“If it’s okay I’ll skip it,” Shelly said. “I haven’t even showered yet today. Sorry Glenn.” She laughed. “I’m sure that’s too much information.”
“No judgment here.” He liked Shelly. There was no artifice to her. He wondered if she was as conflicted as Cassie about their dad. He’d tried to convince Cassie that nothing about the heart attack was her fault, but it was hard to let go of that kind of self-doubt. It ate away at him too. Always second guessing himself about Lilah. He’d stood firm on Colorado even though she was still badgering him to let her go. But he was right; he knew he was.
Still. It killed him that things were rocky at home. Lilah hadn’t watched TV with him in a week. They ate together, then she disappeared into her room right after dinner. But if he gave in, she would run all over him. And bottom line, he didn’t like the idea of her alone with Sophie all summer.
They helped Mr. Linden into the truck, and Cassie got in front. He thought she might say what was on her mind, but with her dad in the back seat she stayed quiet. Glenn rolled down the windows. It was a gorgeous day. Early June, his favorite time of year. Long days. Plentiful forage for the bees with the belly of summer still ahead. With an active queen, a healthy colony could triple in size over the summer. It amazed him every year how fast the bees ramped up.
Mr. Linden seemed rejuvenated by the fresh air. He gazed intently at the hives, which from this distance looked like filing cabinets that had been deposited in the middle of the field. “Those are where the bees live.”
“Yup, those are your hives.”
“Hives,” Mr. Linden repeated, like he’d never heard the word. Where did a word like that go? The man had been tending bees for years. How could he forget something as basic ashive? But maybe he hadn’t forgotten. Maybe his mind was just gummed up, and seeing his bees would cut through the clutter.
“Believe it or not, the confusion’s better,” Cassie said in a low voice. “I mean, relatively better. He didn’t even know where he was in the hospital. He thought I was my mom and Shelly was me.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t evenimagine.” He gave her leg a brief squeeze. No wonder she was tense, she had a shitload on her mind.
They left the gravel surface of the driveway, and Glenn bumped over the grass, going slow so as not to jostle Mr. Linden. The field had been mowed, but near the hives it had grown tall and weedy, the landscaper clearly wary of getting too close. Glenn hadn’t been back since he put in the drone comb a couple of weeks earlier. The cells wouldn’t be capped yet, but it couldn’t hurt to take a look.
He’d expected Mr. Linden to watch from the truck, but as soon as they stopped, he unbuckled his seatbelt.
“All right,” Glenn said, “if you want to get out, let’s watch your step.” He guided the older man out of the truck and helped him put on a veil. The bees were agitated. A few buzzed around their heads, and a platoon of guard bees eyed them suspiciously from the entrance. Something might have riled them up earlier, maybe a skunk nosing around. He frowned at a stray yellowjacket cruising at mid altitude near the hive. That was a worrisome sign. Even one wasp could mean a nest nearby. Wasps could wipe out a weak colony in no time.
He puffed a little smoke to calm the bees, then cracked open one of the boxes. Every other time he’d been here, Mr. Linden had wanted to help, but now he seemed content to lean on the walker. Glenn lifted out a comb. “She’s been laying drone, see? Just like we wanted. Some of it’s even capped already.” He pointed to a row of cells that had been sealed off with a pale cover of wax. “If we’re lucky, the mites are in there with them.”
“See that, Dad?” Cassie said, but Mr. Linden didn’t appear to recall any of this. In fact, after a few minutes he lost interest. A few weeks ago, he’d been out here himself, wrestling with the hives, trying to light the smoker. Sure, he had some memory issues, but he’d been functioning okay. The heart attack had knocked him down.
Glenn slotted the drone frame back into the box and pried open the next one. This colony wasn’t doing as well. “She’s laid some drone eggs,” he pointed out, hoping to engage Mr. Linden, “but the pattern is spotty. A healthy queen should be laying more vigorously than this.” With his hive tool he scraped out the inside of a cell and saw the telltale red varroa mites clinging to a translucent larva. The powdered sugar and even the drone comb hadn’t done the job.
He was about to open up the new hive too, but Cassie suggested they head back. Mr. Linden didn’t argue. When they got him into the truck, he leaned against the headrest and closed his eyes. Glenn couldn’t get a handle on Cassie’s mood. Not quite aloof but holding herself back in some way. Had he done something to upset her? He’d been there for her at the hospital, he’d rushed right over. And he’d been checking in every day, at least briefly. A fissure of worry opened up inside him. He wasn’t good with women. Things started out well but somewhere along the way, they tired of him. Sophie had. Even Lilah was pulling away. He wasn’t easy. He knew that. He was opinionated, and okay, he could be downright moody. But when he was in, he was all in. He didn’t know any other way to be.
“I guess I’ll take off now,” Glenn said once they got her dad back to the house, but Cassie said, “Let me just get him settled. Can you stay a minute?”
He sat on the front step like the hired help, his stomach churning. Was she about to tell him she didn’t have time for a relationship? Her life was crazy, but whose life wasn’t? Or maybe Shelly had sized him up and told her she needed to find a lawyer, not a beekeeper. He’d fallen hard, that was a mistake. And sleeping with her had only made him want her more.
“Sorry to turn you into the chauffeur,” Cassie said when she emerged a few minutes later. She’d brushed her hair and put on lip gloss, which gave him a spark of hope. If she was about to break up with him, she wouldn’t have bothered. Would she?
“I didn’t mind,” he said. “At least he got out for a few minutes.”
They stepped off the porch and by unspoken agreement cut across the field. Wherever this was going, better to talk about it away from the house.
“So what’s the story with that second hive?” she said. “It didn’t sound good.”
“There’s time to requeen this season if we do it soon, that way the colony can build back up before winter. You might lose it anyway, but it’s worth a chance.” He was about to explain the mechanics of introducing a new queen but when he glanced over she was gazing off toward the street, and he got the sense she wasn’t listening.
They skirted the hives, ending up at the stone wall that bordered the woods. A chipmunk raced along the top, then dove into a crevice and vanished with a flick of its tail.
Glenn waited, his heart stumbling. Something was wrong but he didn’t know what. How could he fix it if he didn’t know what it was? They sat on the wall in the dappled light, and he waited for her to speak.
When she finally looked at him, she seemed edgy and unhappy. “We’re selling the property. My dad agreed. Even if he regains some strength, he can’t live here. It’s impossible. He can’t even get up the stairs. He needs someplace on one floor with memory care too.” She glanced across the field toward the hives. “So I don’t know what to do about the bees…”
Glenn felt a rush of relief. That was it, she was worried about the bees? It wasn’t about him after all. “Don’t stress about that. Once we get the mites under control, I’ll figure something out. Or the new owner might want them. You never know. Focus on what you need to do for your dad.”
She let go a sigh. “There isn’t going to be a new owner. I mean, there is…oh, there’s no good way to say it. Weber’s made an offer and we’ve accepted.”
He blinked, not sure he’d heard correctly. “You’re selling to Weber?”
She scraped at a loose stone, causing a fall of fine dirt. “It’s a lot of money, much better than anything we could get on our own.” She glanced unhappily toward the house. “You’ve seen what kind of shape the place is in. We’d have to spend a fortunebefore we could even list it. He’s offered to buy it as is. We don’t have to do a thing.”
