Both of Hailey’s fists were clenched tightly at her sides. “Kisses can’t stand those boys.” She attempted to keep an even tone. “He can hear them coming from ten miles down the road. You should see how crazy he gets when they have the audacity to actually drive into our driveway! I can’t even tell you how upset that poor dog … ”
Jack held up a hand to silence her, feeling his ebb of calm slowly fade. “The competition? Those … those … ” He couldn’t seem to find a word. “They threw a bottle!” He proclaimed it as though she hadn’t witnessed the assault with her own eyes.
She offered him an apologetic grimace. “They did.”
They stepped back toward the Jeep and eyed the shattered tail light. Jack felt a rush of blood through swelling veins course through his neck and up to the top of his head. Of all the crazy outbursts he’d ever witnessed, this one had to be the most thoughtless, reckless — his mind scrambled for the perfect word — idiotic. As Kisses slowly regained his composure inside the house, Jack wondered how long he’d be able to maintain his.
The non-threatening existence he thought he’d found? Shattered. Just like the broken glass at their feet.
He worked to keep his cool on the outside, but his insides boiled. His eyebrows arched in Hailey’s direction. Her words finally registered. “What do you mean, they’re the competition?”
She didn’t look any calmer than he felt as she dug her hands into the pockets of her jeans.
She gave an angry shake of her head. “Those boys make me furious! Remember I told you we’re the only reputable base station within a sixty-mile radius? Well,” her lightning blue eyes followed weaving tire tracks down the dusty country road. “There went the unreputables.”
He studied her face. “Those guys?”
Her disgruntled nod answered the question.
Without waiting for further explanation, he did a closer damage inspection, the annoying crunch of gravel beneath his shoes echoing the irritation he was sure both of them felt.
Hailey followed closely behind, the frown on her own face deepening with each step they took around the vehicle.
Jack bent to run a hand along the backside of his Jeep. He straightened his back, hands firmly placed on his hips. “They have good aim, I can say that for ‘em.”
“Not hardly.” Her dark eyebrows slanted in a frown. “They were aiming for your head.”
“They were what?” Before she could answer, he held up his hands to stop her. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.” He dropped his hands in disgust.
“Well, don’t take it personally. It’s me they’re mad at. I know that’s small comfort … ”
He interrupted. “No comfort.”
“Okay,” she conceded. “No comfort. But the deal is, Neal and Paul don’t want me to reopen this base station.” She kept her eyes on the broken bottle lying at their feet and added under her breath, “That seems to be a running theme around here.”
“I may regret asking,” I’m sure I’ll regret asking, he thought warily, “but what in the world is going on around here?”
He looked at her as if he actually expected an answer.
“Well, Jack, it’s a really long story, and one you really don’t need to concern yourself with. I really can take care of all of this.” She added under her breath, “Hopefully.”
“Listen, if I’m going to be associated with this business, I need to know what’s going on.”
She sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. “Alright, I guess we should have this talk. But I’ll give you the abbreviated version.” She gazed across the meadow to the other side of the road, prolonging the inevitable.
“When we were in the fourth grade, Neal and Paul’s daddy died.”
He halted her with a raised hand. “First, if you’re starting all the way back to the fourth grade, this sounds like it’s gonna turn into the unabbreviated version. And second, all three of ya’ll were in the fourth grade together? So they’re twins?”
She shook her head. “No. Just … well, that’s a long story, too.”
He gave the back of his head a rough scratching and urged her to continue. “All I have right now is time, so. Go for it.”
“Mr. Watson to that point had kept as tight a rein on those boys as possible, but after he was gone, they nearly ran poor Ms. Carleen to her own grave.”
“Hard to imagine.” She met his sarcasm with a knowing nod.
“Right. Anyway … ” her voice died away as she took a deep breath and continued. “The family had been struggling financially for some time.” Her eyes grew misty and she struggled to keep her voice calm. “My dad gave Mr. Watson odd jobs here and there to help out when he could.” She shrugged sadly at the memory. “But he was proud, you know? There was only so much he’d allow my dad to do. One morning my dad gave him some work trying to pull a flatbed out of the mud in our back pasture. Later that evening he had a heart attack.”
Hailey worked to recover her previous composure as her mouth twisted into a frustrated frown. She transferred her gaze between Jack and the battered Jeep. “Anyway, Neal and Paul were nothing but bullies to me and my sisters, even before they thought we caused their dad’s death. But after … ” She gave a long, exhausted sigh. “It’s been torture.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said at his silence. You wanna run. “But it really did get better until just recently. Both boys left for a while and worked as crop dusters for a small outfit on the other side of Houston.”
“A Watson brothers break for Barnes.”
