Page 28

I t had been a long day at the clinic. Coupled with the poor sleep she got the night before had Tiffany beyond tired and wondering whether she should go to Timber’s or call it off.

Running almost every scenario through her head, she decided there was no point in not going because she was expected.

So, if she didn’t go now, it would cause more of a stir than being there.

As she drove toward his place and entered the turnoff, she could already see that the roadway had taken quite a beating.

Even as she arrived, empty trucks were pulling out.

It seemed they had been running steadily all day here, beating down the ruts in the dirt road, making it a whole lot easier to travel on now.

As she drove up to the main cabin, she was hard-pressed to find a place to park among all the other vehicles, where she would be out of the way. Kat saw her, smiled, and waved her to an approved parking spot.

Kat approached Tiffany as she exited her truck and said, “Come on into the kitchen. I could sure use a hand.”

Tiffany laughed and asked, “Okay, what are we doing?”

“Everything,” Kat declared. “I’ve got Dwight in there helping, or maybe I’m helping Dwight,” Kat clarified, with a smile. “A lot of people are here to feed.”

Tiffany followed Kat inside and quickly walked into the kitchen.

Dwight was there, manhandling a massive bowl of potato salad.

“Good God,” Tiffany muttered, as she raced over to help because the bowl could flip off the table at any moment.

She braced it while Dwight’s big strong forearms dug in there, tossing it rapidly, and the potatoes didn’t seem to break down. “This looks fabulous,” she noted.

“Oh, you wait and see. It will be fabulous when I’m done,” Dwight added, with a bit of a gasp. “I forgot what it was like to cook for so many though.”

“You’ve got experience doing this?” Tiffany asked.

“Yeah, some, though it doesn’t seem to be quite enough for this moment in time.” He looked over at Kat and grinned. “But Kat is always helpful when it comes to cooking for a crowd.”

“Cooking is one thing,” Tiffany noted, “but cooking for a big crew like this is something else altogether.” She wanted to take a head count, but she decided to focus on keeping the potato salad bowl upright on the counter instead.

She was aware of various noises coming from various directions.

She heard hammering, drills, other unknown machinery.

“Wow, I’m not even sure what’s going on, but it sure is a hub of activity around here today. ”

“Oh, it’s insane,” Kat murmured, and then she laughed. “But it’s all good, and it’s exactly the way it should be.”

“If you say so,” Tiffany muttered, glancing around now that Dwight had dismissed her. “This is pretty amazing.”

“It is.”

Tiffany stepped out on the deck with Kat, who pointed out where fence posts were being placed all along one section of the property.

Kat explained, “They’re working on fencing as much of the sixty acres as they can, and then cross-fencing to mark off pastures and paddocks, plus putting in access gates as well.

We’ve got one barn here currently and a crew of a dozen men over there, trying to get that barn fixed up structurally.

Still, the barn needs to have water and electricity before housing any of the animals coming here eventually.

Plus, we’ve got another crew of plumbers, electricians, and masons, all working on their assigned tasks in the barn and in the house.

I even hear we’re running a security crew, what with Max on the loose.

To tell you the truth, I don’t even know how many guys ended up here or what all they’re up to,” Kat admitted, with a laugh.

“I heard most of the guys brought tents and bedrolls and were looking forward to camping out in the woods.”

“With a bear on the loose?” Tiffany asked, frowning.

“I think bear spray is a pretty usual component of backpacking gear,” Kat noted, with a shrug. “Besides, these are our guys. They survived being overseas in much worse conditions. Still, I’ve got some temporary housing coming.”

Tiffany frowned. “Who’s paying for all this?”

“Everybody is here on their own, volunteering, just to help out Timber.”

“Jesus,” Tiffany muttered, staring at her friend. “That is incredibly awesome.”

“It is,” Dwight agreed, right behind her. “I don’t know whether Andy will come over or not, but he was invited for dinner.”

“That would be good,” Tiffany noted. “At least he would see the kind of people Timber is working with.”

“Do you think that’s an issue?” Kat asked, looking over at her.

“I don’t know,” Tiffany added, with a shrug. “But, with a grandson like Brian and a son like Max, I think it might do a lot of good for Andy to see what the best of people have to offer instead.”

“Sometimes you just don’t know what people are thinking—about these construction projects or just about themselves.” Kat sighed. “One minute it all looks workable. Then it seems absolutely nothing can be salvaged.”

