Learning The Farm

Damion

She grinned. “I’ve only worked for Oliver for a couple of months.”

“How long have you been a hand?”

She shot me a dirty look. “I’m not a hand,” she said the word as if it had been an insult. “I’m a fixer. People, farm and ranch owners, hire me to fix a farm that isn’t performing like it needs to be. Farms that are losing more money than they make or just need a little help getting things organized, that’s what I do.”

“My grandfather was losing money?” I asked with surprise.

“No, but things were in a bit of disarray. He’d lost his longtime farmhand and the other guys he had working for him were taking advantage of his kindness. They weren’t doing him any favors. Planting was delayed and things were just kind of a mess. I understand why now, but I didn’t then. I thought it was an old guy losing his steam. I didn’t know he was sick.”

“Neither did I,” I told her. “He didn’t tell me he was sick. He showed up at my office out of the blue and I now realize he was saying goodbye. At th