Loving The Country Boy (Barrett's Mill Book 4) (4 page)

“How’d you—oh, right. Your wife has binoculars.”

“Technically, they’re mine, but she uses ’em a lot more than I do. Just thought you oughta know the hens are watching you, so make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

“Thanks for the heads-up.” Heath figured saying anything more than he already had would only get him a lecture he didn’t want, so he deftly changed the subject. “I made out a parts list for this monster. It’s on your desk.”

“I’ll go call it in.”

“Y’know, they’ve got a website where you can enter everything yourself. You get an email confirmation and a quicker delivery date because they don’t have to pay someone to answer the phone and write it all down.”

Fred gave him a baffled look. “Then what happens to Edie, the nice old lady who takes down orders for them? One of the reasons I deal with them is I like talking to a person instead of punching my way through some automated menu till I finally get to the right department.”

“She could spend that time doing other things.”

“Like what? It’s a parts warehouse. You think they’re gonna teach her how to drive a forklift or something?”

Since he’d never given any thought to how their parts supplier functioned, Heath didn’t have an answer for that one. “Okay, you got me there. Edie wins this round.”

“Good boy. Now, get back to work before I take this break outta your lunch.”

He punctuated that with a vague motion toward the jacked-up sedan then headed back to his office. While Heath did his best to go along with Fred’s order, all on its own his mind circled back to the original topic of their odd discussion.

Tess.

As he resumed dissecting his unusual morning, one thing became very clear to him. In a village this size, chances were they’d be seeing a lot of each other. That meant he had to come up with a way to deflect all the unwanted attention they seemed to be attracting whenever they were together. Because if he didn’t, the gossips were going to drive both of them nuts.

Chapter Four

O
bviously, these men were completely helpless.

Appalled by the minimal basic skills the sawmill’s crew of carpenters seemed to possess, Tess grumbled to herself while she made two pots of long-overdue coffee for the commercial system in the lobby. The trail of donut crumbs leading back toward the saw area told her they’d at least managed to feed themselves, so she got a broom from the supply closet and swept the mess out the front door and off the porch. Boyd and Daisy probably took care of that on a normal day, she thought as she went around opening windows to let in some of the crisp fall air.

But this wasn’t a normal day, and without Chelsea here to get everything organized for her, Tess had a lot of catching up to do. Squaring her shoulders, she strode into the office and took stock. There was no point in sugarcoating it, she realized. The place was a complete wreck. Paperwork, receipts and invoices were strewn across the desk, and a light dusting of animal fur covered pretty much everything. Even though she wasn’t allergic, just pawing through the layers got her sneezing, and she changed tracks. Clean first, then organize.

With the benefit of some perspective, she recognized that was what she should have done yesterday. The problem was she’d been too overwhelmed by her unfamiliar surroundings to be sensible about—well, anything. Her unhelpful deer-in-the-headlights attitude was history, and she promised herself she wasn’t leaving today until everything was processed and neatly tucked in its proper place.

Chelsea’s baby wasn’t due for another eight weeks, and her condition was more delicate than Tess had understood until this morning. Now that she had an inkling of how the rest of the pregnancy might go, it was obvious to her that she’d have to be lighter on her feet than she was accustomed to. In the interest of beginning her new, more independent life, she’d have to learn how to cope when things went awry. It wasn’t just about her anymore, and her family was counting on her to pitch in and keep the business running as smoothly as Chelsea had.

She’d never been in charge of anything before, but there was no one else to take on that responsibility. Feeling way out of her depth, she pushed her doubts away and finished tidying up the waiting area.
One task down
, she thought morosely as she reluctantly trudged into the office,
a hundred more to go
.

When Scott poked his head in the door, she snarled, “What?”

Her cousin backed up, his brown eyes narrowing in response to her mood. “Just wanted to let you know we’re firing up the saws. It’s gonna get pretty loud out here.”

“Thanks for the warning,” she replied in a slightly less cranky tone. “I’m sorry for biting your head off. It’s just—”

“This place is a disaster zone, and you don’t know what to tackle first,” he filled in with an understanding smile. “Mostly, you’re worried about Chelsea and the baby. We all are.”

Tess had grown accustomed to managing life’s unexpected curves on her own, and she found it comforting to know she no longer had to hide her feelings and soldier on, no matter what. “Thanks for understanding.” Looking around, she muttered, “Those headphones must be somewhere.”

Grinning, Scott reached around the door frame and plucked them from a hook on the wall. Exactly where Chelsea had left them, of course.

“Thanks again,” she said, feeling slightly ridiculous. Fortunately, he didn’t mention it, which she really appreciated.

