What he didn’t understand was why what he told her hadn’t been made clear. He was not trying to take the land from her, and he’d told her that over and over.
Before he could stop himself, he lifted the jacket to his nose and took a breath of it. Then he shrugged into it, ignoring thepinch in his heart, and left his cabin to go see how he could help install a well on Lenore’s homestead.
Outside, the mechanical growl of the drill continued to churn through the earth. They’d chosen a spot near the front of her established garden area, and Lenny stood there alone, one hand at her mouth as she chewed on one of her fingernails.
Brandon stopped at the top of the steps, crossing his arms as he watched the hulking machine bite deeper and deeper into the land. He couldn’t stand here forever, and he eventually found the strength to head toward Lenny.
The noise only increased, as did the tension riding in the air. He sidled up beside her and asked, “How far down are they?” without looking at her.
“Sixty feet,” she said. “And they’re only charging us twenty-five dollars per foot.”
“Us?” The word burst out of his mouth before Brandon could contain it. He was tired of doing that anyway. He wanted to say what he thought, what lingered in his heart, without censoring anything.
He turned toward her, a new fire burning inside him. “I don’t think it’s fair for you to use pronouns like that when you really meanyou.”
Lenny glared at him and cinched her arms over her jacket.
“So they’re chargingyoutwenty-five dollars per foot,” he said. “Which, by the way, is less than half the going rate.” She could thank Zona for that one.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I don’t know what you don’t know, Lenore,” he said. “You act like water will just come to you, because you want it. You make all these grand plans for months and years from now, but you don’t seem to realize that you can’t achieveanyof those things we’ve—yes,we—dreamed about and talked about without water.”
Brandon changed his mind; speaking up was far worse than just letting Lenore think what she wanted. He disliked the angry tone in his voice and the way his adrenaline kept pumping harder and harder.
He shook his head. “This doesn’t matter. You’ve made yourself clear. This is your homestead, and I’m just the hired help.” He took a deep breath, not able to maintain the volume in his voice he needed to be heard above the drill.
“So, boss, would it be okay if I get back to setting the posts for your goat enclosure?”
“Brandon.”
“Great, thanks for that direction.” He nodded over to the drill truck. “They should have Zona’s credit card, and if you need me to come over and get the pump set up and the water connected to the house, let me know. I did watch a bunch of YouTube videos while my niece and nephew took their naps over the past few days, and I’m pretty sure I know how to do it.”
He nodded at her and walked away.
She was delusional and had a heart of stone if she didn’t realize how much of himself he’d poured intoherland. How he’d thrown every spare moment into researching forher. How he’d shown up to work every single day, even when he wasn’t physically here.
All for her.
It wasn’t like Lenore didn’t work too. He found all the posts he needed, stripped of bark, sealed, and cut to the right length when he arrived at the goat enclosure. She’d also moved the rocks into the corner, according to his sketch.
He took stock of where he was and how far he had to go, mentally calculating when this would be finished. “Probably no later than tomorrow night,” he said. “Even if they find water.”
He could get that hooked up and the goat enclosure done by tomorrow night. Then, he’d pour himself into the smokehouse,because that was a simple building with hooks in the ceiling, and a connected firepit to force the smoke into the house.
He’d built structures in a day or less, if he had the lumber. So, before he started, he pulled out his phone and called Calvin. “Hey, brother,” he said when his friend answered. “I know you love me….”
“I can bring the planer,” Cal said with a chuckle. “But I want a load of lumber out of it.”
Brandon immediately looked over to the logs Lenny had felled and hadn’t done anything with yet. “How much is a load?”
“I need enough to build a deck.”
“Ouch,” Brandon said. “You’re talking, what? Sixty, seventy boards?”
“It’s a twelve-by-twelve.”
“With stairs and a railing?”
