Chapter Nine
I threw the cell phone down on the counter in the drug store across the street. I had ordered a new phone offline when I got back to my dad’s that morning but a prepaid would have to do until it came in.
“What have we got here?” The old man standing behind the counter picked up the package and turned it over in his hand. “A cell phone, huh? This whole darn town is obsessed with getting one of these things. You know what I use when I need to make a call?” He gestured over his shoulder at the old rotary phone hanging on the wall.
Great. I glanced at the name on his nametag; Earl. Definitely an old timer. “Yeah, I agree with you, our society has become dependent on them,” I said it in a half-mocking tone. Kind of like ha-ha what can you do? Darn kids. “I actually need mine for work, though, so it’s different.”
“For work?” he looked skeptical.
“Uh-huh, it’s really important for them to be able to get in touch with me throughout the day.” This wasn’t exactly the truth but he didn’t know that. Plus, it would have been true if I was home and on call.
“What do you do for work?”
I sighed and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall by the door. It had been six minutes since I had walked in here and I still had a credit card in my hand with no signs of walking out with this phone anytime soon.
This kind of thing would never happen in the city but in a small town, everyone wanted to know everyone else’s business. “I’m a nurse, it’s a really important job, especially since my father happens to be in the hospital right now and I need to be aware of his condition,” I said the words slowly, hoping he would realize how serious the situation was.
“Wait a minute, you’re Mikey’s little girl, aren’t you?” He pointed to a bucket on the other side of the counter with a picture of my dad. He was smiling in it, his hand thrown around Earl’s shoulder while a huge fishing pole stuck out of the other. The bucket was overflowing with bills. “We’ve all been praying for him like crazy over here.”
Once again, the same uncomfortableness washed over my body that always did whenever anyone wanted to talk about my father. I didn’t know what to say, because the truth was, I didn’t know my father that well anymore. Who the hell was Earl and why did my dad look like they were best friends in that picture?
I squinted at it close, taking in my dad’ s genuine smile.
He looked happy, really happy.
So I said what I always said lately. “Thank you.” It wasn’t much, it wasn’t really anything, but I was still trying to figure out how I felt about all this myself, let alone a bunch of people who had these relationships and experiences with my dad I couldn’t even begin to understand.
“I was just with him the night before, you know? He was going on and on about how he was finally going to get around to fixing up that old barn out back.” He smiled fondly and shook his head before picking up the cell phone and scanning it. “Of course, he was always talking about how he was going to get around to it and it never happened but still… sometimes you talk about things that never get done hoping this will be the one time it really does, you know?”
The old red barn in the back of our house popped into my mind. It had been beautiful when we were younger, bright and polished in all its glory. My mom and dad had built it before I was born and when I was younger it was the best place in the world to me.
Animals always running around, fresh crops growing just outside, there was a tire swing inside where Asher and I would swing back and forth for hours. After my mom had died of cancer when I was twelve my dad had started to let it go down hill, not replacing chipped wood or peeled off paint. Pretty soon he had given the animals we had away and watched it go further and further off the rails.
It was unrecognizable now.
I hadn’t even known he was considering revising it.
Earl handed my credit card back to me, reminding me he had taken it in the first place and slipped the phone into my hand. “You take care now, we’re all going through this with you.”
I forced a smile, making my feet move toward the door.
An hour later I was standing in the middle of our old barn, taking in every corner and ever board that lined the wall. It was worse than I imagined, way more impaired than I thought.
The wood looked stained and damaged. The paint was chipped off and in the places it was still visible, dirt and dust clouded its color. The top of the roof was broken, caving in around the edges and causing huge holes in the center. The entire thing would probably have to be replaced.
Lord knew how much work it would need to get up to code.
“Big job.” The kid next to me, who’d introduced himself as Ralph, let out a low whistle and looked down at the clipboard in his hand. “When were you hoping to get it done by?”
