“Is that Logan Marten?”
We both glanced over to see Tessa’s dad walking toward us. I grinned and stepped forward to shake his hand. He had come from the orchard, wearing his overalls and a shade hat. You had to like Frank. He was one of my dad’s best friends, and anytime the two of them were in the same room, you’d find them in some corner, shooting the breeze, swapping stories about farming. Frank had a quiet demeanor. He wasn’t a big talker unless you hit on exactly three subjects: trees, produce, and golf. Lucky for me, I knew a little about all three.
“How are you, Frank?”
“Busy. Where you at on the office building?”
“It’s going alright. A couple more days and we should be done framing. Once we pass inspection, we’ll be ready for you.” Nate had Frank coming out of retirement to do the plumbing for the new office.
He nodded, wiping sweat from his eyes. “Me and Nancy are going to look at it tonight. You do fast work.”
“I’ve got a good crew.”
“Did Tessa offer you a piece of hot-fudge cake? She made it last night. I’m not one to dole out compliments, but I went back for seconds,” he teased, smiling over at Tessa.
“She actually just offered to bring me a big piece with some ice cream.”
“Did I?” She looked a mixture of amused and annoyed, which suited her greatly. I just hoped that was a mixture that would bring me cake.
“Hey, Logan, since you’re here, maybe I could pick your brain for a minute,” Frank said, as he motioned me toward the wrap-around porch.
The two-story white farmhouse had seen better days. Two of the five front steps leading up to the porch were hanging on by a couple of nails, one stair had a foot-sized hole in it, and the railing posts surrounding the porch needed more nails and a bucket of paint. As Frank walked me up the stairs, I couldn’t help noticing the porch was in desperate need of new wood planks.
“I’m sick of tripping on this porch every morning when I come outside. I wish I had time to do it, but every spare ounce of my time this summer will be spent in the orchard. Would this be something you could help me with? In the evenings and your down time, of course. And that’s only if your dad hasn’t already called dibs on your weekends.”
I squatted down, checking out the flooring. “Gotta be honest, I’d rather do this than fall asleep driving a tractor. This is redwood, right?”
He nodded. “We have the original stain we used in the garage. Could you change out the rotting wood and stain it to match?”
I shook my head. “It wouldn’t look even. The stain you have out here has been weathered. If you want it all to match, you’d have to sand the whole porch and re-stain.”
He sighed as he mulled it over. “Dream crusher. That’s what I thought you’d probably say.”
I smiled and looked over at Tessa, who was listening to our conversation like a rabbit before something scared it away.
“Your porch rails are pretty standard. I think those would be easy enough to find to replace the broken. The stairs are an easy fix. The biggest hassle would be sanding and re-staining the flooring.”
“Is this a project you’d be interested in?”
I hesitated. I really didn’t have much time. Between the office job and helping my dad on Saturdays, I would have to squeeze it in after work. I scanned the porch once more, assessing to the best of my ability the price and amount of work.
I should have said no. I didn’t have the time. Jake was already getting a lot out of us this summer, and I didn’t want to add seeing Tessa every day to his list. But he was my dad’s best friend. I remember one particularly warm spring when our fields had flooded, and Frank had spent two days helping us sandbag around our house to keep the water out. So, instead of telling Frank no, I found myself saying, “Yeah. I can do that. I’ll stop by whenever I can over the next few weeks, as long as you’re not in a hurry.”
In my peripheral vision, Tessa moved like she was about to say something but stopped herself. She opened her mouth again, moved forward a bit, and stopped. I raised my eyebrows to her in question and enjoyed her speechless face. I definitely wanted to take the job now. For work purposes. It would be fine. I’d be working and she’d be working. No need to make it a thing.
Frank shrugged. “Whenever you get to it will be fine. I’m just happy to not have to do it myself.”
“Most of my Saturdays are tied up with the ranch, so an hour or two after work is probably the best I can do.”
Tessa disappeared while Frank and I discussed the details. All the while, my mind was reeling. Jake couldn’t have planned it better if he had tried. Instead of a date once a week, I’d be seeing Tessa every day for a good part of the summer. It’d be fine, though. Tessa and I had a good understanding of what we were doing—a good, eighty-thousand-dollar understanding.
Frank headed back toward the orchard at the same time the front door squeaked open, and Tessa walked out, holding a bowl of hot-fudge cake and vanilla ice cream.
My eyes drifted down to the piece of cake that was hot enough to cause the ice cream to pool at the edges. She’d even put a handful of fresh raspberries on top.
She pushed it toward me, a teasing gleam in her eyes. “Eat it. I dare you.”
I took the bowl. She watched as I filled a large spoonful dripping with warm cake, soft ice cream, and extra hot fudge on the top and took a bite. And then my eyes rolled to the back of my head.
