Page 56 of A Little More

He took another sip of the coffee. He wanted Lexi. End of story. Finishing the floors made her one step closer to leaving.

That was the bad part about missing a weekend with her. It’d highlighted all the thousands of ways he was royally screwed when she said goodbye.

“Good God, it’s going to be one of those days.” Dewey tossed his hat into the open window of Nash’s truck.

Nash grunted in reply.

Dewey arched his back, rubbing at his shoulder. “You ‘bout killed me yesterday, driving that old rusty tractor from dawn till dusk. I realize you don’t get to see your girl for a while, but don’t take it out on the rest of us.”

“After lunch, you can ride to look at the cotton fields. The weatherman predicted that tropical storm should turn into a Category 1 hurricane by the end of the day today and will either swing right into Georgia or go up the coast.”

“Or go into the Gulf of Mexico and do the Hokey-Pokey and turn itself around.”

Nash smiled and shook his head. “You don’t have a lick of sense.”

“I know there’s been weather come through here before. Sometimes we lose crops, sometimes we don’t. But we’re still standing.”

“When was the last time our county was under a hurricane watch? That’s crap you get at the beach. Not in Georgia. Not this far in.”

Dewey snapped his fingers and pointed at Nash. “Good point. But you still have insurance if the rain or wind destroys something.”

Yeah, but the bank had leveraged the store against his assets. He needed to make the payments. Can’t do that with destroyed fields. Or a ruined work site. Insurance covered enough for his essentials.

“Still, ride out the fields. Take pictures. It’s early in the season to have to worry about this, but the damn rain over the past month has already saturated the fields. Two to three more days straight of rain won’t be good.” Nash grimaced, the last third of his coffee tasting bitter. “I need to tell Lexi to put a coffee maker on the list of appliances for the kitchen.” He tossed out the last swallow and sat down behind the wheel of his work truck. The first edges of the sun started to peek over the hill.

Dewey climbed into Nash’s work truck. “How’s the house coming?”

“Lexi’s having things delivered right and left. I don’t know how she has time for her work and the renovation. The inspector found some water damage that I’ve replaced. I rewired everything and put in the new outlets last Saturday. I installed the drywall on Sunday. I’m supposed to redo the floors, but I’m avoiding it.”

“Why?”

A humid breeze promising the rare early summer hurricane blew into the truck as it bumped over the fields toward the barn that housed the peanut combines, cotton pickers, and their ATVs. A few of the workers stood around, waiting. Dewey might be his best friend, but he wouldn’t understand his problem with Lexi. He’d dated a few women, but nothing serious. He always ended up “friends” with women for some reason.

Nash left his answer to a shrug and put the truck into park.

He wanted more time.

He needed more time Lexi.

Dewey pulled out his phone. “After the rain finally clears out, why don’t you scoop up your girl and meet the group out at Rhonda’s? Introduce her to everyone. Juliana should be home by then. Lexi already knows Juliana, right?

Nash’s phone chimed with a text.

“That’s me,” Dewey said.

“I haven’t even asked if she wanted to go. She’s nervous about her boss finding out we’re…” Nash trailed off. What were they?

His phone chimed in time with Dewey’s four times in a row.

Dewey grunted. “Cameron and Addie are in. I think that’s a ‘yes’ from Becky. Hard to tell since she wasn’t happy my text woke her up and most of her reply is in four-letter words. Juliana’s in. Juliana should be home today and thinks she can get away from the paper long enough to meet up. With you and Lexi, that makes eight.”

“Lexi isn’t a permanent thing. It seems strange dragging her out with everyone like that. If I can even get her to agree to it.” She might not. It might sound too much like a date to her.

“Why isn’t she permanent?”

Because he’d have to leave Statem.

Nash leaned his arm on the open window. Too many people depended on him. Leaving now would put dozens of people in the hole. Besides, she was so independent, she’d hate him following her back to Atlanta.

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