I turned toward him, squinting to keep the sun out of my eyes. “As soon as possible.” I gestured toward the piles of old wood, broken trees, falling apart cages, and leaves and sticks that covered the floor. “I can take care of the cleanup myself but that’s about as far as my abilities go.”
The kid nodded like he expected as much and started flipping through the pages on his clipboard. “Okay, looks like we can get started in about… twelve weeks. How does that work for you?”
Twelve weeks? He had to be kidding. I was thinking they could get started, like, next week. I really wanted this place to be ready by the time my dad woke up and if I had to wait twelve weeks the chances of that happening were pretty slim. “Twelve weeks? I was really hoping to get started sooner than that.”
“We’re pretty backed up,” Ralph said, still flipping pages in every which direction. “I can talk to my boss about trying to move it up but he’s pretty strict about dates, he hates delivering an unrealistic time frame to customers, just lets them down, you know?”
I sighed. I knew this was a risk, expecting people to jump through hoops for me with so little notice. It was an impulsive move, leaping into motion as soon as I left the convenient store when I hadn’t even looked at the farm up close, but all I could think about was the look on my dad’s face when I brought him home from the hospital for the first time and he saw it completely redone.
“Did you have a budget in mind?” He asked me now, ignoring the blank look on my face at the delivery of his last statement. “A job this big… I would say you should be prepared to spend at least twenty.”
“Twenty?”
“Thousand,” Ralph clarified.
Dread sunk into my body. I had 10 thousand dollars in my savings account. It was everything I had managed to save in the last five years. I’d only been working as an actual nurse for the last two and between student loans, rent, and all my other bills it was a miracle I’d been able to even save that.
“I was thinking more in the 5 to 10 range.” There were three contractures listed in the phone book for the town, I’d gone with the first one listed. But something told me the prices the other two would give me wouldn’t be much better than the quote this kid was shooting off the top of his head.
He let out another whistle. “It’ll be tight… really tight.”
I knew he wasn’t trying to make me feel bad, he was just trying to warn me.
He must have seen the defeated look on my face because he moved closer to me and lowered his voice. “Look, my boss is almost here now, most of the time he’ll work with people on the price. He has a great relationship with most of the hardware stores and factories in the state so sometimes he can lean on them a little bit, get their prices down.”
I forced a half smile. “Ten thousand dollars worth of leaning?”
He laughed, revealing a cracked tooth. “Who knows, he’s got a heart, but don’t tell him I told you.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the vibrating screen. “Speaking of the devil, he’s here now, let’s see what he says.”
“Yes,” I told Ralph, swinging around toward the wooden doors. “Let’s.”
“Watch your step,” Ralph told me. “I saw some loose nails around.”
I was so busy watching the ground that I didn’t realize Asher was standing there until I was directly in front of him. “Oh,” I said, startled. “Asher, what… what are you doing here?”
Was he here to tell me he didn’t mean what he said earlier? That he didn’t want me to stay away from him? That last night had meant something to him even if I wanted to pretend that it hadn’t?
As much as I hated it the idea thrilled me a little.
Even if it shouldn’t have.
“Oh,” Ralph said. “You two know each other?”
Of course, we knew each other, what else would he be doing here?
“Right here doesn’t look too bad, boss, but once you get inside you can see where the real work will begin.” Ralph took a few steps forward, motioning for Asher to follow him. “You really have to start in the back to get the full picture but the good news is this looks like the same kind of wood we used on Doc Logan’s barn, remember? I told you not to toss out that excess wood, knew it would come into handy some day.”
Ralph sounded so proud of himself but Asher was barely paying him any mind, his eyes locked on mine in the same smoldering way he had been looking at me since I got back.
My legs gave out a little bit under me and Asher reached out, steadying me easily before letting go of my body and following Ralph into the cloud of dust that was starting to surround us.
Asher couldn’t… Asher couldn’t be Ralph’s boss.
Clearly, there had to be some kind of mistake.
