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CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Lee spun in the rolling chair and opened one of the filing drawers behind the big desk in the office where he ran all the dairy operations. He put the newly signed contract for one of their decade-old customers in the right file and turned back to the desk. He didn’t love the indoor work that Cooper & Co required, but Daddy had systems in place, and Lee hadn’t messed with them.
If it wasn’t broken, Lee didn’t have time to fix it. Today alone, he’d already worked in the office to get the day’s orders printed on time. Clarissa usually did her orders by the week, but she’d been slowing down more and more lately. Lee had taken over the prepping of the paperwork for the day, and he did it the morning of the delivery.
Then Will and Rissa showed up, and together, the three of them pulled the product for all those coming to pick up their deliveries. On Wednesdays, Lee had to oversee the loading of a huge commercial shipment that went to six grocery stores from here to Arkansas, and that took a couple of hours.
He usually then ran over to the farmhouse to start something for dinner if he was using the slow cooker, and no one wanted the oven on in the thick of the summer months. School was about to start in another week, and Lee already mourned the loss of having Ford with him full-time.
Rose, Rissa, Gretchen, and Shay had put together an amazing birthday party for Ford that had dang near brought Lee to tears. Seeing how many people loved his son brought a dose of gratitude to Lee’s heart every time he thought about it. Seeing Rose interact with Ford was a special kind of magic, and while Martha was obviously very active and present in Ford’s life, Lee knew it would make a difference to have a mother and a father in the home full-time.
Martha hadn’t remarried yet, and Lee just wanted what was best for his son. He co-parented really well with her, and that hadn’t changed since introducing Rose into their lives. He’d always tried to be supportive of Martha’s dating adventures too, and he was glad they currently existed on a two-way street.
“Dad,” Ford said, a hint of frustration in his voice.
Lee looked up from the ledger on the desk. “Hey, son.”
He held up his hand, and Lee caught sight of a pick. “You missed our lesson.”
Panic pounded through his veins. His shoulders slumped. “Shoot, I’m sorry, bud. I just got going on some paperwork here.” He didn’t see a guitar. “Did you bring your instrument?”
“No.” Ford walked further into the office and slouched onto the couch. “I rode my bike over.”
“Let’s go do it,” Lee said, laying down his pencil. The ledger would wait. “You see if you can beat me back to the house on your bike.” He gave his son a bright smile and dashed for the door, Ford calling out behind him, “Da-ad! No fair!”
Lee laughed as he burst from the administration building, Ford right behind him. He pretended to hurry to get out his keys while Ford fumbled with his bike. Lee would let the boy win, something he’d literally never done for Will or Travis. His brothers were his best friends and closest confidantes, but Ford was his son, and Lee would do anything to make and keep him happy.
If that meant he “accidentally” dropped his keys and yelped like the world was about to end because of it, that was what he did.
Ford cackled as he biked away, standing up and pumping hard. “I’m gonna catch up!” Lee called after him. He yanked open the door and reached in to start the truck. The engine roared, but Ford didn’t look back. Thankfully.
He wanted his son to win, but he didn’t want to be caught losing on purpose. He did get behind the wheel and take a moment to buckle his seat belt. Accidents could happen, even in only a half-mile or less, and Lee took off down the road after his son.
Ford moved fast, but Lee caught up to him quickly on the straight parts of the road. He had to slow way down for the corners, and he let Ford pull ahead. Then he’d rev his engine and come up behind him again.
His son weaved out onto the dirt road, making it impossible for Lee to get by without hitting him, and Lee laid on the horn and laughed. He rolled down his window and yelled, “That’s cheating!”
“Is not!” Ford yelled back to him.
They pulled up to the cabin with Ford only a foot or two ahead of Lee, and he jumped off his bike with both hands in the air. “I won!” His chest heaved, and Lee should probably make sure the boy ate an extra-large lunch to make up for the energy he’d just exerted.
“Fine,” Lee said good-naturedly. “You won.” He laughed with his son and they went in the house together. Ford wiped his face with a towel and got a big glass of water from the filtered spout in the fridge door. Then he came into the living room where his child-sized guitar rested next to Lee’s full-sized one.
“All right,” Lee said, pulling his phone from his pocket as it started to buzz. Rose’s name sat there, and his heartbeat bobbed through his veins. He loved that the simple act of her calling him made his world brighter and his happiness soar. He swiped the call away, because he’d already missed Ford’s lesson.
As he did, his other notifications came up, and Lee saw he’d missed his son’s phone call four times. He frowned at the number, sure he hadn’t seen it right. His glasses were a smidge dirty, but nothing bad enough to make the four unreadable.
“You called?”
“A bunch,” Ford said. “You didn’t answer.”
“I had my phone.” He looked at Ford. “Sorry, bud. I wasn’t ignoring you on purpose.”
“I know.” He put down his water and picked up his guitar. “We were doing the G-chords.”
Lee knew what they were doing. His phone rang again, this time with his mother’s name on the screen. He tilted it toward Ford. “It’s Grandma.”
Ford nodded, his fingers moving along the strings of his guitar, and soft sounds coming from the instrument. He had a lot of talent, and Lee loved teaching him and listening to him play. In truth, he was probably better than Lee, and he hoped his son would love to play the guitar his whole life, the way Lee did.
