His Plan: Book 2 in the Crossing Midian Series - A Small-Town Christian Romance

Chapter 7

After lunch, T.J. followed Beau down to the barn to get the tools they needed to check the fence row. Beau carried the hammer and nails, and whenever they found a break in the line, T.J. would uncoil a length of the barbed wire and grip it tightly, while Beau hammered it into place. If they found any places where the fence itself broke, they would mark it and come back to fix it later.

It was tedious work, but Beau enjoyed it, and T.J. enjoyed helping Beau.

As they worked, T.J. stayed mostly quiet, letting his mind drift. Despite what his parents and uncle seemed to think lately, T.J. loved the farm. He'd been helping take care of it since he was old enough to carry eggs from the henhouse.

Back then, it was bigger, and it took everyone to run it. The Anderson farm was 480 acres, nearly double the size of some of their neighbors, and had been in their family for four generations. They raised cattle mostly, but they had a small herd of horses, and a few chickens and goats, too. Even pigs, which were T.J.'s least favorite. The farm had also raised plenty of crops that were sold to markets or used for feed for the animals.

T.J. could remember sitting on his Uncle Beau's lap while he drove their old John Deere past field after field during harvesting season. He would blast music from the little battery powered radio that he kept inside, and sometimes he would let T.J. steer.

But that was before the accident. Losing Tommy did something to everyone, but he and Beau had been more than just brothers; they were best friends, and Beau had the hardest time getting past his death, if one ever "got past" losing someone that close. After that, they were lucky if Beau showed up to help at all, and eventually, James sold off some of the land and downsized the crops and animals.

They still had a substantial sized farm, but James's heart wasn't really in it anymore.

T.J. was five at the time of the accident, so he didn't remember much, but thinking back, he clearly recalled the sounds of raised voices before slamming doors as his uncle would lock himself in his bedroom, away from the family he had left. No amount of coaxing could get him to come out. And as T.J. grew older, he remembered Beau being in trouble more often than not. A lot more than him, T.J. reflected, but nobody asked him.

T.J. wasn't sure when everything changed for Beau, but his grandma used to say that God would bring Beau out of his grief in his own time, and he thought she must have been right, because looking at his uncle now, no one would guess he was even the same person he was before.

"Earth to T.J."

Beau's voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"What?" T.J. asked, glancing up to find Beau staring at him from the other side of the fence.

Beau gestured between the fence and the ring of wire that T.J. held in his gloved hands. "You gonna hold that wire or just stand there looking at it all day?"

"Oh, sorry," he said as he unrolled a length of the wire.

Beau shook his head. "What're you thinking about, anyway? You're awful quiet."

T.J. shrugged. "Uncle Tommy, mostly."

T.J. watched as Beau stiffened at the sudden mention of Tommy. He turned away from him and bent down to pick up a few nails from a box on the ground, the muscles in his back tensing.

T.J. could have kicked himself and he ducked his head, hoping that Beau wouldn't turn and notice the way his cheeks were burning at his thoughtlessness. Why had he said that? They never talked about Tommy; at least, Beau didn't.

Expecting Beau to either change the subject or ignore him entirely, T.J. was surprised when Beau gave a quick nod before standing and turning back to where T.J. held the wire against the fence post.