Page 16 of Single Mom's Mountain Men
CHAPTER 6
Mitch
Later that evening, I make a note of the last spreadsheet column before blinking away from the computer screen with a sigh.
Great, now I'm dizzy.
I’m going to eventually destroy my eyesight with all this screen time I’m getting. That is if the wood chippings that occasionally fly into my eye when I’m slicing don’t get to me first.
I stare back at the screen, feeling a low throb at the base of my skull. There it is again, my reminder that humans weren’t meant to stare at screens for longer than it took to place a phone call. I don't know how either of my brothers do it. Charlie is often as glued to his computer as Wes is to his phone, but I've never been much of a technology guy. I think I could do very well without it actually.
Right now, I’d much rather be writing down this long list on a piece of paper the way God intended, but writing on paper is a less efficient system than just doing all my calculations via an Excel spreadsheet. And lately, my life has been all about efficiency. I wake up at the crack of dawn so I canget as much of the timber cut and dressed as possible before it gets dark. I eat one large meal a day so that I don’t have to waste time on separate meals. I don’t give myself downtime, barely go into town if I can avoid it, and do my best to make sure that I can spend every spare moment I can afford working.
And it's working out well for me so far.
We have more business than we really can manage with only the three of us and a handful of occasional part-time employees we use when we’re planting or clearing. But somehow we manage to pull through. We have to, because we can’t afford to turn away business at this point because that means letting it go back to Kane's team in Colorado. They're our major rivals now and we've only managed to steal so much of their business by offering heavy discounts. We’re no longer in the red, but we need to keep this pace up so we can finally turn Norris Timber Holdings into a booming business.
I just wish my brothers felt the same sense of responsibility I do for getting this place running. If Wes didn't spend so much time in some bar and Charlie didn’t spend so much time in his room, then we would probably be three times as profitable.
As it is, they both do the work they have to and nothing more. I suppose I should be grateful. It was my idea to take on the family business after mom died and they simply stuck around to help me. But it'sourfamily business and I wish they would take some initiative in the running of the place.
Or at the very least, one of them should take the damn inventory duties.
I hate taking inventory.
It don't matter what you love or hate,an old marine instructor used to say.Y’all are here now, you dumb bastards. So, you gotta do what you need to do to survive.
So I close my eyes for a few more seconds, pain stabbing at my temples, considering the bottle of Advil in the bathroom cabinet. But almost immediately, I disregard that thought.
Now, I don't take painkillers and haven't touched them even after shoulder surgery.
It’s just a little headache.I tell myself.It’ll be over soon.
I get back to work, and eventually, once I’m done with squaring away the balance sheets, I finally allow myself to get up and stretch.
The clock on my wall says it's near midnight. If I go to sleep right now, that gives me about five hours till daybreak. Not ideal, but doable.
I quickly head into the shower, wash off, and then get in bed.
But sleep isn't as easy to find as I had hoped.
My thoughts are instead consumed by the woman who’s sleeping in the cottage next door. Patty Cole.
When my brothers told me a guest would be staying with us, I didn't think much of it.
Of course, when Wes pointed out that it was Charlie's guest, and it was a woman, I got more curious.
My brother Charlie doesn't have many friends and he hasn’t dated much either ever since Erica, his ex, left him. While Charlie was heartbroken for a while, Wes and I were pretty glad to see her go. Good riddance. I wish Wes had run her off sooner because Charlie clearly didn't see all the ways she tried to take advantage of him. If Wes hadn't intervened, he'd probably still be in love with her, and she’d probably still be squeezing him for every cent he earned, whilst giving nothing back in return but grief, poor chump.
In any case, learning that Charlie had invited another woman to stay with us wasn't exactly good news, and didn'tgive me a lot of confidence in her character. I could tell that he was already getting attached to her, and given his track record with women, I thought she would turn out to be another cold, manipulative shrew.
But after meeting her, I can't say that anymore.
"Maybe because you're not giving me time to think asshole."
I think about Patty's flashing eyes when she said it and a smile drags over my lips. I didn't get manipulative vibes from her. All her emotions showed on her face, her tiredness and her annoyance, and even the secrets she wanted to keep.
I don’t blame her for calling me an asshole, but I'm more so surprised that she did. Most people don’t have the balls to stand up to me like that, especially when I go into what Wes calls my 'tough mother fucker act'.