She nodded adamantly. “You’d better believe it. That was the most peaceful this county has been since they were born, I think.” She stooped to begin carefully picking up glass. “Of course, that job fell through. You can’t stay smashed and pick fights with your customers and still keep a job.”
Jack dropped to one knee and cautiously helped with the cleanup. “So the boys blamed your dad for losing their dad since your dad had given him the work to do in the first place.”
She offered him a thankful smile. “Exactly. When they came back home, Dad had his business going, and they insisted he owed them a job, but of course, my dad turned them down. They vowed to get even, so they sold every bit of property they had left except for the small plot under their home, and now they’re trying to open a base station of their own.”
“Hailey, this is crazy.”
“I know. But I’m telling you, you don’t have to worry about them. I don’t see how they’ll pass inspection, anyway.” Her eyes carefully canvassed the ground for any stray slivers of glass that may have escaped their notice. Finding none, she straightened her back.
Jack stood too, opening the passenger side door and retrieving a small trash bag from beneath the seat. He emptied the glass from his hands and then held the bag open for her. “Here, make a deposit.”
She obliged, carefully transferring the sharp pieces to the plastic bag.
“So, to recap, Neal and Paul have been nothing but trouble since birth and we’re not going to worry about them.”
He looked doubtful. “That’s not a recap. That’s your personal opinion.”
“Educated opinion. From a lifetime of experience with those two.”
“Okay, ‘educated opinion.’ And you’re missing the point here. Forget about them passing inspection. Don’t you think they’re dangerous?”
She squared her shoulders, intending to end this conversation and get back on a positive topic. “Let me put your mind at ease. Everybody knows the Watson boys start drinking about the same time their eyes open in the morning. One time they even had the nerve to try to rent one of our planes. My dad refused, of course. That added fuel to the fire, let me tell you.” She dusted her hands against her jeans. “But, Jack, I’ve known them forever, and they’re basically a lot of hot air. They’ve let off steam now, they’ve let you know they’re around, so they should be fine for a while. That’s the way they are.” She met his gaze head on. “So that’s the story.”
“The abbreviated version.”
For a long moment, she looked back at him. “I don’t figure you need to hear anything more personal than that. Just the business end.” She shrugged. She knew she’d given him all the information he needed. “You still want the job?” Before he could answer, the glint of humor returned to her attitude. “Of course you do! You’ll never get bored here, that’s for sure.”
“You’re right about that. I doubt it’s ever boring around here.” His jaw clenched. “But you have to understand. I left working with my own father because I’m tired of constant adversity. You made your ad sound like a little piece of Heaven. I guess maybe I was hoping for something at least a little boring.”
She looked in the direction of the kitchen and twisted her lips in thought. “Well, I’d like to say you’ve come to the right place, but there may be one more slight, little, tiny hitch.” The thought of her mom’s irate face appeared before her eyes.
The look on his face was sheer disappointment.
“Don’t worry.” She took the small trash bag from his hand. “This hitch I can certainly handle.”
• • •
The look on Rinnie Holman’s face when Hailey relayed the news was a mix between disbelief and fury. She dropped the paring knife along with the carrot she was slicing into the sink. “You hired him? Just like that?”
“I offered him the job, yes. I think he likes us.” Hailey didn’t mention anything about the Neal and Paul incident in the driveway. “He’s fine. He has great references. He’s a good guy, I can tell. And a hard worker. He loves the Lord. And he loves his mom. What else do we need?”
Her mom let out a snort. “He said that ‘I love the Lord and I love my mom.’ He said that. Those exact words.”
“Not in actual out loud words, no. But it’s not hard to tell what kind of person he is.”
“After talking to him for thirty minutes.” Her mom’s outrage seemed to be bouncing off the kitchen walls. “And you put him in the cottage?”
“Mom, he has to have a place to stay for a few days. We can’t expect him to find a place in town the first night he’s here, can we?” She patted her mother’s forearm. “Stop worrying, it’ll be fine, you’ll see. It’s temporary. Just give the guy a chance to find a decent place in town. I know without a doubt that this is the right thing to do.”
“And I know it’s not,” her mother insisted, with an equal amount of determination, clutching her apron with wet hands. “Put a stop to this, Hailey. Now!”
“Come on, Mom, you’re getting your blood pressure up for nothing.” She circled her mom in her arms, offering an affectionate hug. “You’ll get used to the idea and realize that as usual, I’m right,” she teased, offering a silent prayer. Okay, Lord, it’s all about You and Dad. Soften her heart, please.
Her mother’s stiff body wiggled from Hailey’s grasp, returning her attention to the vegetables with sharp agitation. “We’ll just see about that.”
