Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(50)
“Things made from wood flour,” Grant said, still glaring at Brad, who turned his back on them and continued to cart his climbing gear along behind Todd. “That product is basically wood pulverized to dust, bleached and rinsed, which we don’t do on-site. Bet you didn’t know wood flour’s in such things as nondairy milk shakes—water, sugar, flavoring and wood flour. Yum,” he said with a chuckle.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“It gets weirder than that. Other items we contribute wood pulp, not flour, to are the cups you get your coffee in at places like Starbucks.”
“He probably won’t mention tampons,” Amber said, catching up with them. “And I won’t repeat a couple of jokes Todd told me about that. Grant, that phone call—it may be nothing, but a friend of mine says up by where her brother lives on Shadow Mountain, a man keeps a team of big Amish-type horses that come and go in a truck sometimes. Didn’t Todd say that you think a draft team might have hauled off your tree?”
“Yeah. Can you give me directions?” he asked. “I’m looking for any lead. No Amish live around here, far as I know, so it’s worth looking into.”
“Sure, can do” was all she got out before Todd stopped under a huge oak and everyone looked up at its lofty height.
“This is the site of your field trip, boys and girls,” he said with a grin as he clapped Brad on the back.
“But, Dad,” Jason said, “we only have us boys here, not girls. Mom and Miss Kate are ladies.”
Todd grinned as he put his gear down then went to Brad and started to hitch him up. “I’ve already got climb lines all over this tree, or else we’d have to throw and secure them,” he said, as he pulled gear from his backpack.
Again, he demonstrated the Jumar ascenders he’d shown them before, devices with handles a climber could hold and teeth that gripped a rope. Jumars attached to a harness that held the climber around his hips and thighs and kept him from being detached from the rope. Todd then climbed into his harness.
“Do a monkey hang up there today, Dad!” Jason called to him as the two men walked over to the ropes hanging from the tree.
“Not today,” Amber chimed in. “Todd, please, no branch-walking, either, even if you have an audience.”
“Yes, boss,” Todd said and blew her a kiss. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to take Brad up a ways and let him look around. Then if Kate is still game, I’ll give her a couple of lessons before we climb near the Hear Ye compound. Brad, up we go. Let’s convince these groundlings that this is a walk in the park.”
“I don’t usually watch him climb,” Amber whispered to Kate as the men started winching themselves up separate ropes with the help of ascenders. “At least he’s been doing this for years without a hitch. He says it’s a whole new world up there, but I’ve just never—never needed that. And now with the kids, no way, however sure-footed he is up there. Grant, I didn’t know Brad was such a risk-taker.”
“You’d be surprised, especially lately,” he said, keeping his voice down and his eyes up.
“Besides drinking? You mean Lacey?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, she’s a risk, but he’s welcome to her. You know about that?”
“Saw them uptown together. Todd told me that he was afraid Brad was after his job, but Brad assured him he isn’t, that the two of them kind of made up for bad feelings.”
Kate thought Grant looked relieved.
Amber cried out in a loud voice. “Okay, boys, look at Daddy go!” The two youngest clapped and cheered.
“Just like I drawed you in the tree, Daddy!” Aaron shouted and ran to the tree.
Grant shifted Andy into Amber’s arms and retrieved Aaron. “Let’s just watch Daddy from over here,” he said and tugged the boy away.
“But I can’t see him.”
Todd, then Brad, had disappeared into the foliage of the tree. Between branches, they appeared again, sometimes standing on them, sometimes—with Brad following Todd’s lead—slightly swinging out from the main trunk with their feet on it, then back in again. “Woo-hoo!” Brad’s triumphant cry came down to them.
At least this was something Brad could feel good about, Kate thought. He’d finally got something over his big bro, too—literally—high above them all.
Looking up, she felt almost dizzy. She held her breath. Maybe she’d just let Todd climb a tree above Bright Star’s commune. It didn’t scare her to go underground in small, tight places, but this... She found a new admiration for Brad, despite how she knew Grant was more logical, more like her. After all, there was nothing wrong with caution—up to a point. But when you wanted something so bad, onward you went.
Her neck started to hurt from looking up. Like Amber and Grant, she shifted her position to watch the climbers. They were very high. In that moment she made two decisions. It might be exhilarating, but she was not going to climb a tree, even to spy on Bright Star. She was going to get even closer to Grant. She’d convince him to let her help search for his own big tree, starting with checking on some draft horses up on Shadow Mountain. But meanwhile, she had to find out why he kept putting her off about Mason Mound—and somehow get inside it.
*
In a way, watching like this, hearing Brad cheer in exultation, Grant wished he’d climbed with them, but that was Todd’s realm, like art had been Paul’s. He’d encouraged Brad to do this only because he was hoping he’d find some new strength, a sort of victory, to pull him back from too much booze. And yeah, maybe give him something to do besides lust after Todd’s job and Lacey, no matter what Amber had said about him and Todd mending fences. Brad was welcome to Lacey, except Grant didn’t want her around if they got serious. All he needed was Brad being converted to a tree hugger, turning against the family business generations before them had built.