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“It is.” Hendrix got up and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Why don’t you consider it and come talk to me sometime next week.”
Ben’s forehead wrinkled in consternation. “I don’t think I could do that to Ellen...”
“She’s your boss, not your wife, Ben,” he said with a laugh. “For one reason or another, business owners lose employees all the time. It’s just part of free enterprise.”
Ben scratched his neck. “This is a little different.”
“How? If she’s as great as you say, I can’t imagine she’d begrudge you a better offer. I mean, you deserve to succeed, too. Can’t you use the raise?”
“Of course I could use the raise...”
“And you’d be a driller, not a driller’s helper. There’s something to be said for that, too. It’s always nice to come up in the world—make your parents proud.” He saw that Kurt was out of the bathroom and looking for him, so he and Ben exchanged numbers and he grabbed his beer. “I’ll be waiting for a call from you,” he said and waved to get his friend’s attention.
“What were you doing over there with Ben Anderson?” Kurt asked when Hendrix got close enough to hear him.
Hendrix wasn’t surprised Kurt knew Ben. The town was small enough that most folks were connected in one way or another. “After two and a half years, I’m finally hitting back.”
“What?” Kurt said, looking confused.
Hendrix glanced at the bar to see that Ben was still watching him. “Don’t worry about it.”
Ellen’s muscles were sometimes so sore she could hardly get out of bed. But at least she had jobs lined up for the next several months and would be able to pay her bills.
With a yawn, she groaned as she pushed herself out of bed. A shower and a cup of coffee would make all the difference, she told herself. It was worth getting an early start. If she and Ben could finish the Slemboski well today, maybe she could get paid. Although she collected half the cost up front, that only covered a portion of her expenses. The back half covered the rest and went to overhead and profit. As always, she was eager for her final check and to be free to move on to her next project. The faster she worked, the more she’d earn and the closer she’d be to buying a pump pulling unit, a piece of equipment that would make it much easier to fix or replace pumps in existing wells. She guessed her father made half or more of his income from “out of water” calls.
She put on some coffee before checking her phone to see if Ben could meet her at seven. She’d texted him last night to tell him she’d fixed the hose that’d gone out, so they were good to continue drilling today, but since she hadn’t yet received a response, she sent him another message.
Hey, you up? Let’s knock this out and have the rest of the day to relax. Then we’ll have tomorrow off and hit it hard again on Monday.
Unless she was under a tight deadline, she generally took Sundays off. Sometimes she was tempted to work seven days a week. But she knew her body probably couldn’t take the abuse. She pushed herself hard and needed to rest now and then.
Besides, she’d promised to help at the dessert diner so Talulah and Brant could spend the day together in Bozeman. With its wonderful smells, bright, cheerful colors and so many beautiful and tasty confections, Ellen didn’t mind serving customers and working the register for a few hours. It was nice to get cleaned up and do something different, have somewhere to go. Talulah always paid her. It wasn’t much—not nearly as much as she could make drilling—but enough to give her a change of pace and a small amount of cash.
By the time she stepped out of the shower, the coffee was ready. She poured herself a cup and drank it mixed with a little almond milk while scrambling two eggs. She knew better than to leave the house without breakfast. Since she rarely took time to pack a lunch and often got caught up in what she was doing, it could be quite a while before she ate again—just like yesterday.
A ding signaled a text while she was buttering her toast. Assuming Ben was finally answering her, she grabbed her phone.
But it wasn’t Ben. It was her mother.
Call me when you can.
Jan typically wasn’t up this early. So what was going on now?
Ellen was almost afraid to find out. Her mother went from one hard-luck story to another, which was part of the reason Ellen resented her father so much. After he’d left, nothing was the same. Her mother writhed in the bitterness she felt toward Lynn for “stealing” her husband and couldn’t get over the loss of her marriage, couldn’t make it on her own, let alone support a child, even in an emotional sense. And since, more often than not, she’d had to fight Stuart for the child support he owed her, they rarely had the money they needed. There were times Jan couldn’t even make herself get off the couch. Ellen felt she’d done more to take care of her mother over the years than her mother had ever done to take care of her.
Because that was still the case, she didn’t want to hear the latest. She’d moved away from Jan on purpose—had to get a break from the constant neediness, and her grandparents had made that possible. But unlike her father, she felt a responsibility to help. So she returned Jan’s call as soon as she sat down at the table to eat.
“There you are,” her mother said, sounding frantic.
“What’s going on?” Ellen kept one eye on the clock as she shoveled eggs into her mouth. “What are you doing up this early?”
“My landlord was just here, banging on my door.”
“Banging?Why would he be banging?”
“He’s mad because I can’t cover my rent this month.”
Ellen paused with her fork halfway to her mouth.Of course.“Why can’t you cover your rent?”
