Page 44 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

In the entire time he’d been in the house, he’d gone in it exactly once. Allie, despite her open wandering of the first floor, hadn’t set foot in the room ever. He’d asked her about it once and had gotten a lackluster response. She didn’t care for the room either.

Allie wanted him to claim the home, to put his mark on it. He could start with this room. Maybe he’d turn it into a den. He could move the furniture out, get rid of the rug, paint the walls a “man’s man” color, and add a leather couch and armchairs and a darker rug to match. The wood floors were a good color, stained dark. Put a large-screen TV on the wall where the door was, a pool table by the window, maybe even a foosball table. Zoey would love that.

He made a turn to glance around the room. He could even put a bookshelf on the adjacent wall to where he wanted the TV. Yes, this could be a nice room. And much to his surprise, the idea started to excite him. He’d do it. He could put his personal touch on the house and make it his own.

The Westbrooks would help him move the heavier pieces of furniture out, and he was sure one of the aunts in town would want the rug, if Allie, Jo, or their mother didn’t. But it was Saturday, and they’d already had their third date today. Allie counted the week from Monday to Sunday instead of Sunday to Saturday. That meant his Sunday was free, and he’d had an open invitation to eat at the Westbrooks’ on Sunday for the last month. He’d ask for their help at dinner. And maybe they could get everything out next week.

Excited by the prospect, he got started. If he wasn’t sleeping, he might as well be working. He shoved the sofa, coffee table, and side chairs off the rug, rolled it up, and placed it in the hallway. He was about to start on the lamps and knickknacks, deciding to put them in the living room where he’d left all the out-of-place pieces on the floor after he’d put them there last week. He still wasn’t sure what to do with them; plus he liked the way Allie rolled her eyes at him every time she came over.

He finished up and went back to bed, grinning, not just because of his new plan but because it fit in well with a plan he’d been working with since the town cleanup started. Allie dropped hints like boulders. She wanted him to help downtown. She thought she was being subtle, in her hints and in why she wanted him to participate, but subtlety wasn’t something she was known for. She wore her emotions on her sleeves, and he loved it, because it made it really easy to figure out what she wanted.

And in this case, she wanted him putting down ties in the town. It was the same reason she wanted him to decorate his own space in the house. She wanted him to think of Harvest Ranch as his home. She wanted him to stay. And even just the thought of that filled him with so much hope—a feeling that had so often been void in his life.

He’d been crazy busy dealing with issues with his family farm for the last month as they headed into their busiest seasons of the year, but he’d cleared his schedule for the fifteenth—that was the last day of the cleanup, when the gazebo and several wood benches in the park would be painted and the planters would be refurbished.

Allie, Jo, and Cash planned to be helping with the cleanup all day, and Allie had no idea he was coming. She’d love it. It’d be even better because that country singer she liked, River McKenzie, was going to be singing a few songs afterward.

Brandon flopped down on his mattress and stared out the window toward the river, excited for his future for the first time in a long time.

* * *

Don’t let today’s disappointments cast a shadow on tomorrow’s dreams.

- Tiny Buddha

The last day of town cleanup might as well be considered a holiday as far as Jo and Allie were concerned. As far back as Allie could remember, their dad, David, had always talked up the cleanup, and especially the last day of the cleanup, until the twins talked about it nonstop. While it was a whole-day activity for the town, David had always worked until noon, picked up the girls from wherever they were, home or school, and brought them downtown to help.

He’d grown up in Phoenix, and he’d never missed an opportunity to tell the girls just how lucky they were to be part of a small town and how important it was to be a part of keeping it beautiful. Allie and Jo had taken his lesson to heart, and when they had a business of their own, they made it known that they would always close halfway through the day on the last day of cleanup so they and their employees, if they wanted, could participate.

She loved it, but she was a little disappointed.

Allie put up the close sign at noon on the dot as Jo wiped the counters and Kathy straightened a few jars of honey on the glass shelves lining the walls that’d been pushed out of place in the course of the morning traffic. WHHR played country music, “Here for the Party,” through the overhead speakers as they cleaned up.

“What’s with the frown, Allie?” Jo asked.

“It’s nothing. I’d just hoped that Brandon would come.” She’d dropped enough hints, and he’d never once taken the bait.

“He couldn’t make it?” Kathy asked.

“Nope.” She forced a smile.

Jo whipped her on the hip with her towel. “You didn’t ask him, did you?”

“Hey!” Allie darted away too late, the light sting of the whip tingling on her hip. She lifted her chin. “I hinted.”

Jo rolled her eyes.

“Does it matter if he comes?” Kathy asked.

She thought about it. “No, I guess not.” It wasn’t like he was at home playing video games or something. He worked hard every day of his life. And he was no doubt working hard now. “I just want him to feel like he’s a part of the community, and nothing pulls you in as much as getting involved and getting to know people.”

Jo snorted. It was so unlike her, Allie almost started laughing.

“Allie,” Jo said. “If Brandon were any more involved in this community, he’d be running for office. Not only does he help us, our family, and extended family with various things and comes to family dinners; he also hangs out with the Westbrooks, and the Slades, and the old men behind Harold’s Market. He has a balloon in the balloon festival, and he’s invested in our company.”

“When my truck broke down at the end of January,” Kathy said, “he stopped to give me a ride, had Milo tow my truck back to his shop, and brought me to work.”

Allie grinned. She hadn’t known he’d done that. That was so like him, being all nice and helpful. She’d kiss him for that.

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