Page 2 of Guarded By the Lumberjack
If Calvin Murdock is half the man my late husband made him out to be-- he's the one person left who might be able to help.
Calvin
Rain pelts the office windows just like it's been doing most of the day. Hell, most of the last few weeks.
It's late September and it's been raining since Labor Day.
Normally, I welcome the weather. I like the soothing noise that eases my thoughts, I like the smell of the mountains when they're freshly bathed. I like good long, wet seasons that keep fire seasons short.
Today's got me feeling jumpy for some reason, though. As if thunder were rolling in along with the rain clouds. My nerves are on alert, despite not a flash or a rumble punctuating the steady white noise of the falling rain.
We had to pull the crews off the work sites last week. Too much rain and more in the forecast brought the cutting season to an early end this year. Best we can do now is pull the timber we've got down off the mountain and haul it down to the McAllister mill before the snow starts falling.
Pulling my glasses off my face, I stretch my neck and rub my eyes.
I thought retirement was going to look like summer days on the porch drinking lemonade, winter nights reading by the fire, and week-long fishing trips. Maybe a chance to see parts of the world where people aren't shooting at me.
Closing out of the maps I'm constructing from my brother's field research, I push my chair back and head for the breakroomwhere I start a fresh pot of strong coffee even though it's well past five in the afternoon.
I was lucky in a lot of ways; I always had a knack for tech, and the U.S. Navy didn't let that go to waste. It meant I spent a lot of my time in front of screens, making sure my men were the ones doing the killing instead of the ones getting killed.
Of course, that didn't always work out the way we hoped.
Pulling the pot off the plate before it's finished brewing, I fill a mug with the dark, steaming liquid, then put the pot back on the plate so it can continue brewing.
For all the blood and terror two decades of service showed me, it's the kids under my command that stay with me. Especially the ones that didn't make it home-- or didn't make it home in one piece.
I got lucky. Damn lucky. That's something I try not to take for granted.
Back at the computer in my office, I take another look at the maps I'm constructing for our logging crews. We'll be able to thin a quarter mile into the woods before logistic makes it impossible to go deeper.
Now there's talk about opening up the old road between us and Paradise Point too. People over that way feel like abandoning the trails that used to run through those cursed woods might be making it easier to use them for criminal activity.
They want to open up the old road and make it possible for rangers to patrol in there.
That's not my call. It's just my job to map out the new trail and get a crew in there to mark and clear the timber.
Opening up a new set of files, I set my coffee aside and look over the figures in front of me. I promised I'd help my new sister-in-law, Honey, set up her money in an investment plan.
Still can't believe Carver got hitched; two years older than myself and twice the asshole I am on any given day. He goes into the woods to collect data for us, and comes out with a woman.
A woman who'd been in a plane crash and didn't remember her own name, sure, but by the time they got that ordeal sorted, she'd gotten it in her head that my grumpy brother was something she planned on keeping.
Now Carver's married to that pretty little thing and he's talking about starting a family in his fifties.
I don't know if I'm jealous, or if I think the man has lost his damn mind.
Heaven knows I never met a girl that struck me that way; someone that had me so I couldn't see a future without her in it.
Can't say as I see that happening for me now. I'll just have to enjoy the uncle title when it comes along.
At the point when I've had about all I can take of the office for the night, I shut things down and lock up.
Everyone else left hours ago. Aside from Carver, most of our permanent staff settled down over the last year or two. Adam's a new dad and Levi's right behind him. We expect the same news from Jake any day.
Everyone's got reasons to clock out at five now. It's just me and Clinton left burning the midnight oil, and Clint prefers to do it from his home office.
The rain is coming down even harder by the time I hit the remote to have the garage door open for me before I've even crested the top of the hill to my property.
