Page 72 of Make it Real
Sure, Ty had it all arranged so everything could be found when he needed it, but we were talking alotof stuff to get out of there. He’d hidden smaller items away in storage cupboards, and he’d already moved the ATVs, tractor, and trailers. Still left plenty of vehicle parts, sprayers, and Lord knew what else to clear away. He’d called a good-sized crew out here, though, and after an hour of shuttling items where he directed, we’d made good progress.
Couldn’t envision it as a reception site yet, but good progress.
I grabbed a sixteen-foot ladder and hefted it to my shoulder, but June stopped me.
“That stays, we’ll need it later.”
I propped it back where it’d been. “You know, you could just rent a giant tent. Get you the same thing with less work.”
She put her finger to her chin, looking remarkably like Wade whenever he got into a mocking mood. “Let me see, a plain white tent devoid of personality, or a fifty-year-old barn full of rustic charm and character. Tough call.”
“I’ll have to trust you on the charm and character.” Looked like tetanus waiting to happen, but I figured saying so would get me evicted from the work party, and possibly the wedding.
Her glare didn’t affect me all that much. She walked away, probably to find someone else to supervise.
Once she’d moved out of earshot, Ty walked up and leaned in close. “I suggested the same thing.”
He shrugged, likeWhat can you do?, before trotting outside with the old tool box he held.
Fools for love, I supposed. He wanted to make my sister happy, and I’d never fault that.
I glanced to one corner of the big old barn where Callie ran a shop vac going after the dust and cobwebs that had pretty much colored the unfinished wood walls gray. She’d pulled her hair into a short ponytail, but wisps of it had escaped, laying against her forehead and neck. She leaned up to get the vacuum nozzle as high as she could reach, her T-shirt riding up at her waist. My stomach tightened as my brain memorized that sliver of skin.
“Stop ogling your girlfriend and help us.”
Wade’s smirk just asked to be smacked off, but I had come here to work, after all. I dragged my eyes away from Callie, and he motioned me over to a wooden worktable where Booker and Ty waited.
“We’re supposed to move this?” I asked. Thing looked like it could have been five hundred pounds.
“If we can.” Ty’s expression said he had his doubts, too, but he was willing to try, for June’s sake.
Crazy kids.
I took a corner, and we all heaved. To my surprise, it came off the floor. Took four grown men straining with every breath, but we had it.
“Where’s it going?” Booker asked.
Ty nodded behind me. “Outside and around the corner.”
Quick description, slow execution. We inched it along, my arms burning by the time we got it through the barn doors and situated where Ty—or more likely, June—wanted it. When we finally set it down in a more or less inconspicuous location, all four of us rubbed at our shoulders.
“I suppose there’ll be a post-wedding work party to put the barn back together?” I asked Ty.
He winced as though he hadn’t thought any further than the wedding. Couldn’t blame the guy for not being able to think much past sayingI do.
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
“Bright and early Sunday morning, then? Six a.m.?”
“If any of you show up on my property for any reason the week after the wedding, I’m throwing you in the manure pile.”
Booker laughed. “He’ll do it, too. The man deserves his honeymoon.”
I held my hands up. “I’d never intrude on my sister’s honeymoon.”
Would not add I’d been pretty well set on never eventhinkingabout my sister’s honeymoon, much less crashing it.
Back in the barn, Callie’d switched off the shop vac and wiped a hand across her forehead while she examined her work.
