Chapter 23
“Did you check all the usual places?”
Jonah Willett was sixty-nine years old and had been the foreman here for almost forty years before he retired. Ernie had made it a habit to check on Jonah’s whereabouts daily because the man loved his alcohol. When he tied one on, he wandered. He was also half-blind, as well as deaf in one ear, which made things complicated. His disappearances had been happening more often lately.
When I could get Jonah to agree to go with me to a doctor—which was rare—I was told he would likely need to be put into an assisted living facility at some point. It was hard for me to think about doing such a thing. I’d known the man almost all my life, and he’d taught me so many things, he was like another parent.
“Yessir, boss,” Ernie replied. “Me and a couple of the hands went searching the barns, but he wasn’t there.” He scratched his cheek, which was peppered with stubble. The sharp, sexy cut of his jaw was distracting. I needed to keep my mind on Jonah.