jude, coughing lightly and gesturing at my mouth.
He looks up from where he’s drilling a plank into the stair frame. “Sure.”
I jog over to where I left my bag near the car. I take off my jacket, shaking it roughly, and try to jostle the sawdust out of my hair. As I lean forward and shake my head, a deluge of it rains down in front of my eyes.
Teddy walks up to me, grinning, and rummages through the tools in Jude’s truck. “Well, looks like you’re one of us now,” he jokes, watching me struggle.
I smile at him, taking off the glasses and trying to wipe them on my sawdust-covered hoodie. “God, it’s everywhere,” I say to him with a grimace, laughing at the futility of trying to clean myself up.
“Just become one with the sawdust. Let it be,” Teddy jokes, putting on a serene tone.
“I don’t think I have a choice,” I reply with a throaty laugh.
“You’ll get used to it,” he calls out over his shoulder as he walks back to join Dimitri, tools in hand.
A truck from the local nursery pulls into the driveway, and I realize I need to get my head in the game to direct where these plants are going to go.
I open my bag to pull out my plans and my copy of the plant order.
Jude walks over and grabs his water bottle as I’m looking them over.
I realize I look like a sawdust monster yet need to talk to the driver like a professional in a minute.
I wipe a sleeve across my forehead self-consciously. More sawdust.
“Jude, tell me the truth,” I say, and he turns to look at me. “Do I look vaguely passable as a professional?” I turn around in front of him, holding out my arms. “How bad is it?” I feel a twinge of anxiety when the driver hops out of his truck.
His eyes rake over my body, taking his time. Hurry up, I think to myself, but can’t help but smile.
“I think you need more, to be honest.” He takes a swig from his water bottle, smirking.
I roll my eyes. “No, seriously. How bad do I look? And tell me quick ’cause the guy’s coming to talk to me right now.” My words drop to a rushed whisper when I notice the driver quickly approaching.
“Olena. You look perfect,” he says quietly, holding my gaze.
My joking demeanor falters at the sincerity in his eyes and my breath catches.
“Hi there, I’m looking for Olena MacMillan?”
The driver’s voice from behind me wrenches me away from Jude’s gaze and I turn, heat rising to my cheeks. What just happened?
“Hi, uh, yes, that’s me,” I say slowly.
I glance over my shoulder to where Jude was, but he’s already walking away. I turn back to the driver and smile, following him to the truck.
By the time I wrap things up with the delivery and make my way back to the platform, Jude’s installing the last plank.
“This is pretty much ready to stain,” he says. He looks up at the sky, considering the clouds, then shakes his head. “I don’t like the look of them. We should wait.”
I look up too. The gray from this morning has deepened; the clouds look like they’ll open up on us any second. Unsurprising. Lennox Valley is known for its quick weather changes.
“Listen, I need to run to the hardware store for a part. I’ll be back in a bit,” says Jude, pulling off his gloves and stuffing them in his back pocket.
He pulls off his safety glasses and tousles his hair, letting loose a miniature cloud of sawdust. He smiles at me and wipes his face.
“Teddy and Dimitri can show you what to do while I’m gone. ”
“Okay, I’ll check in with them.” I’m slightly disappointed but try not to let on.
A curious expression crosses Jude’s brow for a moment and he walks directly toward me, narrowing his eyes, looking at something on the top of my head.
“Hold still,” he says in a low voice.
“What?” I freeze, my heartbeat hammering faster as he comes so close.
With an eyebrow raised, he slowly reaches up to my hair.
I can feel the heat of his chest in front of me and want to bury my face in his warmth.
The impulse is so strong I have to clench my hands at my sides to stop myself from doing exactly that.
My eyes lift to his, searching. As he pulls his arm back down, he lowers his eyes to meet mine, holding a small leaf in his hand.
He twists the stem between his fingers, making it twirl between us, then drops it.
“You had something in your hair.” He grins at me, eyes shining with amusement, then walks away to his truck without looking back.
It takes me a few seconds to remember to breathe.
After I eat the lunch Wyatt packed for me with Teddy and Dimitri, they show me their progress on the path trim.
They’ve dug the edges of the pathway out on either side for rows of alternating perennials and shrubs.
The arbor has been installed near the sunken garden entrance, so we chat about the timing of planting what the nursery just delivered.
Dimitri crouches down to point out the channel where the strip lighting will be installed to light the path at night. He grimaces suddenly, squeezing two fingers hard against his forehead.
“Hey, are you okay?” I ask.
“Ah, it’s my head. It’s been killing me all day. Feels worse when I bend over. But I’ll be fine.” He looks like he’s putting on a brave face.
I frown.
“I dunno, man,” says Teddy. “It’s been hours now. It’s still not better?”
Dimitri stands. “No, but I’ve had worse.” He smiles grimly at us. I suspect he’s in more pain than he’s letting on. “It’s just a migraine.”
“Wait, a migraine?” I ask. I had them as a teenager; I know they’re horrid. “Why don’t you head home and rest? You shouldn’t be trying to muscle through a migraine. I’m sure we can handle things. Go take care of yourself.”
“Really?” He looks relieved enough at the possibility of going home that I know he needs to go.
“Yes, really.” I nod. “Please, go rest; I’ll explain to Jude when he gets back,” I say reassuringly.
Dimitri gratefully shuffles off to his car and I turn to Teddy.
“Everyone’s dropping like flies,” he says. “We might have to promote Murphy from mascot to packhorse.”
I laugh. I eye Murphy dozing in his dog bed on the grass. He looks enviably cozy there, despite the cold day. “I don’t know if he can be convinced.”
Teddy’s phone rings. He answers and, after a series of clipped responses, he hangs up. “Well, this is terrible timing,” he says. “You’re not gonna believe this…”
Jude pulls up and hops out of his truck, jogging over to me with a crease in his brow. “Where is everybody?”
“I sent them home.” I stand up from where I’ve been laying sheets of landscaping fabric between the timbers that will line the pathway. Teddy gave me instructions about what to do before he left.
He looks a bit taken aback. “Uh, bold of you to manage my team for me,” he says, crossing his arms with his eyebrows raised, a mixture of confusion and amusement in his expression. “Care to give me a little more detail?”
“Dimitri had a migraine and Teddy’s kid is sick and needed to be picked up from school. His wife isn’t off work for another couple of hours, so I said he should go,” I explain.
“You realize this means we are down to just the two of us and there’s a truckload of gravel arriving any minute, right?” He screws up his eyebrows incredulously.