AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After I returned home, I sat at the kitchen table with a pen and paper and made a list of things we needed to do in order to restore the barn. A sense of excitement raced through me for the first time in a while, and I couldn’t wait to get started.
“THE BEAMS CAN GO over on the right side near the doors,” I said, pointing in that direction.
Peter drove the tractor to where I’d indicated, and I moved out of the way so the long beams wouldn’t hit me. We were a week into the barn repairs, and things were going well. I was excited to get started each morning, and instead of going into the office, I remained on call and worked on the barn.
Two days ago, Peter and Charlie had asked if I needed help, and the three of us had been hard at work ever since. We didn’t talk much, just did what had to be done. It made the work go faster, and it was peaceful. The three of us were similar in that regard. We didn’t need to fill the silence with words. We were men of action, and that action spoke louder than our words anyway.
“When are you going to get a girlfriend?” I asked Charlie.
He shrugged. “I can’t seem to find one I like, and the pickings are slim since Frank made his way through here before he settled down with Min.”
I chuckled. “Don’t I know it. Why don’t you join Kindred Matches?”
“Hell no! I’m not going on blind dates.”
“You aren’t totally blind. You message the women beforehand until you’re comfortable enough to meet them.”
He leaned on his shovel and frowned at me. “Didn’t one of them catfish you?”
“Yes, but she was a nice girl. If she hadn’t had an allergic reaction to shellfish, we may have hit it off.”
He laughed. “And the one recently that tried to plan your wedding?”
“I see Frank has been running his big mouth again.”
Charlie laughed. “Yeah. Nothing is quiet in that house.”
“Nothing is quiet anywhere when he’s around,” I grumbled.
“What are you ladies doing standing around?” Frank said, appearing out of nowhere, as if we’d conjured him.
“Speak of the devil,” I muttered. “We’re taking a quick break. What are you doing here?”
Frank stopped near us and looked around. “It looks good in here.”
“I asked why you’re here.”
He put his hands on his hips. “I thought you guys might like some help.”
Frank and help didn’t go together in a sentence. He worked hard, but his mouth moved more than his hands, and not much got accomplished. If he was going to help us, we would need to plan a few extra days of work to make up for it.
“What’s going on?” Peter asked. He hopped off the tractor and grabbed a bottle of water out of the small cooler we’d brought.
“Frank wanted to lend a hand,” I said.
Peter nodded in understanding. “You can drive the tractor. I have something else I need to work on.”
Frank shrugged and climbed into the seat of the green tractor. He started it up, and the sound echoed in the barn. He was good at driving heavy equipment, and Peter had given him that job so he’d work and not flap his jaws. It was smart. I also knew Frank would listen to Peter, and he wouldn’t listen to me.
“Did you talk to Laney yet about running your ad?” Peter asked Charlie.
“What ad?” I asked.
“I’m looking for a roommate.”
I lifted a brow in surprise. “What about Skip?”
Skip was Charlie’s best friend, and they worked at Wilson Farms together. The two were inseparable. When Jacob and Frank bought Charlie a house down the road from the farm, Skip had moved in. Frank and Jacob paid the mortgage for the first year, but that year was nearly over.