“Maybe,” Tiffany conceded, frowning. “I prefer to think that Andy would see us as the kind of people who are just like him, trying to step up, making homes and businesses, carving out a life for ourselves.”

Kat looked over at Dwight. “I heard from Timber that you might be looking at buying a piece of land out here too.”

“I don’t know if Andy is willing to sell me a piece of land,” Dwight pointed out, “but I’m just looking to have enough for a home, just a small square. I know that’s something Toby is interested in too.”

Kat nodded. “Maybe Andy would be okay with having a few neighbors.”

“At least we’re good neighbors,” Dwight declared, with a smile.

Suddenly a loud gong came from outside, and then a whistle was blown.

Tiffany looked over at Dwight and asked, “Was that a makeshift dinner bell? Does that mean that the barbecue is on?”

“Yeah, it sure is,” he declared. Then he looked at Kat and asked, “Is the beer cold?”

Kat shrugged. “God, I hope so. Otherwise somebody’s in trouble if it’s not.” And, with that, she bolted around to the back of the house, with Tiffany on her heels.

Tiffany muttered, “You guys are really pulling this off.”

“Maybe,” Kat noted, with a chuckle. “Lots of pieces have to come together for this,” she murmured, as she checked to confirm that coolers of cold beer were spread out everywhere.

Very quickly they were overrun as men came from all corners, sniffing for food.

“Is this the end of the workday then?” Tiffany asked no one in particular.

One of the men stepped up and replied, “Nope, not while there’s still daylight.”

Kat looked at him, and he shrugged.

“We talked about it and decided that there’s a lot to be done and that time is short. So, we’ll pull another shift after this meal,” he explained. “At the end of that shift, we’ll be ready for more grub.”

The look on Tiffany’s face had him burst out laughing. “Don’t worry. More burgers would work. Hungry men don’t care what is cooked. We just need lots of it.”

Tiffany whispered to Kat, “Do I need to go to town and get more groceries?”

She frowned back at her. “I have no idea. I wasn’t expecting them to pull another shift.”

Badger came over a few minutes later, the sweat rolling down his back. As he reached in, grabbed a beer, tossed back half of it, he closed his eyes in joy and murmured, “God, I’d forgotten what it was like to pull a twelve-hour day like this. I need to get out of the office more often.”

“Yeah, and at the risk of sounding like your wife,” Kat began, “don’t hurt yourself.”

He grinned at her. “Something is so inherently good about doing a job like this,” he shared, a smile on his face.

“Not only are we helping a great guy for a great cause, but it’s physical labor that is great for the body as well as the soul.

So, aside from the sore muscles, I have a feeling all this hard work will do a lot more healing than hurting. ”

“You’re not kidding,” Kat muttered, kissing Badger on the cheek. “Dwight and Toby are practically unrecognizable. Not their normal grumpy selves at all, and they both want to stay.”

“There is definitely something special happening here,” Badger declared.

“As for me, I spend way too much time at a desk nowadays. And every single one of these men are here, not only volunteering for the assignment but also taking no pay.” He bent closer to the ladies and added, “What you may not know is that every one of them has also decided that they are pulling a third shift tonight too. As long as we have a backup generator and trouble lights or headlamps, we can keep on working.”

Kat frowned, but nodded. “That makes sense because they all want to work hard and then go home. Plus it’s summertime, and we have a few more hours of daylight.

So I can see the wisdom behind it. So it’s burgers and beer all around on repeat, so the men can go back and can get a hell of a lot more done tonight.

I also need to get home to the kids tonight.

I set up a babysitting plan for a few days of back and forth but this is getting big now.

I just didn’t want them here with so much traffic coming and going, and their loving to get into everything,” she finished laughing.

Just then another truck came rolling down the road.

Badger looked over and nodded. “Here come the sleeping cabins.”

“Sleeping cabins?” Tiffany asked.

Kat nodded. “These were custom built for us, and each one of them can accommodate twelve men. This expanded crew will all be here for at least the next few days, up to a week, and they need some place to sleep since Timber doesn’t have it, and this was decided to be better than individual tents.”

“Twelve men per sleeping cabin?” Tiffany repeated. “Wow. Wait. Two more trucks are behind the first. How many men do you have here, Badger?”