Kenneth grinned. “Eighteen inches, and we’re using PEX, not PVC, which is more flexible and much more freeze resistant.”
“Great,” Brandon said. “I think the house is plumbed for water already.”
“Dale’s checking it right now,” Kenneth said. “Now, let me show you this pump.” He gestured for both Lenny and Brandon to follow him, and Brandon stayed back and let Lenny go first.
She pulled out her phone and recorded as Kenneth showed her how to run the submersible pump, how to reset it, and what it would do. “We’re putting a steel casing on the well,” he said.“And the pump is installed down below the water line, and it pushes the water up so you can use it.”
“Mm hm.” Lenore shifted to get a better view with her phone.
“Dale’s going to look for a place for your pressure tank inside the house, but if you don’t have somewhere, we can build a well house right here.”
“What’s a well house?” Lenny asked.
“It’s a small building that holds the pressure tank,” Brandon said automatically. “The pump fills the tank with water, and when you turn on a faucet or take a shower, the water comes from the tank. When it gets below a certain pressure level, the pump turns on and pushes up more water from the well.”
He looked over to Kenneth. “Right?”
“He’s got it.” He smiled, as if he couldn’t feel the tension between Brandon and Lenny. He had to, but he seemed to be trying to make the best of it. “And we have a filtration system right before the water enters the house. The soil here is a bit loose, so we’ll be sure to put a sediment filter on it, as well as our standard chlorinator.”
“Okay,” Lenny said. “I don’t think I have anywhere in my house for a pump.”
“Could we put it under the front porch?” Brandon asked.
Kenneth looked in that direction. “I wouldn’t. We want to protect it from freezing, and she’ll need access to it to check the pressure switch if it fails, to drain it if necessary, stuff like that.”
“So perhaps a well house is the right decision.” That meant more lumber, and another project, and the weight on Brandon’s shoulders increased. He looked over to Lenny. “Something else for you to decide.”
She opened her mouth like she might ask him what he thought, something she’d done many times in the past couple of months. This time, though, she clamped her mouth closed and nodded.
“I think a well house is probably the best thing,” she said. “Tell me what we need for that.” She swiped and tapped on her phone, then looked up at Kenneth with wide eyes. Brandon had seen her like this before, and this was Learning-Lenny.
She’d tap everything he said into her phone, and then she’d understand how it all worked. He took a couple of steps away, unable to stay in this situation without being able to hold Lenny’s hand, grin at her in celebration, or exchange meaningful glances with her for much longer.
“Well, if you don’t need me, I’m going to get back to the fence.” He raised his eyebrows, waiting for Lenore’s permission. She blinked at him a couple of times, then nodded.
Brandon walked away as Kenneth started to explain what went into the well house—something Brandon had looked up and learned about over the weekend.
“Now for no reason,” he muttered to himself, the awful bitterness returning. With every step he took, every pound of the post-setter, and every log he put in place, he mourned the loss of his evenings in Lenny’s cabin.
The warmth. The electricity. The access to her refrigerator. But most of all, a horrible devastation moved through him that he wouldn’t be able to finally settle onto Lenny’s couch, open his arms, and have her lay down with him so they could talk through all the amazing things that had happened that day, and plan for what still needed to be done.
He’d loved talking with her, brainstorming ideas, coming up with solutions.
He’d been so close to being in love with her, and as he set his last post before lunch, he tipped his head back and looked up into the gray, wintery sky. “Thank you, Lord, for stopping this before I lost my heart completely.”
But Brandon wondered if he should’ve prayed for relief instead…because he hadalreadycompletely fallen for Lenny.
37
By Thursday, Lenore thought the tension and electricity on the homestead would split the earth.
Brandon had retreated completely, not coming over to her house in the morning for coffee, and he’d stopped eating lunch with her, and she hadn’t seen him in the evenings to brainstorm, chat, go over his sketches and ideas, and lay together on the couch.
Pure and total loneliness had settled into Lenore the very first night, though they’d found water and gotten it hooked up to the house.
She’d texted Arizona her gratitude and told her she had two thousand dollars she could pay her right now.
You should use that for your livestock,Arizona had said.I thought that’s what Brandon said you were going to do and that we would help with the water so that you could fill the homestead with plants and animals and earn money from them.
