Page 3 of Burke (The Haven #2)

“So you’ve mentioned,” she quipped, followed by a laugh, “a few times.”

“But you keep ignoring me.”

“I’m not ignoring you,” she stated, “but, for the moment, it’s not exactly a doable idea.”

“Sure, it is,” he muttered, with a groan. “You spend nights here anyway.”

“I spend some nights there,” she clarified, correcting him. “So I don’t spend every night there, and, while being there is a lovely prospect, I just don’t want to push our relationship to the point that we jump into anything.”

“We’re hardly jumping into anything, but I hear you,” he grumbled, “so I’ll give you a little more time.”

“ Gee, thanks ,” she replied in a teasing voice.

He groaned in response, but a smile still popped up on his face. He looked up to see Burke stopping in the doorway.

Burke apologized for interrupting. “Hey, I need to help the men, but I hear from Toby you’ll be out tonight, right, Tiffany?”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him about picking up the supplies and confirm he’s got everything ordered and waiting on me by then.”

“Good enough. See you later.”

And, with that, Timber disconnected and looked over at Burke.

“Can’t get her to stay here?” Burke asked.

“Not full-time anyway,” he replied, “but it won’t be long.”

“No, it won’t, and you’re lucky you’ve got her.”

“I am,” he agreed. “Any problem?”

“No, but the guys were just wondering how you wanted to organize the day.”

“Right,” he noted. “I’m coming.”

“They were about to head out and continue the work assignments from yesterday, but I thought you told me there would be a change in plans.”

“Yeah,” he said, with a sigh, “that was the thought process, but I’ll see how it goes.” Timber and Burke headed out via the kitchen.

“It will probably go as well as you want it to,” Dwight interjected, having overheard most of their conversation. “As long as Tiffany is picking up groceries and coming out again tonight, no reason to change very much, is there?”

“No, she isn’t involved in any of the work-schedule changes anyway,” Timber noted.

Big Toby shook his head. “Except that her clinic will be in the works on the property too. So, you’ll need to get her input on any changes in the design.”

“Some changes, but thankfully not a ton, as she had a lot of input in the initial planning. We have lots of framers right now, so we’re trying to take advantage of that and get as many of the structures up as we can.

I was thinking we would do the other work as money, time, and the requisite skills came along,” he shared.

“I know that sounds like a strange way to run a business but—”

“It’s not a business though, is it?” Burke asked.

“It’s a passion,” interjected Jaxon, as he joined them, a cup of coffee in hand. “Getting the structures up so other trades can take over is huge.”

Timber nodded. “I know a lot of people look at this and wonder what I’m up to, but I never really gave a shit what anybody else thought before, so not planning on starting now.

” As all the men were grabbing coffee, Timber announced, “Okay, let’s sit down and get our plans going for the morning.

” And, with that, he lined up what the next stages of each project would be, with everybody adding in their suggestions.

When done, the men got up to head out to their designated spots for today’s projects.

Timber smiled at Toby and Dwight, finally seated and having their own breakfasts. Timber asked them, “What do you think?”

“I think it’s coming along great,” Dwight declared. “You’ve got a way to go on some of it, but you’re a hell of a lot farther along than I ever could have imagined at this point in time. It’s been amazing.”

“It has been, hasn’t it?” Timber asked, with a grin. “We’ve still got some of the men Badger sent our way.”

“Yep.” Dwight nodded. “Plus, you’ve got Burke here for anything else you need done.”

“I can give you a hand on some of the electrical,” Toby offered, pushing back his plate, “which I guess you’re close to needing next, aren’t you?”

“Since the foundation and the framing are all set up in the bunkhouse already, we’re just finishing off the small inner areas. We need the bathrooms and the lighting done in there, for sure.”

“Okay, so I’ll go work on the electrical today,” Big Toby confirmed.

“You need any help with that?” Burke asked.

“If you’re okay to let me have Sam, I’ll pull him in to help me. He was an apprentice electrician, and he’s damn good,” Toby stated.

Burke added, “I think we should help that kid get back into trade school again.”

“Is that what he wants to do?” Timber asked.

Burke nodded. “I think so, but he just figured he wouldn’t be able to.”

“Why not?” Timber asked.

“Because he’s got a prosthetic,” Burke muttered, looking at him.

When Timber frowned, Toby shrugged behind him. “We both know how that works, and, if it’s not fully functioning, we tend to think it’s a huge handicap—until we figure out that it’s not.”

