Page 17 of Gerard
Beaux dragged the collar of his T-shirt up over his nose. “I second that motion.”
Bernie shut off the engine and climbed down from the tractor. “Sorry, guys. I’m past due for cleaning out the pen, and it rained recently. Of course, the pigs love the mud, but it compounds the odor.” She gave them instructions on how and where to construct the panels to form an enclosure for the herd of swine.
With the help of his team, Gerard was pleased with how quickly they got the pen up and the animals moved into it.
Once the job was done, Bernie double-checked the enclosure, tugging on the panels to make sure they wouldn’t give way if bumped by a four-hundred-pound hog. Her smooth brow dented. “It will have to do. And I’ll have time to clean their pen after the crime scene team finishes their investigation.”
“Clean their pen?” Gerard asked.
“I go in with the tractor and front-end loader and scoop out all the yuckiness, deposit it in the compost pile at the opposite end of the pen and use the natural fertilizer on my field.” She clapped her hands together. “That will have to wait until after I harvest the melons.”
“Looks like you’ll have a little help,” Gerard said.
Her brow wrinkled. “Oh yeah? Who?”
Remy stepped forward. “My team of Brotherhood Protectors would like to assist you in bringing in your crop of watermelons, Ms. Bellamy.”
She shook her head. “It’s back-breaking work,” she warned.
“We’re all strong and ready to help,” their leader said. “All you have to do is let us know how you want it done and where to load all the watermelons.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, a frown pinching the skin over the bridge of her nose.
“If you’d rather we didn’t—” Romeo started.
Gerard elbowed the man in the gut. “What my friend here meant is we’d be glad to help. Right, Romeo?”
Romeo pressed a hand to his belly. “Yes, ma’am,” he said through gritted teeth as he doubled over. “Looking forward to helping out.”
A smile spread slowly across Bernie’s face, changing her from plain to beautiful. The late afternoon sunshine added to her glow. “Thank you.” She turned to Gerard and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
His breath caught as her lips brushed across his skin. Heat rose up his neck and sank down into his groin. For a moment, he couldn’t put two words together to form anything that would make sense.
“Hey, we’re all going to help, not just Gerard,” Romeo said and turned his face to the side, presenting his cheek.
Gerard glared at his friend.
Before he could say anything, Remy clapped his hands together. “When do you want to start?”
Bernie stared out at the field of melons. “If we start now, we can get through half the field tonight and finish the other half tomorrow after the morning dew has burned off. That will give me time to deliver the first load to my distributor in New Orleans and get back. Then we can finish loading the rest tomorrow afternoon. We should be finished well before dark, in time for me to take the second load to New Orleans.”
Beaux raised a hand to shade his eyes. “How many melons do you think you have here?”
“I planted one acre at a projected yield of about fifteen tons per acre. I’m not sure how much damage Penelope did.”
“Penelope?” Lucas asked.
“One of her pigs,” Gerard said.
“My breeder sow,” Bernie added. “As for how many melons are out there...” She tipped her head to one side and narrowed her eyes. “At maybe 50-100 melons per ton, there should be around a thousand melons or more, minus the ones Penelope destroyed on her midnight binge.”
Gerard blinked. “A thousand?”
She nodded. “My pickers would’ve harvested them all today had they been allowed to start when they arrived earlier. I had the boxes ready and waiting. All we have to do is load the boxes onto this trailer, and we can start—if your guys are serious.”
“Oh, we’re serious,” Remy said. “Aren’t we, team?”
“Sure,” Jacques said.