“Sure. I’ll come let you know when it’s safe to take them off.”

With that, he sauntered back toward the production floor, sliding the heavy door shut behind him. Built of solid oak, it blocked some of the sound but did nothing to blunt the thumping vibrations that shook the mill house while the equipment was operating at full speed. Tess focused her attention on the bookkeeping and after a while, anything that wasn’t on the computer screen faded into the background. She was sorting through the online orders that had come in when she noticed the screen on her cell phone blinking with a call.

When she saw it was Paul, she ripped off her headphones and hit Answer all in one motion. “Hello?”

“Hey, Tess,” he answered in an exhausted voice. “How’re things going out there?”

“Oh, fine.” Suddenly, she realized everything was ominously quiet, and the floorboards were no longer shuddering beneath her shoes. With the backlog of orders lined up to be filled, that couldn’t be good, but she decided not to mention it to Paul. “I assume you’re calling with news.”

“Yeah. We’re home now, but the doctor doesn’t like the looks of Chelsea’s blood pressure or the baby’s heartbeat. She’s on bed rest for the duration, starting now.”

An argument was brewing out on the shop floor, and Tess cupped her hand around the phone to keep it from reaching her worried cousin. “You sound wrung out yourself, so stay home today. We can handle this place for a day without you.”

“We? It sounds like you’re trying to take over my business.”

“Trust me, if I was going to do that, it would be at a nice little boutique where I don’t have to worry about losing my hearing,” she retorted in her sauciest tone. “Your precious sawmill is safe from me.”

“Good to know.” She heard a muffled back and forth, then he came back on the line. “Chelsea wanted me to remind you the printer’s been repaired and is waiting for you at the office supply store in town. Unless you want to write everything down by hand for the crew, you’ll need it.”

Tess swallowed a groan of frustration. Apparently, this was going to be one of those days. “Right. Now go get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Actually, if you can make do without me, I’d like to take Thursday and Friday off, too. Chelsea can’t go up and down the stairs for the next few weeks, so I have to hurry up and finish the extra bathroom I’ve been working on to get everything she needs on the ground floor.”

“Not a problem,” Tess assured him, hoping she came across as more confident than she actually felt. “Chelsea and the baby come first. Take all the time you need.”

“We’re not going anywhere, so call if you get stuck on something.”

“Will do.”

After she hung up, she summoned every ounce of her patience and went to see what the fuss in the back room was about. The sliding door was even heavier than it looked, and it took a determined push for her to get it open. Once she did, she wished she hadn’t.

It looked like several pieces of machinery had exploded at once, spewing oil over everything from the equipment to the hewn lumber that had been stacked according to size in the center of the room. Scott and Jason hadn’t escaped the deluge, and they were standing by the long saw run, arms folded stubbornly while they glowered at each other and debated what to do. As their argument escalated into an all-out shouting match, she shook her head in disgust.

Boys. No matter how old they got, they could still be the dumbest creatures on the planet. Since they didn’t seem to understand that yelling wouldn’t solve anything, she strode in to impose some kind of order. She waited a few seconds for them to notice her then realized they’d probably go on like this until one of them either conceded or ran out of air. Being Barretts, neither of those was likely to happen anytime soon.

Filling her lungs, she yelled, “Hey!” That didn’t make an impression, so she tried again. “Shut up!”

Nothing. Exasperated beyond belief, she recalled the advice her grandmother had given her earlier and went for broke. “If you two morons don’t cut it out, I’m calling Gram.”

That one got through, and her ears rang in the sudden quiet. Shaking her head to clear them, she went on. “Will you please tell me what has you guys at each other’s throats?”

They started in together, and she held up her hands. “One at a time. Start with explaining to me why the saws aren’t running.”

They glared at each other, but fortunately, Jason backed down. “You’re older. You go first.”

“As you can see,” Scott began with a dismissive motion toward the archaic equipment, “everything went haywire. Paul’s the only one who knows how to fix this relic, so I think we should call him.”

“And I don’t,” Jason chimed in, his jaw set with determination. “He needs to be with Chelsea right now, not worrying about this place.”

“You’re both right.” While she relayed her brief conversation with their big brother, she watched as their obstinate expressions gave way to worry. “Isn’t there someone else on the crew who can help with this?”

“Hank and Joe are gone all week for their annual fishing trip,” Scott replied. “We’ve got part-timers starting up next week, but we can’t run any more raw material without the saws. If we can’t figure out how to get them running, we’ll have to close down till one of those three comes back.”

