Page 38 of The Christmas Tree Farm
‘I know it’s not,’ Kira said, faintly. ‘I told him not to.’
‘Oh. Why?’
‘I wanted to prove I didn’t need his help. I’m trying to be … independent and all that…’
Jeanie huffed. ‘Being independent doesn’t mean you don’t need help. And besides,’ she said, gesturing to the men, ‘they love it. Makes them feel all manly and stuff.’
Hazel laughed. ‘Wow, Jeanie. How very feminist of you.’
Jeanie scowled at her friend. ‘Oh, please. Logan and I are equal partners, but try and tell me it doesn’t do something for you to see Noah with his sleeves rolled up and hefting that big tree up over his head. Look at those forearms…’
All three women tipped their heads to the side, pausing a moment to appreciate the sight in front of them. Noah was tying up the tree for the mom, now that the kids were buckled safely in the car, Logan was chatting with the older couple, his muscular frame leaning on their open window, and Bennett had rolled up the sleeves of his flannel shirt and was helping another man carry his tree to his truck. His forearms flexed as he lifted the tree, and Kira was not going to lie, he looked damn good doing manual labor. She didn’t hate it.
She shook her head. No. Nope. This was not happening.
She cleared her throat and broke all three of them out of their daze. ‘Well, that was very nice of them and all, but I can take it from here.’
‘Oh, really? How do you plan to do that? You clearly don’t have anyone here to help with the trees and you still have two hours until close. Do you plan on putting all the trees on the cars yourself?’ Jeanie asked, her hand on her hip.
‘I … well … I will just…’
‘We’re staying,’ Hazel announced. ‘Let’s get some more rope.’ She walked off toward the cabin before Kira could argue.
Jeanie just grinned and followed her friend.
What the hell just happened?
* * *
‘Cheers to a job well done,’ Noah said, and they all lifted their compostable paper cups of cocoa in a toast to their hard work tying trees all afternoon.
‘Cheers!’ Hazel and Jeanie sang out. They were all gathered on the little porch in front of the cabin, Logan in the rocking chair with Noah perched on the rail of the porch beside him. Hazel and Jeanie were huddled together on the steps, keeping warm now that the sun had set. Kira was freezing but she stood just off the porch in the frozen dirt. Bennett was leaning against the porch on the other side of his sister, and she was still studiously avoiding his gaze. She had been all afternoon. All afternoon while these people she barely knew helped keep her business afloat.
And isn’t this exactly what she swore she wasn’t going to do? Hadn’t she started this whole crazy plan to do something on her own? Something without Chloe’s sensible guidance and without her parents’ money (other than the money she used to start the whole damn thing, but that was beside the point). Wasn’t she here to stop mooching off other people and using them for what they could do for her? She was supposed to be self-sufficient up here on her farm. But she was even further from that goal than she was when she started.
Five people had given up their afternoon for her and she had absolutely nothing to offer them in return, other than watered-down cocoa in cups that would disintegrate if they didn’t drink it fast enough.
‘I can send over a few of my guys tomorrow,’ Logan said, interrupting her thoughts. ‘They’re always looking for more work in the colder months. They’ll help you out and they’re reliable.’
‘Oh … uh … thank you. That would be great.’ Kira chugged the last of her cocoa, wanting to reject his offer but really, really needing a way to keep this stupid farm running. ‘And thanks for helping today, all of you. I appreciate it.’
‘Of course!’ Jeanie smiled at her. Her arm was tucked under Hazel’s, the two women leaning in toward each other, and a sharp pang of jealousy hit Kira. Did she miss her sister or just any human contact? At this point, she thought it was probably both.
‘It was like being in one of those holiday romcoms Hazel likes to watch,’ Noah said.
‘Welike to watch,’ she corrected.
‘Right,welike to watch,’ he amended with a grin, and Logan huffed a laugh.
‘So, what’s the plan for the other eleven months of the year?’ Logan asked, steering the question back to business. Kira had learned throughout the afternoon that the man ran a successful produce farm and apple orchard so she should probably ask for some advice. Business advice was different from random help from strangers, she figured. They were associates, fellow farmers. It was different than Bennett trying to swoop in and rescue her. Right?
‘Well, I thought I could focus on more of a general garden center. There’s an old greenhouse in the south field and we could do shrubs and small trees.’ It was the first time she was saying any of it out loud, mostly because she had literally no one to say it out loud to, but also because she was nervous and didn’t know if any of it was a good idea, but Logan was nodding so that was probably a good sign…
‘Sure, that could work. I’m going to get you in touch with my agricultural engineer. He’ll help you get set up.’
‘Agricultural engineer?’
‘Yeah, name’s Gordon. Give me your number, I’ll send you his information.’