Something in her mom’s tone sent a warning flag to Hailey’s weary brain. “Now mom, you’re not going to fly off the handle like you did that time about poor Chester, are you?” The memory of her mother, letting loose with an earsplitting scream, chasing that poor little goat around the house with a broom, flashed through her mind. It was traumatic for the entire family, but especially for Chester.
“I’m going to have a talk with Mr. What’s His Name, and we’ll straighten this mess out once and for all. You’re not reopening this business, and that’s final.” Her mother turned from the sink and stepped toward the back door, tugging and fumbling with the strings on her apron in an angry effort to remove it from her waist. “And we’re not having a total stranger living fifty feet from our back door, and that’s final.”
“It’s fifty yards.” Hailey plucked a fresh ripe tomato from the countertop and stepped between her mother and the door. She held the tomato in the air. “Don’t make me use this, Mom.”
“I’m in no mood, Hailey, and you’d best get out of my way. Now.”
Hailey made moves at her mom as if she planned to launch the squishy red weapon at her. “Come on, Mom, be in the mood.”
This was how her dad had always smoothed her mom’s ruffled feathers. Why wasn’t it working for her?
Rinnie Holman slapped the tomato from her oldest daughter’s hand. It fell with a splat. Tomato seeds and juice covered the otherwise spotless floor. “Now look what you’ve done.” The words radiated at Hailey, and neither woman made a move to clean the mess.
Hailey’s teasing instantly vanished. Her heart dropped. This was more serious than she thought. And more serious than she wanted it to be. “I’m sorry, Mom. I was only trying to … ” She stopped herself. She was going to admit that she was only trying to do what Dad would have done. But, admittedly, maybe she was trying too hard. Maybe she was pushing her mom too quickly. Her throat tried to close up and she swallowed hard.
She certainly didn’t want to make her mom this upset.
“I don’t mean any disrespect to you, Mom. I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, Hailey. Yet you do what you absolutely well please regardless of how I feel or what I want.”
Hailey ripped a few paper towels from the roll attached under the cabinet and stooped to scoop squashed tomato from the floor. “I’ll go talk to him myself. But I’ll be honest with you, Mom.” She stopped to look up at her mother. “I won’t tell him to leave, but I will tell him how you feel. I love you dearly, but I have to do this. It’s what I’m meant … ”
“There you go again with that,” her mom shot back at her. “You sound like a blasted broken record. You have to do what you’re meant to do.”
Hailey’s heart ached. She rose to her feet and stepped to the trashcan to drop the soggy wad of paper towels. She felt like a broken record sometimes. She felt like a broken something every time her and her mom went at it. All I want to do is help mend this family. All I want to do is keep us together and afloat. All I want is for my dad to be here.
As the door closed behind her, Hailey heard the angry tones of her mom’s voice calling after her daughter. “You’re meant to break your mother’s heart? That’s what you’re meant to do?”
The words jabbed at her own heart. “No, Mom,” she whispered, stepping out onto the yellow brick road. “But I am meant to carry on. And so are you.”
Her thoughts fled to the One she knew she could turn to. Oh, Lord, please. Reason with her. Put it in her heart to understand. I know I keep asking You. I have to trust You.
Hailey continued on the path leading her to the other side of the hangar and to the cottage, where Jack Stinson had pulled his Jeep around to unpack what he’d need for a few days.
She wasn’t sure yet what she would say to him. His introduction to the Watsons didn’t go so well. How would he take her mom’s objections? The words will come, she reminded herself. Somehow, they always did.
She stopped in her tracks. Jack was treading the steps between his vehicle and the cottage.
The handsome lines of his face intrigued her. He had the sturdy shoulders of a linebacker. And the steady stride of a man on a mission. He seemed so perfect for her … for the business.
She gave herself a swift reminder. I’m not going to look at this man on a personal level. I can’t think of him as anything more than a colleague. An employee. A fine-looking employee … Sigh. Lord, help us, please. As she approached the Jeep, Jack looked her way and hoisted a bag of hanging clothes over a shoulder. “Well, Miss Holman,” was the extent of his greeting.
Her nod his way was slow and thoughtful. “Well, Mr. Stinson.” She attempted a genuine smile, but right now her lips feel heavy. I will not look at his eyes. This might be a bit more difficult than she thought.
First thing, she would take care of the damage done to his vehicle. And then she’d dig deep into her soul and insist that they get down to business. Putting in place her and dad’s safety policies and procedures first and foremost. Then making sure the Skycat IV is air worthy. The sooner the business reopened, the sooner her mom would work through the process of accepting it. It would be the best therapy for all of them. The same as it always has been for Hailey.