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“Oh, yes, well, you might have inspired my interest a bit,” I answer, and get a chuckle out of him. Slowing my pace when I notice his limp, I keep talking so he won’t notice. “My favorite bow is back in Seattle, but there are others I like at Gramps. If there’s anything Russ and I can help with today, I hope you’ll put us to work.”
He looks up and chuckles at the sight of Russ walking around the side of the truck. “I’d be foolish not to put him to work. He’s bigger than an ox.”
With that, Lee begrudgingly welcomes us into his home, and we quickly discuss the more pressing work that needs to be done around his property before he lets Grandma start examining him.
Russ tilts his head toward the door and just as soon as I’m opening it to get started on the list, they start to help Lee out of the shirt he’s wearing.
In the barn, I quickly locate his wheelbarrow and start moving the wood my dad had chopped for Lee the day before, stacking it up on the porch. Besides being closer to hand on cold nights, the stacks of firewood will also work to keep the house warmer and add resistance in case anyone tries to open fire on the log cabin.
The door opens and Russ quickly crosses to relieve me of the wheelbarrow, but I shake my head.
“Maybe just help with loading and unloading, you’re too tall to push this thing effectively,” I tell him, and he cracks a grin when he realizes that he would more than likely be spilling the contents everywhere. “Next, we can milk the cows and feed the livestock, but this place is in good condition. Did he say how he got hurt?”
“He said a shelving unit tipped over on him when he was rearranging supplies. Considering how fast he changed the topic, he doesn’t want to talk about it, but he definitely broke a rib or two, besides his arm,” Russ answers me, but I don’t miss him looking around the property. “Are you sure he’s the only one living up here?”
“No,” I reply. “This is the first time we’ve properly met. What makes you ask that?”
“He just has space and supplies for more people, like he’s either hiding them or expecting them.”
“I’d think that if anyone was here, they would have helped him…”
“Unless they’re in cages,” Russ mumbles under his breath.
“Christ, do you have to immediately go creepy?” I hiss back, nearly upending the wheelbarrow as a shiver courses down my spine.
“Look, your grandfather is obviously a good guy and those two seem to think alike, so I have to wonder about Lee’s character if his closest neighbor hasn’t spoken to him in twenty years,” he says, holding up his hand when I would interrupt him. “Now, yes, I know Mike wouldn’t have let us come up here if he knew anything seriously bad about the guy, but you are my priority, Firecracker.”
“I love you too.” Winking at him as we load the last of the firewood onto the porch. “But it could be something as simple as Gramps thinking Lee cheated at Bingo, so let’s hold off on an imaginary human trafficking ring.”
“If you really love me, you’ll milk the cows for me,” Russ throws back at me, getting the laugh—and the promise—he was hoping for.
“I’ll milk the cows, you shovel the horse shit.”
“Cultivate the fertilizer, you mean?” he innocently asks, throwing out one of Grandma’s favorite lines.
Once we finish our tasks and start back to the house, Russ catches the scent just before I do and barks out a laugh. “They’re sparking up.”
“Grandma’s been a fan my whole life, Gramps will join her occasionally,” I tell him, not wanting to make light of it due to his sister’s addiction issues, that lead to her death.
“Did you? In school or back here?”
“I’ve tried it. Personally, I’d rather have a few drinks. Medically, I understand its value of course, but smoking makes me nauseous. Of course, I’m sure Grandma would have a few baked goods recipes up her sleeve.”
“I enjoy it when you have a few drinks.” A smile stretches across his face at the same time my face turns bright red, remembering the night shortly after we made it back home that Gramps opened his good booze. “Whisky makes you frisky.”
Lee opens the door to his cabin and follows Grandma out and I hope they chalk my blush up to the work we just finished.
“This stubborn old goat won’t come stay with us, so we’ll have to come back in a few days to make sure he hasn’t gotten into more trouble,” my grandma reports.
“Julia, will you come with me please?” Lee asks and immediately turns, heading to a large shed that sits across the yard from the barn. I follow him, with Russ at my heels.
He unlocks the door and is pulling it open when he notices Russ behind me and makes a face. “I’m not going to steal her away from you, Shrek.”
I can’t help the snort that escapes me when I hear that one.
“Russ and I learned the hard way that we always stick together when we’re not at home,” I tell Lee, not wanting to offend him nor relive our misadventures from the journey after the lights went out.
“It went bad real fast, didn’t it?” Lee asks, even though he quickly shifts his eyes away from mine; in that split second, I could see the sadness and worry in them. Enough to know that Lee did not plan on riding this out alone.
