Alex

IT HAD BEEN YEARS since I’d had a good night’s sleep. Years. I was the oldest twenty-five-year-old that the world had ever known and my face wore the lines of that truth. Most nights I worked in the workshop to relax and left Sara and Logan to watch TV. I tried my best but by the end of a stressful dinner I usually needed a break from them. Often, I’d get back to the house around ten and find one of them still awake. Sara did a good job of hating on Logan most of the time but she did care about him secretly. I’d got back a half hour ago, sent Sara upstairs and had carried Logan up, after he’d fallen asleep in the sofa. I felt tired, I often felt really tired but when I went to bed... I just didn’t sleep.

“Alex,” I heard Sara speak from the kitchen doorway.

“Yeah?” I looked up and ran my hand through my hair.

“Logan cried tonight... about Mom,” she lowered her eyes, unable to meet mine. We shared the same coloring from our mom, her dark hair curtained over her face, hiding so many of her emotions and that was the way she liked it. It was easy to forget that sometimes she still needed to be a kid.

“You should have come got me,” I added gruffly, grabbing a glass to get some water.

“I can deal with it, it’s not like you’re the dad,” she added with attitude and she was right. I had no words, and I didn’t know if she wanted a fight or a hug. A loud knock came at the front door, followed by a less harsh one. Sara glanced behind her and started to walk towards the front door.

“Bed,” I snapped and passed her to make it to the front.

“Alex,” she whined.

“Go,” I told her and she huffed upstairs. I went to the door and saw a silhouette out on the veranda. Whoever it was thought better of knocking and turned to walk away. After peeking through the curtain to see who it was, I yanked the door. I saw the back of Lacey walking away. She stopped and turned slowly. Wow. If it wasn’t clear that she was beautiful before then tonight was a whole new lesson. Her outfit fit like a glove and she rocked all the areas of it out perfectly. She was pretty in a way that wasn’t obvious but it was enhanced, more than I’d seen before. She had delicate girly features and light, blue eyes.

“Hey,” she said almost sheepishly, “look,” she shook her head, “I’ve been out, and I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“What did you need?” I asked, glancing down to see flip flops on her feet and wondering if she’d walked the lane at night in them.

She walked back up the steps, “Um, I...” she took a deep breath, “is your mother in a psychiatric facility?” she asked, straightening up and tensing her lips as she watched my reaction.  

I sighed and shut the door lightly behind me, “Not that it’s any of your business,” I said quietly, trying to cover up my rage, “but no.”

“Oh,” she nodded, “it is my business Alex, my staff are my business.”

“Their personal problems are not.” I snapped.

“When they are getting paid to work and are not working it is,” she answered a little shittier, standing up straighter and tipping her head back to glare at me but she barely reached my shoulder in height.

“People are entitled to have problems, regardless of who they work for.” I said quickly.

“She has problems?” she asked with narrowed eyes. I glanced behind me to make sure Sara was not watching through the curtain at the door then back to Lacey.

“Yeah,” I lowered my head, and the word came out less confident than I wanted it to. “Everyone does,” I said a little harsher and looked up to meet her eye.

Her stance became a little softer, and she gave me a sad smile, “What’s going on, Alex?”

I sighed, I guess she should know, “My mom is a difficult person. She has an addictive personality, and she has issues with pain meds and alcohol that most of the time allow her to live a normal life and then other times she needs help.”

“She’s a drug addict?” she asked bluntly, and I gritted my teeth.

“Have you ever met an addict?” I answered back quickly.

She shrugged, “I guess not.”

“Well it’s a disease, a constant battle, and it doesn’t take a lot to see her crash straight back to where she started so the fact that she’ll accept help is a huge thing for her.”

“Right,” Lacey nodded, “I’m sorry for her and you but...” she sighed, “when is she getting back?”

“She’s in the best rehab facility we could find, and she’s just done her no contact initial month, so it depends but I’m thinking a few more weeks.”

“And I’m paying her to be off sick?” Her voice rose, and it pissed me off.

“Yeah,” I leaned into her, “or don’t, whatever, but she needs her insurance.”

“This is a difficult situation.” She gave me a tight smile, “can you handle the place when she’s not here?”

I snorted out a laugh, “I’ve been handling this place since my grandpa died when I was fifteen.”

She nodded, “Right, well let’s discuss this tomorrow.”

I groaned, “Where did this come from?” I asked, suddenly realizing that she hadn’t been dressed like that to sit around the house and it was late so why be suddenly bothered about my mom. “You been out?”

She looked down at her outfit, “I went to Lou’s bar and someone told me some stuff.”

“Oh,” I closed my eyes and huffed out a hostile breath, “you been with Tyrer again?” I laughed. I hated that dude, and it was typical that she’d be hanging around with him and that he’d be talking shit about my family. “The townsfolk aren’t really that complimentary about my mom,” I shook my head, “three kids by three different dads and not one in sight, pretty much is against the strict Celebration Falls moral code,” I scoffed at the last part. They were all sinners, but my mom was just a little more obvious with it. “Hypocrites with small minds.”

“Yeah, well I did go with him but...”

“Look,” I cut her off, “it’s late. I hate that dude, be careful.” I lowered my eyes and turned to walk back inside. I didn’t give her chance to answer and instead walked inside with less chance of sleeping than ever before.

