Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) Read Free Page B

best time for him to
sit or walk around the fields and talk at length to anyone.
    The
first of the candidates came by and I introduced myself to him; it was Lane
Jacobs, who I’d known in high school—not very well, but he’d been in the
graduating class before me, and we’d had a class together. “Hey, Lane, come on
in—mind you don’t get Addie under your feet.”
    I
led him over to the couch where he sat down to wait while my mom looked for my
father. “Can I get you a glass of lemonade? Or maybe a cup of coffee?” Addie
crowed at Lane, flopping around a bit as she scooted on her elbows and knees on
the rug in front of the fireplace.
    “Coffee
would be great,” Lane told me, smiling. He looked older than he should—but
then, if the rumors in town were right, that would stand to reason. His mother
was going through chemo for breast cancer, from what I’d heard, and he was
picking up odd jobs here and there to help pay for the treatment, in addition
to helping run the family drug store.
    I
was surprised that he’d be looking for work as a farm hand so far away from his
parents’ place or the store. But if his younger sister was in control of things
at the shop, it was possible that he had some time to devote—though probably
not the amount of time Dad would need, at least not throughout the rest of the
season. I didn’t think he’d get the job, but I wasn’t about to tell him that;
it’d just be mean.
    I
went into the kitchen and poured him a cup of coffee. I filled one of Mom’s
cream pitchers with some half-and-half and grabbed the sugar bowl and put
everything on a tray to carry out to the living room.
    I
chatted with Lane for a few minutes while we waited for my Dad and found out
that I was right—he was looking for a steadier job to add to the work at the
drug store to help pay for his mother’s treatment. He drank down about half of
the coffee with a little cream and no sugar, and then Dad arrived to chat with
him about the job.
    I
picked Addie up and took her for a quick walk around the house in between
interviews while I thought about the applications we’d gotten.
    The
town wasn’t all that big—fortunately and unfortunately. Most of the emails I’d
gotten were from college guys, and the ones who might actually stand a chance
among the young men were the ones who’d obviously grown up on a farm
themselves. I didn’t think even they really had any idea of how hard it would
be to combine school and work, but I couldn’t help respecting their resolve and
determination to earn some money.
    There
were a few people from town that I knew at least by reputation if not by face;
people like Lane who were looking for ways to make some extra money, or people
who were in-between jobs and looking for something that would last them a few
months of steady pay before another project came along.
    The
work was going to be pretty tough: it was almost planting season, and the new
expansion on Dad’s property had to be fully cleared and the ground prepared for
seed before we could sow it. Whoever Dad decided to hire, they were going to be
working hard.
    I
got into the flow of the interviews. Dad didn’t take too long with any of them,
no more than about thirty minutes at the most, just to talk about what the
hours would be like, what the work would entail, the usual things like that. By
mid-afternoon, I was ready to be done with it; I hadn’t had to deal with so
many people coming and going since Addie had been born, almost a year before,
and at that I hadn’t had to entertain them, at all.
    “How
many more of these do we have today?” I sighed and looked over the list I had
compiled from the applicants I’d narrowed down as being the most likely to be a
good fit. There were only three names left on the list: Cade Wilson, who I
thought I might have gone to school with—though I was pretty sure he’d been a
year or two ahead of me if so—as well as Ben Yates and Kyle Northrop.
    Ben
had called while