Page 6 of Dandelion Sighs

“You’re doing better than me,” he said. “I’m jobless and renting a house from my brother.”

I never wondered why he was wandering around, but then I’d been out for coffee in the middle of the day too. Nothing about Jasper said he was lazy. “It’s not because there are no jobs in your field?”

He stretched his hands over his head, drawing his shirt tight across his broad chest. Wow. When he relaxed, he shook out his strong limbs.

Thank you, Mom.

“First, I got laid off,” he continued. “Then when Lily and Eliot married, he moved from across the border in Montana to Crocus Valley.” Crocus Valley was only ten miles away. “He hired me to be the Knight’s Cattle Company manager, and that’s what I’ve been doing until he and his siblings decided to sell.”

“You’re between jobs.”

“You could say that. After being outside for years, working in an office isn’t at the top of my list. Got any work for a handyman?”

I ran through the list of tasks to do at the resort. The roof on the old garden shed needed to be replaced. A few rooms could use new carpet. Others screamed for a paint job. The budget included a maintenance guy, but the man who had worked for Mom quit right before she passed, and he hadn’t had a raise in years. The stress had likely contributed to her heart attack. “What if I told you I did?”

Surprise flitted across his face. “I’d be out there with my tool belt on.”

That easy? He didn’t know the pitiful details. “We haven’t discussed wages or hours.”

“I just need something to do, Sheridan.” He was more serious than he’d been all morning, and that included the ash debacle. He’d basically been laid off, but he didn’t want to be idle.

I could respect that. “I’ve got plenty of that. I’d have more, too, if I could expand.”

“You plan to expand?”

I shook my head. “No plans. There’s no way to, but if I could get beach access?” I let out a wistful sigh. “If I could get direct access to the water and make it easy for the boaters to come up for food and drinks, it’d really help the bottom line.” And keep me—and everyone else—employed.

His jaw was tight. Was that alarm on his face? Whatever it was disappeared. “How could you do that?”

Did he know something about the property I didn’t? He’d been so open with me, surely he’d have told me something. “Well, I’d like to purchase the property between me and the docks, but the owner refuses to sell. Tells me she can’t.”

His nod was slow. “That’s too bad.”

“Right? I don’t even need the whole thing, but she said it can’t be split up. I’d negotiate, but no. She said to call back at the end of August.” I had the summer to figure my shit out.

He flinched. “That sucks.”

Was he that incensed because I was? The guardedness coming from him was unusual, but I didn’t know him. He’d been open and charming, and now he was…closed. I had no words for this turn.

“You’ll make it work,” he said with sudden authority. “You’ll be able to get Bishop’s Landing going again and be profitable.”

Warmth filled all the little empty cracks that had been cold since hearing Mom died. “Thank you. And you can start Monday.”

Jasper

“You got a job?” Alder set a to-go coffee cup on my kitchen table and sat across from me with his own. It was Sunday, and he was out running errands for work on his own house. Since I was renting from him, he stopped by to check on the place. Mostly to check on me, though he’d never say that.

“I did get a job.” My siblings worried about me. They were all happily paired off and doing great while I was unemployed, and thanks to my oldest brother, I wasn’t homeless. Technically, I was renting from him, but he gave me a good rate. He claimed he didn’t, but I knew better.

I was fine. Just…bored? Uninterested? As a ranch manager, I had a lot of animals to keep alive and healthy, and that included the cowboys working under me. These days, it was just me, and well, that wasn’t very stimulating. But two careers hadn’t worked out, and I wasn’t in the mood to watch another one fizzle out and die.

Alder took a slow sip. “You want me to guess what you’ll be doing? A birthday clown? Singing telegrams? Underwater basket weaver?”

“You know I can’t sing, and I don’t like jobs where I might get laid off every winter. Water freezes in the cold.”

“So, birthday clown?”

“I believe the kids just call me Uncle Jasper.”