Tess was hardly a manufacturing expert, but she understood that losing even a day or two of production this time of year would be a major setback for any business that was so reliant on the holidays for their annual revenue. Judging by the spreadsheets she’d been working on, profit margins at the sawmill were razor-thin as it was. If they lost any ground at all, the company her family had fought so hard to resurrect might very well end up back in bankruptcy.

It wasn’t only the Barretts who relied on sales of the custom furniture for their income, she knew. While the small staff of carpenters and assemblers worked only part-time, for many of them the extra money they earned made the difference between living comfortably and barely scraping by.

“You’re the college girl,” Jason teased her with a grin. “Any ideas?”

“No, I—” Inspiration struck, and she snapped her fingers. “What about Heath?”

“Mechanical genius,” Scott agreed, “but he’s got a job, remember?”

“Maybe I can talk Fred into giving him the afternoon off. You know, as a favor to us.”

“I’m married to his niece,” Jason pointed out. “So I’m practically family. I can go into town right now and ask him.”

His older brother vetoed that idea with a firm shake of his head. “You’ll stop by to have lunch with Amy, and I won’t see you the rest of the day. I can’t run this place by myself, y’know.”

Considering how they’d been going at it just a few minutes ago, Tess expected that to start another argument. To her relief, Jason conceded with a sheepish grin.

“Okay, you got me there,” he admitted. “Guess that means it’s up to you, Tess. Meantime, we’ll go outside and get some fresh lumber ready to go.”

In the time she’d spent getting to know the Southern branch of her family, she’d learned that was the Barrett spirit. They took their best run at Plan A, but if that didn’t work, they regrouped and tried something else. While she headed back to the office, it occurred to her that she must have inherited some of that natural resilience, too. If she could find a way to tap into it, maybe it would help her reboot her life. Solving this particular problem might not be a huge deal to some people, but for her it was definitely a step in the right direction.

It occurred to her that none of them had questioned whether or not Heath would agree to lend a hand with the cranky old machinery. Where she was from, that kind of assumption could get you in all kinds of trouble, but it seemed that here people pitched in when and where they could. She only hoped that once he diagnosed the problem, Heath didn’t discover he’d taken on more than he bargained for.

She was about to dial the number for Morgan’s Garage when another thought materialized. This wasn’t Los Angeles, it was Barrett’s Mill. Around here, folks probably didn’t ask for this kind of special consideration via email or over the phone. Basically, Fred would be giving up an afternoon of Heath’s valuable time, reassigning those jobs so his employee could go help someone else. If she wanted to do it right, she’d go in person.

She had to pick up the printer anyway, she reasoned as she got her purse and went out to the truck. While she was in town, she’d get some lunch for all of them. With the way things had gone today, it would be nice to eat something more than sandwiches out of paper bags.

Driving toward the main road, she glanced at the mill in the rearview mirror and allowed herself a little smile. She’d been here only a couple of days, but already she was actively involved in the family business. After being consumed by the fateful twists and turns she’d been trying to navigate, she’d finally taken off the blinders to find that her life held much more potential than she’d realized.

And it felt wonderful.

Even though it was late morning now, she had no trouble finding a parking spot near Mill Office Supply. Just another difference between the crowded streets she was used to and this charming village. No circling the block waiting for someone to pull out of a space barely long enough to accommodate a compact car. When she got back to LA, she’d have to remember to brush up on her parallel parking. She didn’t doubt that after a two-month break, she’d be sorely out of practice.

Inside the shop, she found the clerk perched on top of a ladder, arranging binders and composition books on one of the higher shelves. “Good morning.”

“Hang on just a sec,” she replied, taking the last few notebooks out of the box before dropping it to the floor. Brushing off her hands, she descended the steps and gave Tess a bright, helpful smile. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m Tess Barrett, and I—”

“Oh, I know who you are.” Laughing, the friendly young woman offered a hand. “Paige Donaldson. I’ve heard all about you from my grandma Lila. She and your gram are like this.” She twined her index and middle fingers together like a pretzel. “How are you liking our little town so far?”

“It’s beautiful,” Tess replied with sincere enthusiasm. In the short time she’d been here, her father’s hometown had really grown on her. “And the people are so friendly.”

“That’s us,” Paige agreed with a bright smile. “Beautiful and friendly. I’d imagine you’re here to pick up that printer Chelsea dropped off last week. How’s she doing, by the way?”

Unsure of how much to say, Tess opted to keep her response vague. “The doctor’s keeping a close eye on her and the baby.”

“Well, next time you see her, tell her we’re all keeping her, Paul and the baby in our prayers. And give her a hug from me.”