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15
Lee Cooper paced in the office inside the administration building. “This is a bad idea,” he muttered to himself, not for the first time.
His son, Ford, looked up from the notebook on his lap, but Lee shook his head and Ford went back to his homework. Love swelled in Lee’s heart, because his son was so precious to him, and he’d only had to ask once to get Ford to collect his homework and bring it with him this Saturday morning.
“How’s the math?” Lee asked, forcing himself to walk over to the black leather couch where his son sat. He sank into the cushions where Will or Trav usually sat. Sometimes Rissa.
Lee himself usually sat behind the desk, something that had been happening more and more as Daddy had been pulling back. Lee needed to have an honest, open conversation with his father, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to do it yet.
Mama had just had a bad month. At least that was what Lee told himself. Daddy stayed in more when she wasn’t well, and that meant Lee sat behind the desk nearly every day now.
He didn’t mind the paperwork so much, especially in the summer months, when the heat could make a man want to stay in bed for another half-hour simply to gear himself up to go outside. He knew all the forms now, and he’d familiarized himself with all their corporate clients, which was the bulk of who Cooper & Co dealt with on a daily basis.
Trucks and tankers showed up at the farm every single day to fill their bottles, cans, cartons, or containers with the organic milk produced by the dairy cows on the farm. Lee tried to be present every time one of their top tier clients arrived, and he arranged delivery for a select few companies that weren’t within driving distance.
In fact, Lee needed to call Fairchild Transport today and make sure the shipment to The Falls Grocer would go out by six tonight.
He’d do it after he checked on Ford’s homework and met with Gretchen Bellows. His stomach swooped again, and he checked his watch as he looked at the math paper.
“Multiplication?” he asked, as Ford hadn’t answered his question.
“I’m on sevens,” Ford said. “They’re not my favorite.”
Lee didn’t understand why anyone needed to learn to multiply anymore. He had a calculator on his phone and his watch, for crying out loud. “No?” he asked anyway. “What’s your favorite?”
“Nines,” Ford said. “I already checked them off.” He looked up at Lee and smiled. “There’s a trick to nines.”
“Is that so?” Lee asked, grinning back at his son. He could see himself in his son’s eyes, as well as the slope of his nose and the shape of his chin. Ford had his mother’s darker hair, and his mouth sat somewhere between Lee’s and Martha’s. “Teach me the trick.”
Maybe if he focused on his son, he wouldn’t worry about going behind Will’s back and signing a contract with Gretchen and Sweet Water Taffy to be their cream supplier.
He told himself—again—that Gretchen had called him. She’d asked him to keep it to himself for now, that she’d tell Will herself.
Lee had to trust her that she knew his brother and how to deal with him, but Lee had been around Will for forty years, and he knew with ninety-nine percent of his heart that his brother wouldn’t like being in the dark about this new customer.
He focused as Ford taught him how to multiply nines, Lee found himself chuckling and getting all the answers right.
“Hello,” a woman said, and Lee looked over to the doorway, though he knew it would be Gretchen Bellows.
His heartbeat flew up into his throat for all the wrong reasons. Lee wished it was because a beautiful woman had shown up on the farm to talk to him. Gretchen had, but for a completely different reason than Lee wanted.
“Howdy,” he said. “C’mon in.” He got to his feet and took the few steps to meet her at the door. He shook her hand and turned back to his son. “This is my son, Ford. He’s just doing his math homework.”
Gretchen grinned at him and said, “Nice to meet you, Ford.”
“Is it okay he’s here?” Lee asked. “I don’t normally work in the office on Saturdays.”
“It’s fine,” Gretchen said, switching her kind smile to him. “You told me he’d be here.”
“Right,” Lee said, trying to swallow his nerves. “Have you talked to Will?”
“It’s on my to-do list,” Gretchen said, nodding toward the chair. “Is this a sitting-down affair?”
“Yeah, sure,” Lee said. He went behind the desk while she took a seat. “I’ve got your contract printed and ready to go over.” He plucked it from the printer on the counter against the back wall and reached for a stapler.
Onecha-clunklater, he laid it on the desk in front of her. “It lays out our policies for delivery of the product. We might have some issues fulfilling large orders, but you’re doing such a small amount, I can’t imagine we’ll have a problem for you.”
Gretchen picked up the three-page document and looked at it briefly. “I’m coming to get the cream,” she said.
