Page 8 of Cole's Joy
“Please.” He stood and waited for her to hand him the steaming cup, took a sip, then stared at her. “I’m not telling you what to do, or how to do it, but why are you limiting yourself on what you are taking. I’m assuming you already own all of this stuff?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I asked Clark to let me into the three houses to get a look around. In the last month, the women of Broken, along with some of the men, myself included, have been cleaning the three homes. Instead of renting one, I went out and bought a rug shampooer.” He held up his hand to hold her off. “We needed one at Ducky’s place anyway, and others have already used it at their homes. It was cheaper then renting one, and there’s no time limit on when the one I bought had to be returned. I don’t know if Erin told you this yet, but it turns out that the refrigerator in the house by the greenhouses wasn’t working. It hasn’t been replaced yet, but is there a reason why you can’t take yours?” He used his coffee cup to point to the appliance.
Lois sighed heavily and sat on one of the stools. “That’s just it, I wanted to save money by sharing the trailer Lorissa rented. She can pull it behind her truck, but I have a car and I know it won’t pull a trailer.”
“I know we don’t know each other well enough, but is money a problem?”
“No.” She looked at him and actually giggled. “I find myself being tight fisted the older I get, that’s all.”
“Then why don’t you rent a truck, and pull your car behind it? Lois, I know you’re a smart woman. We’ve been talking for the past month. I want you to do me a favor.” He waited until he hadher full attention. “Now, close your eyes, and picture the home you’ll be moving into, but picture it when Erin first showed it to you.” He watched the expressions on her face and smiled behind his coffee cup when he saw her wrinkle her cute little nose. “Now, picture it with your things in it.” He nodded his head when her expression cleared and he knew he had her hooked then. He told her to open her eyes, and chuckled. “Just because you’re moving into a rental, it doesn’t mean that you can’t haveyourthings around you. No one is saying you can’t have all this stuff.”
“What about space? I may be a fiercely independent woman, but I don’t think I can drive a rental truck pulling my car behind it.”
“That’s why I’m here, along with the other guys. We thought we’d come out and help you and Lorissa drive back. We already know that Laurie will be staying here until she can clean up some matters. Do you have a couple of hours to waste, like right now?”
“On?”
“How about the two of us drive to the nearest rental place and we get a truck and car dolly? I can’t drive because the four of us flew in and rented a vehicle. Last I heard, the others were helping Lorissa load up over at her work place. I’m sure once we get the truck back here, they can come help you load up. It’s just that you’ll have to drive me over to the rental place. I’ll drive the truck back here.”
“I can do that, but first, can we walk around the house and I’ll show you what I want to take? That should give you an idea of how big of a truck I’ll need.”
“Lead the way.”
An hour later Cole stood at the counter with a pen and paper, drinking his second cup of coffee, he didn’t see Lois’ look of longing as she studied him as he had his head bent over the work. On a sigh, she asked, “What did you figure out?”
“Are you leaving the stove and microwave here?” He looked at her, and that’s when she saw the glasses perched on the end of his nose and tittered behind her hand.
“Nice glasses.”
“Oh.” He seemed embarrassed, but grinned. “Yeah, getting old sucks. Pardon my language.”
“You don’t have to worry about your language. I totally agree with you. I’m not bragging, yeah, maybe I am, just a little bit,” she laughed. “I’m grateful that I’ve kept busy and though my joints ache and some mornings it’s hard to get out of bed, I am proud to say that at age sixty-seven, I still have my original knees and hips. Where most of my friends have had them replaced several times.”
“Yeah, at sixty-eight, I too am stiff and sore in the mornings, but can say I too have my own parts.” He sipped his coffee, and sighed. “I think, in my case, if I slow down, then I’m dead. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but that’s how I feel.”
“Oh, I feel the same way. Even after I lost my husband, I still had my business, but once I sold that, I still kept busy by doing my own landscaping, as well as over at Laurie’s place. I don’t have the gigantic greenhouses that I’ll have in Colorado, but I had one that kept me busy.”
“May I see it?” Cole asked and at her confused look, he gave her a gentle smile. “Will you be wanting to bring anything that you have in there with you? Tools? Benches? Pots? I’ll need to figure it into what size truck we’ll have to rent.”
“Oh,” Lois said, flustered and took him out the back door. “I totally forgot about the greenhouse and the sheds.” She led the way, and Cole pushed his cowboy hat up and stared in shock at the sheer amount of things. “I’d like to take all the equipment.” She looked at him and sighed.
“No, it’s okay, I just didn’t expect to see so much of it.”
“Well, part of my business was landscaping, and I had the mowers and weed eaters to do that business.” Lois shook her head and sighed heavily as she turned fully to him. “I think I need to explain something to you.”
“Only if you feel that I need to know.”
“A little, probably. I loved my husband. We were together for almost forty years before he passed. He was a great husband, a terrific father, a wonderful provider. Laurie and I, and later Lorissa, never wanted for anything. We weren’t rich, but we were comfortable. We always spent within our means, and though I said we were comfortable, you could probably consider us upper middle class, but we never spent extravagantly. We always lived below our means, and Jerry was a wiz at playing the market. With that said, remember, I loved that man with all my heart, but he was useless when it came to the outside work.”
“What’s that mean?” Cole asked in confusion. “I think I know, but can you explain it?”
Lois giggled. “He didn’t know how to mow the lawn, use a weed eater, use the rototiller for the garden, plant said garden, or harvest it. After the first year of our marriage, because I grew up in the landscaping business, we decided that when it came to what people referred to as ‘the weekend chores’, I would do the ones outside, while he did the ones inside. Please don’t think he was lazy, he owned and operated his own financial empire.” She looked at him with a confident expression. “He inherited the business from his father, I say it was a financial empire because he was a financial planner, and had thousands of clients. Think about all those financial institutions you see on the TV ads all the time. He was like that. I don’t know if it was because he was in the office all day that he didn’t know how to do outside work, but whatever we had between us, worked. Don’t get me wrong, that man could grill a mean steak, but when it came to actual physical labor, he was all thumbs and I swore he had two left feet.” Shelaughed outright and waved her hand in front of her face. “That man could also fold a fitted sheet and it looked like he had just taken it out of the package when he was done with it.”
Cole smiled for the first time. “I will admit that I roll mine into a ball and stuff it in the closet.”
“Me too,” they shared a laugh and turned back to the sheds. By the time the figuring was done, Lois suggested taking Cole out for a late lunch, then go get the truck. By the time they returned it was late afternoon, and though Lois was happy with the truck, she was exhausted.
