“I’m hoping to get to it late next week,” Brandon said. “But in all honesty, it’ll probably be the week after that.”
He thought through the other projects he wanted to finish first, including the chicken coop, the barn, and Lenore’s gardening area. Then he would tackle solar and water.
“I thought Angel had a real interesting idea about putting in a five-thousand-gallon drum of water,” he said. “Then you guys wouldn’t be driving to town all the time.”
“It’s a good idea,” Brandon said. “I’m still scouting out a place for it as we do a few other things. And I haven’t given up on digging a well.”
He would go that route at any cost, because five-thousand-gallon drums for water weren’t free either. Not even close. The difference would be thousands though, and if he could getLenore to put in a better watering system, she’d only need to schedule the water truck to come to the homestead once a month.
“My aunt is getting up,” Glory Rose said as she hurried toward them. “Come sit down, Conrad.”
Brandon nodded to him, and he watched as Glory Rose led her husband to a pew with the triplets and his parents.
Brandon turned suddenly, feeling more alone than ever. He found a seat quickly, glad when Shiloh and April sat down beside him.
He gave Shiloh a side squeeze and patted April’s shoulder. “Hey, guys.”
“What happened to your neck?” April asked, and Brandon hurried to flip up the collar on his leather jacket.
“Nothing.”
“Has my mom seen that?” Shiloh asked.
Brandon glared at his nieces. “I’m fine.”
“She already has a list of things to talk to you about,” April said, a wicked smile curving her lips. “I can’t wait to see what she does when she sees your whole neck covered in gauze.”
Brandon couldn’t think of a response before Willa Glover said, “Welcome, my dear friends. There is no greater place to be than in the arms of the Lord.”
And Brandon couldn’t argue with that. He’d deal with Zona when he had to.
“All right,”he said, nodding to the chainsaw in Lenore’s hand. “You’re going to pull it just like I showed you, and when it’s going, you’re going to cut straight down—right there.”
He indicated the notch in the wood that he’d made with a hatchet.
Instead of going immediately into felling trees, he thought he might try Lenore on simply cutting a log into pieces. He’d demonstrated it, as well as how to start the chainsaw, and now it was her turn.
She looked at the log that he’d prepared, then at him, and then at her chainsaw. He watched as she breathed determination into her lungs, gripped the pull cord, and yanked. The saw acted like it wanted to start, but it didn’t.
“You throw it away from you,” he said. “Remember, throw it with your left hand. Pull with the right. Throw with the left, pull with the right.”
“Throw with the left, pull with the right,” she muttered. She did just that, and the chainsaw roared to life. She looked up, her eyes wide behind those safety glasses, and she was the most beautiful creature in the world in that moment.
She laughed—a sound Brandon had not heard her make before—and pure joy streamed from her as she held the buzzing saw. “I did it.”
“You sure did, sweetheart,” he called over the noise of the machine.
He nodded to the log. “Straight down. Remember, it’s like bowling. You gotta have a stiff wrist.”
She nodded, swallowed, and focused on the task at hand. She cut straight through the log, pausing as she got near the end.
“Let it fall,” he said. “Just let it fall. You don’t need to catch it.”
Another inch, and the log indeed fell.
Brandon clapped and said, “Way to go, Lenny. Okay, pick another section and cut it.”
She looked at him for a moment, and he said, “Look at the saw. When that thing’s on, you’re watching it. Right?”
