Page 99 of Keep My Heart
‘How’s it coming?’ she asks.
‘We’re getting there,’ Carl replies.
‘Hi, Mrs. Kanfield,’ I say, getting up.
‘Lyndsay,’ she says, smiling. ‘I didn’t see you there. What are you doing in the barn?’
‘My plans for today got cancelled so Nick invited me to come over.’
‘And watch him fix the tractor?’ She shakes her head. ‘Come with me to the house. We’ll have some iced tea and sit out on the porch and talk.’
‘Just don’t talk about me,’ Nick says, smiling at me as I follow Martha out of the barn.
‘Nick loves that kind of thing,’ she says as we walk back to the house. ‘Figuring out what’s wrong and fixing it. His dad and I used to think he’d be a mechanic, but then he surprised us andwent into law.’ She goes in the house, to the kitchen. ‘He’s done well for himself. I’m proud of him.’
‘I am too. That’s great news about his promotion.’
‘It is.’ She takes some glasses from the cupboard. ‘I just hope he’s happy.’ She takes the tea from the fridge.
‘You don’t think he’s happy?’
‘It’s hard to tell with Nick,’ she says, filling our glasses with ice. ‘He’s not real open about his feelings. He’s like his dad that way. Even when he’s upset about something, it’s hard to tell. And Nick doesn’t like us worrying about him. If he was unhappy, he’d tell us everything was fine.’ She pours the tea in the glasses and hands me one. ‘Would you like something to eat?’
‘No, thanks. I just had breakfast.’
I follow her to the large wraparound porch that looks out at the orchard and we sit on the white rocking chairs.
‘Such a beautiful day,’ she says, sipping her tea. ‘Supposed to be around 72, cool for this time of year.’
‘Yeah, it’s nice to be outside.’
‘Did Nick tell you we bought the Carson’s land?’ she asks.
‘No. When was that?’
‘It’s been in the works for awhile now, but last month it was official.’
Dick Carson and his wife lived on the land just west of the Kanfield property. They moved into a retirement home a couple months ago, but I didn’t know they sold their house and the land that went with it. I assumed they’d give it to one of their kids.
‘Their children didn’t want it?’ I ask.
‘No.’ She shakes her head. ‘They’ve all left Wisconsin and don’t care to come back. We offered to just buy the land and let them sell the house separately, but they wanted it all to go at once.’
‘What are you going to do with the house?’
‘Probably tear it down. We thought of renting it out, but it’s in rough shape. We’d have to spend a lot of time and money on repairs.’
‘It’s such a cute little farmhouse. It’s a shame it has to be torn down.’ I sip my tea. ‘Maybe one of your nephews could fix it up. Isn’t that what they do? Fix up old houses?’
Her brows rise. ‘You know, I hadn’t even thought about that. But they’d have to live here while they fix it up and I don’t think they’d want to do that, except maybe Nash. He loves being out in the country. But Callie, his fiancé, is in Chicago. He wouldn’t want to be away from her for as long as it would take to fix that place up.’
‘Yeah, I could see that. How long did it take for them to renovate Sawyer’s bar?’
‘A few months, but they took turns coming up here. They all stayed with us. It was nice having them here. They’re a lot like my boys, hard working, good manners.’
She forgot the part about how good-looking they are, another trait they have in common with her sons. The Wheeler and Kanfield brothers could do one of those hot guy calendars and make a fortune.
‘So you’re going to use the land to expand the orchard?’ I ask.
