With Wi-Fi, she could start an online store for anything the homestead would eventually produce.
“We’re stopping right here?” Brandon asked, and Lenore quickly got out of the doorway so the others could join her in the house. The water truck was due in only ten minutes, and Lenore had been up for hours and hours and desperately wanted a moment to herself.
She moved over to the corner of the kitchen where a bank of four light switches sat. “I’m not even really sure what all these do,” she said, a nervous giggle coming out of her mouth afterward.
“Just flip them all,” Conrad said, a wide grin on his face. It mirrored the one on every other cowboy’s face.
Lenore looked from them to the light switch and then pushed them all simultaneously. Light bulbs blazed to life in the kitchen, above the dining room table where she ate breakfast, in the living room, and above the entrance where most of the men still stood.
A beat of silence followed—and then a cheer as loud as any stadium egging on their team to win the Super Bowl rose into the air.
Lenore couldn’t believe it. There werelightson in herhouse. She started to laugh and couldn’t stop, feeling manic and grateful and yet also like this might only last for this one moment, and she better enjoy it while she could.
Then Brandon arrived, sweeping her into his arms, his own laughter loud in her ears. “There’s power in your cabin!”
Someone beyond them whooped loudly. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her clean off the ground, spinning her around while she desperately gripped his shoulders so she wouldn’t fall.
She laughed with him, and when he sat her down, they faced their friends. “Thank you so much,” she managed to say before she rushed over to them and started an awkward six-way hug, including the two servicemen who she’d only known for the past few hours.
Thankfully, she didn’t cry.
Then Conrad ducked outside with the guys fromPower Up, probably to settle up. Henry nudged the cooler with his foot. “You don’t have to use this anymore,” he said.
“Yeah, but I don’t have a fridge either,” Lenore said. “Next time I go to town, I’m going to order one.”
“Solid plan,” Colt said. “Hey, I hear the water truck.” He turned and hurried outside.
While Lenore wanted to bask in the heavenly lights from above, she figured she better meet David, the water truck driver, as she’d probably get to know him well when he came to fill her barrel every month.
Still, she waited a few moments while everyone else cleared the cabin, and then she looked up into the light fixtures, which still held bulbs, wondering if her mother or her father had put them there—and if they’d ever imagined the cabin would have power again.
“I’m doing it, Momma,” she whispered. “Daddy, I’m not going to lose this place.” For a moment, a power beyond her filled her chest, and for probably the first time, Lenore believed what she’d just said.
Brandon and his friends and all of his hard work had done this, and tears filled her eyes as such a pure energy ran through her.
“Lenny!” Brandon bellowed from somewhere outside, and Lenore hurried down the hall and out the back door. Everyone had gathered at the water barrel in the back, and she boogied down the back steps to meet them.
“You must be David,” she said, rushing forward to shake the man’s hand.
“I am.” The tall, nearly round man shook her hand, his laughter infectious and his smile brilliant. “Conrad says this is usable.” He started to walk around the water tower. “I gotta say, I have my doubts.”
Ice instantly formed in Lenore’s chest. “You do?”
“It’s not good.” He kept his eyes on the water barrel and reached up to run his hand along the bottom of it. “Maybe for crops. You planning on taking this into the house?”
“Yes,” Lenore said at the same time Colt did. “I was going to bring the proper piping and fixtures tomorrow,” he added.
“If you all want it for drinking,” David said. “We’re going to have to put some chemicals in it—at least until we can make sure it’s clean on the inside.” He looked over to Lenore. “Where’d you get this?”
“A friend had it in his barn,” Lenore said.
“Well, I can fill it,” David said. “But I wouldn’t drink out of it until we know that it’s safe.”
Panic built within her. “How will I know it’s safe?”
“I can put some water treatment tablets in it,” he said. “But they need to be there for forty-eight hours before you can drink it.”
She thought of the seven cases of water that Arizona had sent that morning. “That’s okay,” she said.