They were on the other side of the barn now, talking numbers and starting to take down measurements. I jolted to the other side of the venue, finally gaining some kind of composure. “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking at this property and drawing up an estimate.” Asher took the papers out of Ralph’s hand and started flipping through the pages. “It’s kind of my job.”
“You’re his boss?” I asked skeptically.
“That’s right,” Asher said cockily.
So he wasn’t there to make amends at all, he was just working.
“No way,” I said, startled. “I don’t… I don’t…”
“This whole wall needs to be replaced,” Asher said to Ralph, gesturing up and down. “And this one needs to be reworked and re-grouted into the ground.” He pointed downward. “See how it’s completely undone around the edges?”
Ralph nodded, scribbling away frantically.
“No!” I yelled, startling Ralph, Asher just gazed at me, bored. “No! I don’t… I want someone else to be in charge of this, there has to be someone else they can send me.”
“There isn’t,” Asher told me. “I’m in charge of development.”
“I’ll call your boss, I’ll ask for someone else!”
Ralph laughed. “Lady…”
Asher held his hand up, cutting him off. “No, it’s okay, Ralph, she’s free to call whoever she wants but it’ll be a waste of time. Things don’t get done without my approval on any project, me and the owners go way back.” He shrugged. “If you have a problem with it you can take your business elsewhere.”
My mouth hung open. “Fine! Maybe I will!”
“You can’t!” Ralph interrupted. “Doing that would be a wish for bankruptcy! Green Oats Corporation bought out the only other two contracting businesses in town, which means Asher will be on the team no matter who you call unless you want to get parts sent in from the next town over… hence the bankruptcy wish!” He was turning red with worry now, the innocence of his young age coming through.
“If she doesn’t want us to do the job, she doesn’t want us to do the job, Ralph.” Asher grabbed his tape measure off the ground and started to make his way back toward the front of the barn. “I’m sure she’ll figure it out.”
“But she has a low budget! And she’s in a hurry!”
Asher kept walking, not looking back. “Let’s go, Ralph.”
“She needs to get it done for her dad!” Ralph finally got the words that had been on the tip of his tongue out, turning the shade of a tomato in the process. “It’s for Mike, Asher.”
I jumped, startled.
Asher stopped in his tracks, turning to look at me.
“That’s it, right?” Ralph said slowly. “You want to make sure that the barn is fixed in case your dad wakes up? He’s been talking about fixing this place up forever, it only makes sense that you would be in a rush to do it, you know, just in case…” he trailed off, letting the words hang in the air.
I hadn’t realized he knew who I was until that very moment. I could feel Asher’s eyes on me, taking in every flinch of my body, every curve of my face, studying me. “When,” I said slowly.
“What?” Ralph frowned.
“You said in case,” I corrected. “When he wakes up.”
“Oh, right,” Ralph looked down. “When he wakes up.”
No one spoke for what felt like forever.
“Look,” I inhaled.
“We’ll start tomorrow,” Asher cut me off.
Ralph grinned. “She has a low budget! A really low one!”
I shot him a look.
“What?” He shrugged apologetically. “You do.”
“We’ll work it out,” Asher called out, still heading toward the door.
“Asher,” I called out. “Can you wait? Can we talk for a second?”
He stopped turning around and locked eyes on me. For a second I thought he was going to refuse and keep walking, all business, but after a second he looked at Ralph. “It’s okay, Ralph, head back to the office and start writing all this up in a file, I’ll meet you back there soon.”
Ralph grinned, patting me on the shoulder as he took off past me. “Told you he had a heart.”
When the doors swung shut behind Ralph Asher finally met my eyes.
“I need to get this done for my dad,” I said simply.
“I know that, Bella, I know that.”
“It’ll just be business…” I let my words hang in the air.
Asher snickered and dropped the bag of tools in his hand on the ground before closing the distance between us and pushing me against the wall of the barn. “Let’s get one thing straight, Bella, it’ll be business when I say it’s business and more than business what I say it’s more.”
Heat rose over my entire body.
It was going to be a long night.