Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Life got in the way.
Lucas didn’t have time.
Jacob … well, he wouldn’t have come without his brother.
Sure, the Smith family a few kilometers down the road kept an eye on the place and exchanged out the gas to keep it fresh and usable if the Dalton brothers showed up unexpectedly, but a house was not a home without a heartbeat. A long stretch of time with no movement inside could certainly leave the cabin in disrepair after a while.
He was happy to see things working.
Even if it was bittersweet.
After uncovering the old Chevy truck under the worn painting cloth and adding what remained of the gas from the second jug that had been left in the corner of the building for Lucas to find, he grabbed one of two shovels hanging from a large nail sticking out of the wall. The smaller scoop, easier to push through heavy snow, was his preference.
When clearing snow was required.
Not a job he particularly liked.
Cold hands and feet were a better option than a broken heart and mind, though. So, he kept that knowledge at the forefront of his thoughts as he headed out of the garage and back into the cold to begin the long, hard, and tiring work of clearing the massive driveway.
He didn’t care that it would take him hours.
That already, his fingertips and toes were numb.
Lucas would rather shovel snow until his limbs turned black and fell off from frostbite than listen to thoughts in his head, or the memories playing on constant repeat there.
He just needed time.
Anything except—
“Can I do something inside?” came the soft question from his left as he stalked across the drive. Lucas came to a halt, his boots crunching against the snow, and turned to find Delaney where she had come to stand on the front veranda. Her unzipped parka made him think she had come outside as soon as she noticed him leaving the garage. “The lights are working, and I found the linen closet in the bathroom where all the quilts and stuff are packed in totes, so I pulled them out and got some stuff out … I wondered if there was anything else, that’s all.”
Right.
Good to know things worked inside, too.
That saved Lucas an extra five minutes.
“It’ll take the hot water tank in the cellar a bit of time to fill and warm up,” he said, “but otherwise, you could run the water in the bathroom taps for a bit. It cleans out the pipe and gets any shakiness from the ground out of the water as everything settles. Unless you don’t mind a bit of dirt at the bottom of your drinking glass.”
Delaney’s nose, pinked from the cold, scrunched up sweetly. “No, thanks. I’ll run the water, then?”
“That’ll help.”
“How long?”
“Maybe a half hour. You can check, and see what a glass of water looks like, but it should be good,” he explained.
History told him a half an hour would do the job to clear any sediments sitting in the well water that the pipe might bring up. Once the water ran clear, nothing tasted better than mountain water pumped from a water vein a hundred feet in the ground.
“Okay, sure,” Delaney said with a nod. “I can do that.”
Figuring the conversation had come to a natural end with that, Lucas started his trek toward the bend in the driveway that would lead to the hill going up to the road. The fact that he didn’t hear the front door of the cottage close behind him should have been a clue.
“What are you doing?”
Lucas came to a stop again and glanced over his shoulder with the shovel held out where she could plainly see. “Clearing snow. Unless you don’t want to make a trip to town for gas tomorrow. I’ve got lots of wood piled behind the garage to keep the furnace going, but only so much gas.”
And practically no food.
They had to go, really.
Delaney’s head bobbed up and down as she hugged her jacket closed and shivered on the step. “Do you want me to help? I can.”
On another day, maybe he would have taken her up on that offer. No doubt, she had experience clearing snow or dealing with the weather of their country. Nobody’s hands were too soft to shovel snow when a storm rolled through.
“I got it,” he said.
“If you’re sure …”
He continued heading for the long work ahead, saying only, “I need to do something.”
Lucas couldn’t just stand there and think.
That would kill him.
*
Lucas didn’t time himself once he started shoveling at the top of the hill, but if he had to make a safe guess, it took him close to three hours to reach the bottom of the drive again. He couldn’t be totally sure, but the movement in the sun told him a significant bit of time had passed, and the growl of his empty stomach suggested it was about to revolt after missing breakfast and lunch.