Page 59 of Merry Little Sugar Rush
I only wish there were a happily ever after in my own future.
Not today.
Not necessarily tomorrow.
But somewhere in the future.
I can only hope my story is as poetic and forever as my sister’s.
SIXTEEN
Burk
“How was your night?”
I turn around and narrow my eyes at my cousin. He’s smiling widely, clearly having heard about my text to Gram, even though I returned to the farm well before it was time for work. “None of your business.”
He barks out a laugh. “Keep telling yourself that,” he replies. “Everything is everyone’s business in Snowflake Falls. Surely you haven’t been gone so long you’ve forgotten that.”
I glance to the left, spotting Joy’s dad heading our way, and keep my mouth shut.
“Hey, Burk. I gotta bring up another load of greenery. Can you help me?” Ray asks, his face unreadable.
“Sure,” I tell him, walking away from Klint and heading toward the back of the barn. A nervous energy surrounds me. Even though it’s nearing the end of the workday, we’ve been busy enough I haven’t really been around Ray. He was already on the tractor and bringing up a few pre-cut trees when I gotdown to the barn, and I’ve been running between the barn and the tree farm, helping customers cut down trees all day long.
“Been busy today,” he says as we approach the rear side door.
“Yep. Must have cut down two dozen trees today,” I tell him, slipping inside and walking to the bench. We offer greenery bundles made from broken branches or those we cut from the bottoms of trees. A lot of people buy them for decorations, while some make things like grave blankets out of them.
“There’s usually an uptick of sales about two weeks out. Most likely, we’ve seen the biggest spike in sales now. We’ll still sell trees right up to Christmas, but this weekend was probably our big one,” he tells me, having already bundled and wrapped the greenery for easy sale.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind a bit of a slowdown. I’m not used to so much manual labor,” I reply with a chuckle.
Ray turns his attention my way. “You’re doing great, Burk. And stop selling yourself short. Something tells me that job of yours can be pretty labor intensive too.”
I swallow and think about building furniture. “Yeah, it is. It’s just not as consistent with moving heavy material as this is.”
He waves his hand. “Potato, po-tah-toe. Both hardworking, labor-intensive jobs, doing things with your hands and brain.” When he makes no move to grab a stack of the greenery, I wait him out. “Cindy and I were looking at your social media pages last night.”
A lump forms in my throat, and even though I want to grab my phone and see what it is they could have possibly seen, I stand here and keep my eyes locked on his.
“You’re very good, Burk.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He waves his hand. “Stop with that sir bullshit. Call me Ray.”
I nod, but don’t say anything else. Something tells me he’s not done talking yet.
“I know this is kinda last minute, but we’d love to hire you. You can tell us no. There is absolutely no pressure. We know you’re busy working here, and it seems you’ve been keeping busy in your free time as well,” he says, but doesn’t say another word about the fact I’m spending said free time with his youngest daughter. “We’d love for you to make a small arch that can be used for the ceremony and then put in their backyard afterward in the landscaping.”
I’m genuinely shocked by his request, but that’s quickly replaced with a sense of honor. “I’d love to.”
He seems a bit taken back by my instant agreement. “Yeah?”
“Absolutely. I’d be honored,” I tell him, my mind already spinning ideas. “What do you have in mind?”
He shrugs. “We’re leaving the creative part up to you.”
