“Yes, sir.”
Brandon could do some math in his head, and he’d built decks before. “So probably forty boards, for the deck, railing, and stairs.”
“I can get the joists and posts,” Cal said.
“I’ll get you your forty boards,” Brandon said, because he needed the planer if he wanted to build the smokehouse. He’d get up early to cut trees if he had to.
“I can bring it on Thursday,” Cal said.
“Perfect,” Brandon said. “Thanks so much, Cal.”
The call ended, and Brandon bent to pick up the next post he’d set. He’d barely lowered it into the hole he’d created last week when a yell rose into the air. He spun toward the drill truck and found both operators with their hands up in the air—and water spouting up into the air.
Lenny turned toward him, pure wonder and joy on her face, and Brandon’s first thought was to run to her, lift her up off her feet, and celebrate.
They’d found water only a handful of steps from the cabin!
Instead, he schooled his expression into one he hoped spoke of neutrality, and he picked up the post-setter. Fitted it over the top of the post. Started hammering it into place.
Of course he could run the pipe from the well to Lenny’s cabin. He could install the pump that would bring the water up from the well. He could get the water to the chicken palace, this goat enclosure, and to the barn.
After all, he was a man who finished what he started, even if it hurt.
“Brandon.”
He looked over to Lenny, getting punched right in the gut with her beauty. Even as nervous as she seemed, she called to him. He wanted to erase everything bad from her life—and he’d worked for the past ten weeks to do exactly that.
She didn’t even seem to notice the things he’d done for her.
You’re not being fair, he told himself, and he brought the metal post-setter down on the pole one more time. “They hit water,” he said.
“One hundred and one feet,” Lenny said.
Twenty-five hundred dollars, Brandon thought. Plus the pump, the hosing, and the other equipment, and Lenore had just gotten a well for about thirty-five hundred dollars. She’d earned that much since Brandon had been here on the homestead.
With the chickens Zona and the girls had brought.
With the lumberhe’dtaught her how to cut, with a planerhe’dborrowed from his friend.
“Good news,” he said, lifting the heavy metal setter and slamming it down again. He strongly disliked the bitterness threading through him, infecting his mind, but he didn’t know how to stop it.
Lenny took a couple of steps closer. “Will you please leave this and come help me with the well?”
Brandon pulled the setter off the pole and tossed it to the ground. “Sure.” The wind blew across his face as he walked back to the road and then across it. He hunkered down into his coat as Kenneth grinned at him.
“It’s a great aquifer,” he said. “Should last for a long time.”
“Thank you so much.” Brandon managed a smile and shook Kenneth’s hand. “Really. My sister-in-law and I really appreciate it. Lenore too.”
Kenneth maintained eye contact with him, though Lenny joined them near the well. “We’ve got all your auxiliary equipment too, and me and Dale can stay and help you get it all plumbed.”
“That would be amazing,” Brandon said. “I’m new to the well-thing, so I’d love to watch you and learn. I’ll do whatever you need me to as well, of course.”
“Me too,” Lenny said. “I’d love to see it all and maybe take some videos, so if something goes wrong, I can fix it.”
Kenneth did look between the two of them now, and Brandon wondered what he saw. “We won’t have to dig deep to run the line to the house,” he said. “Because it doesn’t freeze very often here.”
“How far down?” Brandon asked. “The videos I watched said eighteen inches.”
