Page 51 of Love, Lies, and Whiskey

“Something wrong with your hat?”

“No. I don’t feel like wearing it.”

Doc knew spending the day with him wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, and that was okay. He wanted to get to know his son, and the only way to do that was to build trust, which took patience and understanding and the ability to let Lucas’s attitude roll off his back. He’d never been great at that, but Dare had given him a few pointers, and he was trying. “This old barn has seen better days. But I love working with my hands. How about you?”

“Not really,” Lucas said with a tone that implied Doc had asked a stupid question.

That wasn’t quite the love of working with his hands that Juliette had mentioned. “Then it’s a good thing I’m here to help cut that work in half. Ready to get started?”

He kicked the grass. “Whatever.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Let’s come up with a plan of attack and lay it all out so we can plow through it. A lot of this siding needs to be replaced, and the roof and gutters need attention, too.”

Lucas met his gaze. “I figured we’d patch the siding.”

“I don’t know, bud. It looks like it’s been patched to death.”

“So?” He motioned to a board that was rotted at the bottom. “We can cut above the rot. It’ll be fine.”

There was no way in hell they’d waste their time doing that, but he didn’t want Lucas thinking he was walking into his life and taking over, so he said, “Maybe you’re right. Let’s take a closer look.” They went to inspect the board. Doc pointed farther up. “See where it’s warped? You can see a path where the water has leaked from that broken gutter.”

“So? It’s not rotted yet.”

“The key word being yet. We can patch it, but a few good rains, and we’ll be out here tearing that whole board off. Take a look at some of the others. They’re damaged in several places. Don’t you think it makes more sense to do it right rather than doing a half-ass job that’ll cost us time later?”

“No,” Lucas complained. “It’s gonna take forever.”

“It’ll take forever twice if we do it your way.” Doc was starting to understand why his father used to argue for only so long before saying, We’re doing it my way, because it’s the right way.

“Hey,” Juliette hollered as she hurried down the hill. She’d changed into jeans and cowgirl boots. “I just got a call from Jade. She’s away this weekend, and one of her clients has an emergency. I need to go take care of it. I’m sorry, Seeley, but can we reschedule? I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”

“You can go take care of whatever you need to. Lucas and I can handle this by ourselves. Right, Lucas? Get ahead of the rain?”

Lucas set his jaw. “Yeah. We’ve got it.”

“Okay. If you’re sure.” Juliette glanced hopefully between them. When Lucas didn’t complain, she said, “Great. Hopefully I won’t be too long.” She went to hug Lucas.

“Mom.” He stepped back, out of her reach.

Doc wanted to say something, but he bit his tongue.

“Sorry. I forget you’re not a kid anymore.” She smiled playfully. “But in my heart, you’ll always be my baby boy.”

“Whatever. Just go.” Lucas turned away.

Juliette looked amused. “I’ll be as quick as I can. There’s food and drinks in the fridge.”

“I brought a cooler full, but thanks. We’ll see you later.”

She mouthed, Is he okay?

Doc nodded, tossed her a wink, and headed over to Lucas. “A’right. Let’s get a handle on this.”

As they walked around the barn inspecting the siding, every time Doc pointed to a board that needed replacing, Lucas argued or grumbled.

“We’ll knock it out as quickly as we can,” Doc promised.

Lucas did not look convinced. “It’ll take twice as long to measure and cut all the boards.”