Season of Dreams by Jenna Mindel

Author:Jenna Mindel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2011-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

A couple of days later, Adam watched Eva’s expression morph from disbelief to gall mixed with confusion.

“You did what?”

He opened the side door of the pole barn. “I ordered turkey manure. It’ll be delivered today.”

“Why?”

He figured his reason was pretty clear, but he’d spell it out if he had to. “For fertilizer.”

“But we have fertilizer. We’ve been applying it for two days.”

“This is more natural.” And he needed every possible edge he could get.

She shook her head. “That stuff’s going to stink. We have neighbors, you know.”

Adam opened the main doors and peeked outside. “Where? Our nearest neighbor is like a mile or more away.”

Eva gave a sardonic laugh. “Don’t worry, that smell will travel.”

Adam considered the grim line of her lips. Miss Prickly Prim had him there. “So it’ll smell bad for a couple days, maybe even a week. This is farmland. Besides, I checked.”

Her eyes widened. “With who?”

Eva looked incredibly pretty this morning with her hair pulled back into a ponytail that swished every time she made her point. It almost cost him his argument.

“Jim Sanborn. He’s been using poultry manure for a few years now and said it makes a huge difference in the health of the trees.”

She couldn’t knock Jim’s advice and he could tell it galled her. Jim was a seasoned fruit farmer with a solid reputation and a lifetime local. “But we already have the nitrogen fertilizer. Can you cancel yours?”

“I’m not going to. I want to try this.” He glanced back at her, wondering if she’d ever be as sweet on him as her cherries.

Her cheeks turned rosy, and she took a step back. “You’re spending double needlessly. And you’re taking a big chance of irritating our neighbors.”

“I’m sure they’ll get over it. There isn’t a smell ordinance in this county, is there?”

“No, but…”

He waited with a cocked eyebrow for her to continue.

Instead she sputtered, “You’re impossible.”

Adam understood where she was coming from. Eva was his farm manager, and this was a discussion he should have had with her before ordering. He used to hate it when his father made changes to his presentations without giving him a heads-up. But Adam didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Doing something the way it had always been done wasn’t the way he’d make it.

Eva stopped what she was doing and asked, “How are you going to apply the manure? We don’t have a spreader.”

“Yeah, we do.”

She faced him. “Since when?”

“Since your father sold it to me. It’s old, he said he didn’t use it anymore, but it works. Ryan showed me how to hook it up.”

She pursed her lips into that stubborn line he was beginning to recognize as Eva struggling for control. He waited, imagining all kinds of words flitting through her brain begging to be born, but none came.

Instead, she agreed. “We’ll spread the manure. But next time Ryan helps you with a grand idea, do you think you could let me in on it, too?”

He couldn’t blame her for being a little sore.

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