“I’m waiting for the call from Maddy that says our other equipment is on its way,” Gabe said, patting the two-way radio strapped to his belt. “When it is, then we’ll get going.”
A bit stupefied, they all accepted the sweet tea that Del offered them. Blaze drank his slowly, got a second glass, and though it tasted just as good, the question as to when the other shoe was going to fall kept leaping around in Blaze’s brain.
Surely Gabe wasn’t as nice as he seemed. Surely, Gabe secretly hated them all. And surely Blaze was being stupid, letting his brain go on like this, rather than being focused on just getting through the summer, head down, so he’d come out at the other end intact.
“I’m going to call Joanna,” said Tom, getting up from the table.
Just then, Gabe’s two-way radio squawked at him and he slipped it from his belt.
“This’ll be Maddy,” he said. “I figure you’ve got about ten or so minutes, Tom. All right?”
As Tom went to the phone, he looked at Blaze and rolled his eyes a little, as if to indicate, yet again, Gabe was not acting like they all expected him to. Blaze shrugged, and smiled back at Tom, because there was nothing to be done except roll with the punches and get ready to jump out of the way.
Gabe talked to Maddy, her voice coming in sounding a tad metallic as they went over a list of things that needed arranging. When a beat-up truck showed up in the gravel parking lot, it was without much fanfare, though Gabe tucked his two-way back onto his belt, and hurried from the mess tent to the truck, unlike his usual self.
The driver got out, a tall man with messy dark hair and a flannel shirt that wasn’t tucked in. He and Gabe exchanged the handshake-back-pat greeting that Blaze had seen before, but the smiles on the men’s faces struck him—they were truly happy to see each other. Blaze’s curiosity raised its head as to who the man was and how he was placed in Gabe’s life to bring a smile like that.
Gabe waved the team over, and Blaze put on his happiest face.
“Who’s this, Gabe?” he asked in a saucy voice, meant to imply that the question was a jealous one, but that he was keeping a lid on it for now.
Still smiling, just about ignoring Blaze, Gabe gestured to the other man, presenting him.
“This is my friend, Jasper. We met in the army and then, when we got out, we both ended up working at the guest ranch. Jasper’s the blacksmith there.”
Jasper seemed pleasant and steady in the way that Gabe was, which was starting to make Blaze feel that every single person who worked at the ranch was decent and nice and hard-working, which would be cotton candy sweet and almost too much to bear if only the men he’d met weren’t devastatingly handsome.
What would it be like to live in a world like that, where you washed your hands because it was the right thing to do? Where you were polite to everyone you met, and you didn’t walk around thinking that the other guy was going to screw you over every other minute?
“Hey, guys,” said Jasper, accompanying his smile with a little wave. “I hope it’s going well, though I already know it is, seeing as Gabe is in charge.” He turned to Gabe as though, now that they were all introduced and practically old friends already, he needed to get down to business. “Where should I take this so you can unload it?”
“Over by the fire pit,” said Gabe. “I think you can get through the trees without having to go around the back way, and if you mash a few weeds along the way, that’s okay with us. Right, guys?”
“Right, Gabe,” they all said in unison, and Gabe smiled at them as if to reward them for calling him Gabe rather than sir, because he was just their team lead and not anybody special. He just happened to be in charge.
Following the truck, Blaze snorted to himself. As if Gabe wasjustan anything.
Chapter9
Blaze
At the site, the parolees helped Gabe and Jasper unload the power tools and safety gear. Then they watched while Gabe and Jasper set up the wood chipper and arranged the discharge chute so it pointed over the deep bed of the dump truck. After which, they waved Jasper off, and watched for a minute as he got into his truck and drove away through the trees.
“If we load this thing up with chips, we’re never going to get it out of here,” said Kurt in his rude way.
“There’s a service road just on the other side of those trees that we’ll take the truck out on,” said Gabe, ever patient as always. “When guests come, the service road will allow the retreat to haul in supplies or haul out trash, and so on. Which will keep everything tranquil, which is what they’ll be paying for.”
Kurt grunted under his breath and turned away, as if insulted at how coddled future guests would be, but Blaze thought it was smart.
A lot of things Gabe said sounded smart, like when he broke down the guidelines for the afternoon’s work, giving each man a task. No yelling, no threats, just clear instructions. Of course, this could all be a smokescreen and Gabe could turn out to be a grade A asshole at the end of the day.
“Aren’t you worried we’re going to hurt you with these tools?” asked Kurt as he tapped one of the axes with the toe of his boot.
“Well,” said Gabe after a pause long enough to have them all fidgeting. “I look at it this way. If you wanted to hurt me, you could have already.” With a small shrug, he turned away from Kurt and gestured at the tools.
“I’ll need one man bringing branches and limbs over here in a pile. I’ll need another man on the chipper. And two of you will go with me and I’ll show you how to use a chainsaw.”
Blaze raised his hand for the chainsaw even though he’d never used one before, as that sounded like it would involve a whole lot less bending and stooping. And besides, he’d get to work with Gabe and Tom, who was also raising his hand.
