Falling in Vermont by Elise Kennedy

Author:Elise Kennedy [Kennedy, Elise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elise Kennedy

Chapter

Nine

BLAKE

“Thanks for letting me borrow these.” Blake hefted a long table and bench into a trailer attached to his truck.

Mabel, his next-door neighbor and owner of the Chestnut Hollow Inn and Farm, hefted a small bench onto the trailer for him. Mabel shrugged. “Yeah, no events until Thanksgiving, so return ’em whenever.”

“Hey, be careful of your shoulder,” Blake said. “Let me do this.”

Mabel was in her sixties and strong as a horse but was recovering from rotator cuff surgery. “Eh, the doc says I gotta exercise so it doesn’t get frozen,” she said, rolling her stiff shoulder. Mabel was a farmer at heart and lived in overalls. She had long, flowing hair that crimped in natural waves, and she wore it loose with big men’s work shirts over it. She was no-nonsense, like most Vermonters, and showed her love in actions rather than words.

He’d known Mabel ever since he could walk. He was a lonely kid on a farm, bored out of his mind, and regularly came over to Chestnut Hollow to escape farm duties. She’d tuck him into a corner with a piece of apple pie and whatever farm dog they had around at the moment, listening to his troubles even then.

“Heard you got somebody special over there,” she said with a knowing smile.

Blake blushed thinking about the previous night. “I mean, I don’t have her,” he said, hefting up another table and some chairs.

They needed more seating for the crowds they were starting to attract. Sophia had had the bright idea of renting picnic blankets to folks wanting to bring their own food and drinks to spend time under the maple trees in the pumpkin patch, but he’d felt bad after seeing a couple of older folks struggle to get up and down.

“I don’t know, you’ve got a spring in your step.” She smirked as she tossed up another bench onto the trailer.

A question nagged at him. “Hey, uh,” he said stupidly, scratching his head.

He and Mabel didn’t do feelings. She was part colleague, part adopted family, part mom, part hardened farmer with that thick candy shell exterior that he knew hid a gooey middle.

Feelings weren’t really part of their repertoire.

She leaned on the trailer and chewed a piece of gum, looking at him nonplussed. “Come on, out with it,” she said, slapping her legs. “I gotta go feed Maaaybel here in a minute,” she said with an eye roll, making the sheep sound. Her staff had demanded that their latest baby sheep be named in her honor. “The damned thing only answers when you say her name that way.”

He chuckled at how much it irritated her, but he knew she loved it, deep down.

He kicked a leaf on the ground. “After Gus passed…”

She threw her head back with a knowing look, closing her eyes. “I wondered when we’d get to this.” She sat on the bottom of the trailer and patted the edge for him to sit.

Her husband Gus had passed away when Blake was in high school.

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