A Heart's Desire - Book 1 of the Crossing Midian Series - A Christian Romance

Chapter 16

The November air was crisp on the morning that Wesley walked down to the barn and found his dad already there.

Wesley was tired. He hadn't slept well the night before, and his head was pounding.

When he came to stand beside James, he realized he was turning the ax that Wesley had broken over and over in his hand.

"Morning, Dad," Wesley said with a sigh. "I know I don't have that fixed yet, but Pop's had to order a new handle and I haven't gotten around to picking it up yet."

Wesley turned away to grab the shovel from where it was hanging on the back of the wall.

James shook his head. "Son, you should've already had this done. You broke it weeks ago, and it's getting colder out. We're gonna need firewood soon."

Wesley bit back a groan. It was far too early in his opinion to be so aggravated about anything. Especially not something as dumb as an ax handle.

He walked over to Cochise's stall and began to muck it out. "I know, Dad," he said shortly. "But I've already got an entire stack chopped and if it makes you feel any better, I'll go down later and get the handle."

James stood up from the workbench and laid the ax back down on the table. He walked over to Wesley and said, "What would make me feel better would be if you took care of our tools to begin with." He gestured towards the work table where tools were scattered haphazardly around instead of put away in their proper place on the pegboard hanging on the wall. "You know better than to leave them lying around like that, son."

"Wesley," James said when the younger man didn't even look up at him.

Wesley sighed as he met James's gaze.

"What if Beau had come in here messin' around and got ahold of the saw 'cause you left it out where he could reach it?"

"I'm pretty sure Beau is old enough to know not to play with the saw," he said with a scoff.

"That's not the point, Wesley." Now James's own temper flared, and he crossed his arms over his chest and tried to take a second to steady his heart rate. He didn't want to be angry with Wesley this morning, but his oldest was sure not making it easy on him.

Wesley huffed. "What is the point, Dad? Why are you bein' so hard on me today? I said I'd fix the ax and I will! I'll clean up the tools too, so don't worry about it."

"I'm not trying to be hard on you, Wesley. But when you take over this farm, you're gonna have to be responsible and take better care of things, because you can't just duct tape your tools back together and think that's gonna make everything work!"

"I don't want the farm, Dad!" Wesley yelled, his chest heaving as he tossed the shovel into the corner of the stall.

The words were out of Wesley's mouth before he even realized and he immediately saw the hurt flash across his father's face.

James just stood there, his mouth agape and his blue eyes staring intently at Wesley.

"Dad I— I didn't mean—"

"Don't!" James said harshly. He took a deep breath and ran a hand over the stubble along his jaw before he nodded. "I'm sorry you feel that way, son." James' voice was rough and thick with emotion before he turned around and started walking towards the barn door.

"Dad!" Wesley called after him. "C'mon, Dad, I just—"

Wesley cut himself off. He just what? He hadn't meant it? But that wasn't true. He had meant it. He just hadn't meant to say it right then, and he definitely hadn't meant to say it like that. He reached down to pick the shovel back up from where he had tossed it.