“If the problem is the prosthetic itself, we should hook him up with Kat. If the problem is more about Sam’s mind-set, that’s something different. So will his injury be a handicap for him?” Timber asked, staring from Burke to Toby, then glancing over at Dwight.

“I don’t think so,” Toby declared, with a shrug. “Honestly, he’s doing just fine.”

“What do you want me to do?” Timber asked them, serious now.

Burke suggested, “Outside of having Kat check over Sam’s prosthetic, do we know any electricians in town who could take him in on a part-time basis?”

Timber nodded. “I can find out and give it a shot. Toby, do you know how Sam feels about it? If he wants to go back to school?”

“I don’t know,” Toby admitted, “but I’ll see if I can find out.”

“Okay.” Timber nodded. “I’ll sniff around and see if we have any prospects. I’m starting to have a little pull around here, just not a whole lot,” he noted, with a laugh, “but that’s not an issue. We’ll see what we can get to help out Sam.”

With that, Toby grabbed his work belt off the hook by the door and announced, “I’ll be working in the bunkhouse today, if you need me.” With that, he headed off.

Timber turned to Burke. “And what about you?”

“I can work over there too, or I thought maybe I could get some of the basic plumbing done at the medical clinic in those intake rooms.”

Timber frowned at that. “I forgot that you had a lot of plumbing experience.”

“Yeah, I do, and you’ve already got a great septic system, which is a huge boon, but we’ll have to run a few more pipes before that addition gets poured.”

“Right, we’ll need to expand that too, based on Tiffany’s input.” He winced. “That’ll be a huge project. Yet it’s definitely the right thing to do, but getting there all at once wasn’t what I expected.”

Burke shook his head at that. “I know. Getting there will be expensive, but you’ll still be way better off in the end.”

“I agree.” Timber smiled. “No doubt it’s the right thing to do, it’s just…”

“You mean, it’s the right thing to do, and, if it was somebody else’s money, it would be a whole lot easier to agree to it.”

Timber laughed.

“And yet, you’re loving it. I know that you absolutely love having that medical center here.”

“I do,” Timber conceded. “It’ll probably be my favorite building of all, but this has all moved a lot faster than what I imagined. And keeping on top of the to-do list, the expenses, and the timeline for each project is a huge headache.”

“Of course,” Burke agreed, with a smile, “and yet it’s part and parcel to creating the Haven right here, coming into reality.”

With that, the two of them headed toward the medical center and got to work. A lot of plumbing work had to be laid out, setting in big sinks for washing animals and additional sinks for the surgical sites. Two surgery rooms would be in here.

“You’ll need somebody to help Tiffany too, you know?” Burke pointed out.

“What do you mean?” Timber asked, turning to him.

“If she’s planning on doing surgeries here, and presumably moving her business here, she’ll need an assistant, if this will be a full-time deal.”

“I hadn’t thought about that. I think she was thinking more along the lines of it being full-time because there would be enough animals here to supplement those in her existing practice, which would make it full-time,” he muttered.

“It seems foolish to consider right now, but you’re correct. It could get very busy, very quickly.”

“I think it’ll get busy as soon as you get the word out that you’re open for business, and I suspect that you’re trying to hold that off as long as you can.”

“I am,” he confirmed, “because you’re so right. As soon as anybody knows my place is open for business, it’ll get a little chaotic, and we’re not set up for it yet. We’ve got a bunch of dogs, and that’s all good and easy, but…”

“And the horses?”

“Sure, we’ve got Andy’s horses now, and we’ve got Danny the donkey,” he added, with a smile, “and they’re all staying.

They’ll be lifers here. Now that we also have acreage for quite a few more horses, we’ve contacted some of the local rescues.

We’ll be offering land, at least on a temporary basis, until some of the animals have other homes or get other locations they can be moved to. ”

“I never thought of that. I guess that’s an important thing too, isn’t it?”

“It is, as not everybody has space for them, but that is something I can now offer,” he stated, with a smile. “We’ve got several acres over here in pasture now, and we’ll have a lot more.”

Just then his phone rang, and he looked at it and smiled. “This is somebody I was talking to the other day. I’ve got to take this.” Then he turned and stepped off to the side.

Burke heard the conversation, but he continued working on the list of supplies needed for this job that he was taking on.

He thought about everything that Timber was building and the size and the scope and how quickly it had enlarged, and Burke realized just how much life could be like that for him as well.