Hoaley Ill-Manored by Declan Sands

and kissed him, the
touch of his lips tender, filled with emotion. “Good. Now. Can we
get something to eat before I pass out?”
    “Well, our delicious dinner from the River
Bluff Bar and Grille is still sitting in the truck and, I don’t
know about you but I’m not going back out there. However, I do have
donuts and beer.”
    “Sounds perfect.”
    Adam grinned. “Yeah. It does doesn’t
it?”
    DS
    They’d been working for hours and they still
had half a massive tree sitting across the driveway. But at least
they could squeeze a car past if they needed to.
    Rike Tree Service seemed to consist of two
guys, one who looked to be a near contemporary of Edgar Reeves’ and
the other probably too young to vote. The old guy was the brains of
the operation, the young one the brawn. But they took one look at
the size of the tree and started to leave, declaring they’d need
four more guys and would have to reschedule.
    So Adam, Bud, and Dirk had stepped in.
They’d been elbow deep in bark and sawdust ever since.
    The sun had lifted slowly into the sky that
morning. After the storms of the night before, a thin layer of
clouds still clung to the sky and didn’t seem willing to let go.
But by ten a.m. the cloud cover had finally drifted off and the sun
came out with a vengeance.
    Along with the blistering heat came the
biting bugs and a steamy humidity that made the smallest movement
seem like aerobics in quicksand.
    Adam would kill for a shower. With that
thought came the memory of his last shower, the night before, and
Adam smiled. A husky voice from behind made him jump.
    “What are you smiling about?”
    Adam turned and laughed as Dirk waggled his
eyebrows at him. “I was thinking I’d kill for a shower.”
    Dirk’s lips curved upward. “Especially one
like the last one, eh?”
    Shaking his head, Adam said, “At least we
won’t need to come back and clean up sawdust, I’m sweating so much
it’s all sticking to me.”
    Dirk grimaced, “Yeah, me too. I’m afraid if
I stand still too long a bird will mistake me for a tree and make a
nest in my hair.”
    They laughed and Dirk touched Adam’s arm
affectionately before returning to his task of carting cut logs off
and stacking them at the edge of the woods. The logs would come in
handy in the winter for the fireplaces.
    Adam intended to leave at least one of the
house’s eight fireplaces wood burning for authenticity. The ones in
the bedrooms and the large fireplace in the library he planned to
transform into gas for ease of use and the one in the kitchen he’d
considered turning into a brick oven. He was excited about that
idea.
    The sound of tires crunching on gravel told
them Maddy had arrived with her hourly offering of cold drinks.
Adam had never been happier to see her. The men all stopped what
they were doing and walked over to her Explorer as it pulled to a
stop before the fallen tree.
    Maddy jumped out and walked around to the
back of the car, pulling a small cooler out and placing it on the
ground. “I brought lemonade this time. I figured the sugar would
help. And I threw some sandwiches in too.”
    Adam grabbed an icy can of lemonade and
drained half of it in a single gulp. He grimaced as he swiped a
sawdust encrusted hand over his mouth before he remembered how
filthy he was.
    “She held a plastic container of wipes out
to him. “Here.”
    “Thanks, Mads. You’re a lifesaver.”
    She shrugged. “It’s the least I could do. On
the plus side, the library and three of the five bedrooms are
painted and demo’s almost done on the kitchen.”
    Adam finished off the lemonade and reached
for a sandwich. “Good. The new cabinets are coming today.”
    “I’m glad we decided to leave the exposed
brick in the kitchen. It gives it a very 1800s retro feel.”
    “Me too. You happy with the slate tiles on
the floor?”
    She nodded. “It’ll be dark with the brick.
But the room’s huge, with lots of windows, and we’ll paint the
cabinets a light color. I