The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin (most read book in the world TXT) 📕

Harry shrugged. “No. It’s just that I haven’t called her in a while. I missed her birthday last week. I feel bad, but I haven’t bought a phone yet, and there aren’t any pay phones in the valley.”

Alice sighed with exasperation and scraped her chair back from the table. She reached across the kitchen counter and plunked the cordless phone down in front of him.

“Call your mother, Mr. Stokes. Any time. Consider it an employee benefit. That thing works out in the barn too.”

She stood with her plate and silverware and glanced down at Jake. “You might want to call your mother too, Jake.”

She set her dishes in the sink. “Thanks for dinner, guys. I’ve got some work to do, so you boys will have to excuse me.”

In her bedroom, Alice took off her shoes and lay on the bed. The tension of the day had settled into her shoulders, and her head pounded. She hadn’t said anything to Jake or Harry about quitting her job. It hadn’t been the right time, with Harry over the moon about kiteboarding and both of them so excited about the hives—especially Jake, who had completed the transfer almost on his own. She could see how much it meant to him. And Harry was proud of how he’d figured out how to reverse the brood boxes.

They had grown on her, those two. But the hive expansion, the plan for planting an orchard—that all seemed impossible right now. First she had to find a new job, which, in a town this size, would be no easy feat. She didn’t regret walking out of Rich Carlson’s office. Not one bit. But the county job had been a bridge to her dreams. Now that she’d burned it, she needed to build something new. She wouldn’t be able to afford to keep Harry on, which was a shame. Maybe she could let Jake stay for a while.

Alice sat up, opened her laptop, and tried to log into the county system. Her access was denied, and she smiled grimly. Rich must have finally called tech support. At least she’d had time to get in and download the spraying schedule for Stan’s group.

She looked at the list of farms she’d pledged to visit and divided them up by address over the next fourteen days. They had two weeks from tomorrow before the spraying began. That was a lot of ground to cover. But she was ready for it. Boy was she ever. Her face burned when she thought about Bill, about Nancy, about Rich.

She scrolled through the other cache of information, which had come to her in such a surprising turn after the meeting at the watershed offices.

Stan had walked her outside. They stood on the sidewalk in the spring sunshine. Stan clasped his hands behind his back and smiled down at her. Alice noticed again that he had nice eyes.

“We really appreciate your help, Alice. We have a really strong case. That county info was a huge help. Huge! The noxious-weed program on top of the orchardists network is a double whammy. Parks, schools, public roadways. Every parent in this town is going to listen now. I don’t know how to thank you.”

Alice shifted her computer bag higher on her shoulder. “Buy me a beer at pFriem when this is over, how about?” she said.

“You’re on,” he said, smiling.

Walking away, she was happy, she realized, happier than she’d been in months. Quitting her job made her feel free, reckless, and excited. She’d screwed up her pension and references by walking out. So what? She would worry about that later. She’d always been so careful, the reliable one, such a worker bee. Where had that gotten her? For once, she was going to enjoy the moment.

Alice walked toward the county parking lot, hoping she wouldn’t run into any of her coworkers. It was just before 2 p.m. and the lot was still full. She walked swiftly to her blue pickup, opened the door, and threw her bag across the seat.

As she moved to climb in, she felt a hand tap her elbow. The blood rushed into her ears, and she wheeled around to face Rich Carlson and whatever venom he was going to throw at her this time. But it wasn’t Rich. It was the intern, the young carrot-haired student from OSU. He jumped back from Alice with his hands up.

“Oh! I’m s-sorry, Ms. Holtzman! I didn’t mean to startle you,” he stammered, and reddened.

“Jesus, Casey!” she said, putting her hands on her knees and lowering her head, breathing deeply. “You gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry! I’m sorry! I just—well, I’ve been waiting for you. I know you quit today. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone heard. We’re all on your side. I mean, they gave Nancy your job and everything—”

Alice raised her head and looked at him, stone-faced, and he reddened again.

“I know it’s none of my business. It’s just— I— You were always so nice to me—”

Alice waved a hand. “No, it’s fine. It’s just been a rough day. Now, what can I do for you? Do you need me to sign your paperwork or something? Nancy can do that now since she is interim director. You won’t have any trouble finding old Nance, I’m sure.”

Casey cringed. “No, I don’t need anything. I just— I wanted to warn you.”

Alice frowned at him. “Warn me? What do you mean?”

Casey took a deep breath and spoke in a rush. “I overheard Mr. Carlson talking about you in the server room.” He looked at the pavement. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop or anything. I was in the back working on the servers, and he came in and didn’t see me. By the time I heard what he was saying, I figured it was better to just stay quiet until he was gone.”

Her stomach somersaulted. She blinked and saw Rich making a frowny face at her across his desk.

“Tell me,” she said.

“He said you were a—” The young man