 

The next morning Lacey managed to make it to the breakfast area for the early staff meeting. I was still angry from the night before. It infuriated me that I had to admit about my mom, and what was family business was now out there for public discussion between her and that dipshit Tyrer. Lacey walked to the back kitchen door where people were walking outside with beverages and she said hi and smiled at them. I rolled my eyes and gritted my teeth. I knew she was a cutthroat business woman who could just cut my mom’s medical insurance at any moment and these guys just saw a Disney princess.  She wore her hair tied back and a Yankees baseball cap, jeans, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. She was clearly getting more used to how people dressed on a farm. She went into the kitchen and helped herself and Johnny dropped down in the space opposite me.

“Keeping one eye on the boss, huh?” he gave me an easy side smile, and I shook my head.

“Keep your enemies close, isn’t that a saying?”

He chuckled, “Something like that, bro. She’s hot though?” he grinned, and I refused to comment.

“Let’s get started,” I said and stood up. “Right guys, find a seat or get comfortable.”  I gave everyone a chance to get settled and saw that Lacey walked out of the kitchen with her coffee and  sat on one of the benches that was against the back wall of the house. “Morning guys,” I said and there were a few mutterings in reply. “So, we got a busy week, after harvesting the Heron’s quarter last week we need to pack and stack that and get it ready for delivery. The rota has been up for a coupla weeks so everyone knows where they need to be. Jimmy, Jax, Sal and Ian are out in the Daly quarter this week spraying the new crops. Lionel and Eric are out checking on the cover crops to make sure that land is recovering. It’s been hot as hell, so we may start to get some rain and maybe storms so we need to make sure the crops are at the right height and growing well.”

Everyone nodded, “Anyone got any issues to raise?”

“Sure,” Lionel spoke up, “I just wanted to remind everybody about the new safety procedures with regards to beards and we gotta wear these masks.” He held up the new face masks we’d had to order as anyone with a long beard that worked machinery needed to wear them as there had been a few incidents on local farms.

“Thanks, Lionel. There’s a box of masks in the kitchen there so grab one if you need one. Also,” I coughed awkwardly, “some of you may not be aware but Lacey Davenport is here to stay for a few weeks. She owns the place now and wants to get a feel for how we work and how things get done.” I nodded to her, and she raised her hand, “so she may shadow you or she might stick with me in the office. We’re not sure yet, but if you see her be sure to introduce yourselves and explain what you guys do around here.” I didn’t say that their jobs might depend on it as I didn’t want to scare the bejesus out of them.

“God speed,” Eric said and most people stated Amen. When my grandpa ran the farm, everyone used to pray as a group every morning in a circle and my mom had tried to carry that on, but she hadn’t ever been a churchgoer. A lot of these people were though. Since Mom had been sketchy, I’d stopped the prayers, and no one seemed to care.

While people went to the kitchen to get breakfast, I stayed sat in my spot sipping my coffee with Bear at my feet. “I’m gonna go get some breakfast,” Johnny said and hopped up from where he sat. Lacey stood from her seat and moved to sit opposite me.

“Impressive,” she said, holding her cup.

“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow in question.

“How someone so young can command so much respect and attention,” she nodded, pushing her lips together and Bear the traitor edged towards her, “you clearly have more authority than I thought.” I didn’t know if to be offended or take the compliment. I decided to remain indifferent.

“We must be the same age and you expect respect so it’s no different.” I sat back a little and got a good look at her in the hat. Without so much makeup she looked real young, like young enough to need ID in a heartbeat. She was well cared for and when she smiled, I could see how guys would have fallen over themselves over the years to be the one for her.

“I’m older than you,” she laughed, bending to pet Bear. “I’m twenty-eight and I mastered the art of intimidation almost a decade ago, but I see you don’t lead by fear.”

“I don’t lead,” I shrugged, “we all work together.”

“But you’re the boss, right?” she grinned and leaned forward on the table, “or else how do you get these guys to work so hard?”

“We all do it because we love this place. Farming pays a pittance, but the land is addictive.” I sighed. “What are your plans today? More figures? I have plenty of stuff to do and so I really need to catch up with that.”

“Right,” she nodded. She straightened up and Bear whined when she stopped petting him. “Look about last night...”

I groaned, “Can you and I just have one conversation where I’m not pissed?” I gruffed out.

She grinned a wide, white-teethed smile that made her look more like the prey and less like the predator she was, “Right. Alls I was going to say was, I get that your mom has her issues and I don’t pretend to understand, as it must be awful, so let’s just leave things how they are see how her rehab goes okay?”

I narrowed my eyes at her, “and that’s good for business?”

“The way I see it, if I hadn’t had come then I wouldn’t have known and like you say everyone gets sick so let’s see if she can cope when she comes back and maybe we restructure things.”

“Thanks,” I swallowed hard, that word was not easy for me to say, especially to her.

“Also,” she leaned forward again, “I don’t want you to think I was listening to idle gossip about your family or that Grayson and I are anything we’re not. I doubt I’ll be seeing him again and I made sure he knew that I was not interested in his views on this place.”

“Right,” I tightened my mouth and met her eye, “cool.”

She smiled again and stood to leave, “I have the decorator arriving today so maybe I’ll swing by the office a little later. I'll let you get some work done.”

“Okay,” I watched as she walked away and for the first time in a while felt that feeling which must have been relief. It was the first situation for a while that had turned out better than I imagined. My mom still had her job, rehab was safe to continue, and I was going to have a Lacey-free morning at least. Also, she made it clear that Tyrer would not be hanging around more than he needed to, so I was practically buzzing. I guessed it wouldn’t mean I slept any better, but it sure meant I could breathe a little easier.