Landon’s dad looked up and waved his son in with a grunt. Ricky Petty was a burly man, three inches taller than Landon’s five-feet-ten, and built like a barrel with a pair of sticks for legs. His grunt was one of his good mood grunts. Landon and his mother had turned deciphering his father’s grunts into an art, though his father was not a complicated man. He was big and intimidating, with a red beard and dark brown hair always covered in a straw cowboy hat that shaded his dark brown eyes enough to make him seem much surlier than he was. He was actually just your typical country-bred, good ol’ boy with a teddy bear disposition—unless he was in a snit. Then he was damn near horrifying to watch. Landon had stayed out of trouble as a kid, the wrath of his father’s rare temper and the firm set of his face when disappointed had been enough to make even a bigger man feel two feet tall.
Landon plopped down in the wooden chair that faced his father’s desk, waiting for his dad to finish up whatever he was doing with the papers he was shuffling. Landon had finished his coffee before his dad finally looked up. “Sorry, son. Lynne and I are dealing with new hire insurance horse puckey.” Landon smiled at his dad. The old guy was not one for cursing, and Landon found his silly curse-word replacements endearing, coming from such a big man.
“You guys hired someone new?”
His dad grunted an affirmative, then shut the folder containing the papers he’d been fiddling with. “We finally hired on a new manager so you can focus on hauling full time.”
Landon breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been hauling full time as well as handling overseeing the day-to-day management of the mill, so he was usually around until late in the night dealing with schedules and payroll. His dad had been looking for a while for someone so Landon could focus on the part of the job he liked most, hauling their wood chips from the mill down to the plywood and paper plant in Laurel, Mississippi. It was typically a six hour round trip, and when you started at three in the morning and didn’t get home ‘til eight at night, it made for a long day. Plus, his dad really wanted someone around to help on-site so they could both cut out earlier than they had been over the last year since his dad had bought out his partner, Jimmy Green.
“That’s great, Dad. Decided not to use one of the old timers?”
“Naw. They all sniffed around the job but wanted the extra pay without the extra hours.”
Not surprising at all. He wasn’t sure how good they’d take to an outsider coming in as their boss, but his dad knew best. And Landon had no interest in being manager anymore, so he’d take what he could get.
“Marty Bennett told me his son-in-law was looking for better paying work.”
Landon furrowed his brow, trying to remember the son-in-law in question. “Bethany’s old man? Thought she was in Atlanta?”
“Name’s Jay. I s’pose they’re actually split up. She’s off at Emory. Marty says he’s a good guy, though. Let her go off and get some fancy degree and keeps the kids during the school year. Marty figures they’ll end up back together at some point, high school sweethearts and all.”
Landon smiled again. “You old men are as bad as the blue haired ladies with your gossipping.”
His dad harrumphed. “Nothin’ wrong with a man wanting his kid happy. Thinks they’re a good fit and Jay’s a good family man, treats his girl well. It’s best for those kids, you know.” Landon’s dad and his friends were old school, so they would think that. Landon thought he remembered Jay from the couple times the man stopped by when Bethany had babysat Landon. They were both a good seven or so years older than him, so he didn’t remember either of them all that well.
“When’s he start?” Landon asked.
“Monday, next week. You should come by tomorrow and meet him. Your mama is makin’ dinner for him and his kids over at the house tomorrow night.”
“You know I wouldn’t miss a free meal, pops.” Landon also wanted to meet the man he’d undoubtedly have to train before they got mired in the work.
“Your mama will be happy to hear it. You can cut out early since it’s Friday, so come on over to the house at six o’clock.”
“Will do. Anything else you need?”
“That’s all. You get on out on the road again. We’ll be seeing you tomorrow.”
“Yessir,” Landon confirmed, and headed on out to check that his next trailer was loaded. He couldn’t wait to shake the man’s hand who’d be lightening his work load. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have too many days left like this one where he’d have to come in and write up payroll. Maybe he’d actually be able to get out to Jackson on the weekends and scratch a long-burning itch he’d let fall by the wayside for months now.