Page 13 of Tom's Chance
CHAPTER 6
Three days later,Lorissa, still upset with the interaction she had with Tom about him questioning her ability to be a veterinarian had her cleaning out the blacksmith shop. She was hot, thirsty, dirty, and still pissed. She had found in the past that sometimes when she was upset, she would clean, and it would calm her down. For some reason, it wasn’t happening this time. With her arms loaded with a pile of junk she’d found in the corner and had been tossing, she went out to the area she’d set up for a fire pit. She had called Erin to make sure there wasn’t a fire ban in the area, and when she found out there wasn’t one, she dug the pit she’d found wider, and found some rocks to make the perimeter so it wouldn’t get away from her.
“Are you okay?” Lois Gibson asked and grinned when Lorissa screamed as she dropped the bundle ofjunk into the pit. She whipped around and saw her grandmother and scowled.
“You scared me.”
“Sorry, I was just wondering if you were okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because you only clean like this when you’re pissed about something. Granted what you’re cleaning needed to be done, but you’ve been at it for three days now.”
“And?” Lorissa glared at her grandmother. “Do you have a point?”
“First point, drop the freaking attitude with me. Second point, do you need help? Third point, can I add to your pile for the fire? Fourth point, do you want to talk about it? Fifth point, do you want to turn your bonfire into an impromptu picnic? I can call over to Duane and see if he wants to bring the others over after work.” She looked at her watch then back at Lorissa. “It’s only ten in the morning, I’m sure we can put something together.”
“I don’t care,” Lorissa sighed heavily as she looked at her grandmother. “I’m sorry for snapping at you, and sure, if you want to call and invite them over, I don’t have a problem with it. I only ask that Tom Stolls does not get an invitation.”
“Who is that?”
“An asshole.” Lorissa wrinkled her nose and walked away from the older woman.
Lois stared after her granddaughter and wentback over to her area by the greenhouse. When she knew she wouldn’t be overheard, she pulled out her phone and dialed.
“Manchester,” came the strong voice over the other end of the line.
“It’s Lois.”
“Is everything okay? Did Laurie call? Is she okay? You? Did Lorissa get hurt?” He sounded frantic and Lois couldn’t help it, she laughed. It had been years since the Gibson women had a caring man in their lives, she wasn’t counting Peter as a man, and now that Laurie was dating Duane, it was nice to have someone that cared.
“We’re all fine, sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of. Do I need to come home, Lois?”
“No, but I would like you to do me a favor if you could.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know what happened a few days ago, but Lorissa is pissed and on a rampage. But it’s a good rampage.”
“How can a rampage be good, Lois?”
“Not only has she cleaned out the blacksmith shop, but she’s cleaned the three barns attached to it. She has a gigantic pile that needs to be burned. Don’t worry, she asked Erin if it’s okay. I asked if we could turn this into a BBQ opportunity, she said she didn’tcare as long as someone by the name of Tom isn’t invited. As in not having him here.”
Duane chuckled. “Okay, I’ll sent a text to everyone, you do want everyone to come, right? Even the people working over at New Double?”
“Is that part of Erin’s property? I was thinking of inviting everyone that works for Erin and that lives on her property.”
“Okay, I’ll take care of it. Have like a dish to pass type of meal?”
“Sure, and I trust my granddaughter with my life, but could you guys help keep an eye on the fire?”
“We can do that,” Duane said as he got the rest of the details and told his future mother-in-law that she could trust him with the details.
Lois hung up and sighed heavily. She hoped she was doing the right thing by inviting everyone over. She hoped that Lorissa would get over her anger at the man named Tom, and maybe make a friend or two and open up to them. As much as she loved her granddaughter, she thought she was too old for Lorissa to confide in her. On a heavy sigh, she looked around the greenhouse she had cleaned up and started pulling the wagon of trash over to the burn pile.
Hours later,Lorissa looked up and yelled for whomever knocked on her back door to enter her home. She was wrist deep in a pan of macaroni salad she was mixing and when she spotted Duane, she smiled at him.
