Page 2 of Cole's Joy
“Yes, and get a list of questions together for Lorissa. I haven’t offered her the position just yet. I want you, Naomi, and Clem to sort of interview her. That’s what’s this BBQ is for tonight.”
“Understood, just one question.”
“What’s that?”
“If you hire her, are you kicking Stolls to the curb?”
“No, I want Lorissa for her farrier business. However, if there’s a problem and she’s right here, then by all means reach out to her as a vet. I understand her last job had her work for them exclusively, and I’m not going to do that here. I want her for her AFA certification, and I’ll tell her she can work for others as long as Erin’s Way, Broken, and New Double come first.”
“Great, I can’t wait to meet her. Thanks, Erin, I’ll see you tonight.” He hung up the phone and turned to the other men with a grin. While Ducky was getting ingredients from the cupboards, Clem was cooking their breakfast.
“Ducky,” Cole said as he refilled his coffee cup and started a fresh pot.
“What?”
“What can you tell me about The Old Atherton Place?”
“What did that bastard do now?” Ducky demanded angrily, then shook his head as he sighed heavily. “Sorry, I had a feud going with him, I know he died, then he did what he did with his grandchildren, ornery bastard.”
Cole and Clem exchanged looks and while Ducky remained silent, Cole set the table and waited for the other man to speak.
“First, I had a feud going with him because he tried to ask my wife out on a date. This was decades ago. We had only been married for about three months when I had to go out of town for at least a month.”
“May I ask why?”
“When the chickens were at a certain age, and began to lay eggs, they were transferred to a different facility. I only raised them up to that point, then I would sell them. That place kept the chickens for the eggs for at least two years, then they would sell them to the soup companies.”
“Got it.”
“Well, I had just left with the mature birds, and though it was a lot of work, Sally, my wife, and our hired hands would clean out the barn and get it ready for the new chicks. I delivered the old, and went to pick up the new so that when I arrived home, they could be released in the clean and sanitized barns. That was the practice around here for years, and Sally automatically jumped in to help after we were married. I think the only time she didn’t was when she was pregnant because of the smells of the chicken shit, and I refused to allow her near the chemicals we used for sanitizing the barns.”
“Okay,” Cole didn’t know what else to say, so he encouraged him to continue. “What happened?”
“I left for my trip, like I said, it took about a month because after I dropped the chickens off, I cleaned out their crates and sanitized them, that took roughly two weeks. Then I had to go pick up the new chicks. Sometimes they weren’t quite ready. Anyway, one year, we had been married for three years by then, but one year the day after I left, Atherton saw her in the grocery store and asked her out on a date. Flat out asked her and he had his own wife at home about to give birth to their second child. Thankfully, my Sally knew who he was, and turned him down flat.” He shook his head and joined them at the table.
“Another good thing about my Sally is that she never kept any serious secrets from me.”
“What’s that mean? Serious secrets? A secret is a secret.” Cole didn’t know how he felt about what Ducky had just said, norwhy it made him angry. Before he could continue, he stopped when Ducky lifted his hand toward him.
“The only secrets Sally kept from me, that I know of, is when she and the kids would buy me a birthday or Christmas present. She told the kids it was a secret until I opened it.”
“Ah, then that’s okay to keep secrets. I was thinking of the big ones, the ones that could ruin someone’s life.” He shook his head and looked at the other two men sadly as Clem put the food on the table. “The one where Benson lied about our Noomie not being able to walk.” He used his and Clem’s pet name for Naomi.
“Yeah, no, that wasn’t a secret,” Ducky said as he loaded up his plate. “That was an outright lie. Anyway, when Sally told me what Atherton had done I confronted him. I apologized to his wife, and told him to leave my wife alone. When his wife questioned me, I told her what had happened. He didn’t deny it. Anyway, I ignored him for decades after that. I would even leave a store if I saw him there.”
“What about his wife?” Clem asked. “Did you ignore her?”
“No, see, she and Sally were best friends, and they continued to be so. However, there was only one thing I put my foot down on and forbade Sally to do.”
“What?”
“Visit Nancy at her home. Nancy was welcome here whenever she wanted to stop by. Hell, our kids played together, but I wouldn’t allow Sally to go over to their place. Not without me. They seemed to be fine with it. I don’t know what exactly happened, because crap seemed to start all at once, but after the kids grew up and started their own families, I had heard Nancy left Atherton, but we heard later she had died. Sally got sick with cancer, and after my Sally passed, I lost my own kids, and the only surviving members I have of my family are three grandchildren. They don’t want anything to do with this place. When Erin came to me about what the Millers had done, Ithought I was headed to an old folks home. In the end it worked out.” He ate more, then looked at Cole in confusion. “Why did you want to know about Old Man Atherton?”
“That was Erin on the phone, she invited us to a BBQ at the cabins over at Broken tonight at six. Apparently, there’s a couple of women over there that Erin wants to hire.” He held up his hand and shook his head. “I don’t know if they have any challenges, and it isn’t any of my business. When I asked why we had to be there, she told me something intriguing.”
“What’s that?” Clem asked as he settled back in his chair with his coffee mug.
“The younger woman, I think her name was Lorissa, she is a licensed veterinarian.”
