Barrett had never been close to his father, and it wasn't likely he ever would be. Sometimes he wondered if their personalities were incompatible. He never understood the drive for personal wealth that kept his father away from his family so much of the time. John Monroe was hardly a self made man. He married money and used it to build his real estate business. He hadn't been much of a father in some ways, but he had certainly lived up to his financial responsibilities. He would have, grudgingly, paid for Barrett's college education, but Barrett was too stubborn to go that route and he refused to take money from his mother. Like with the tree house, he wanted to control destiny by doing it himself.
His father had used the accident as an example of why he should have chosen the profession of a doctor or lawyer. It was his way of saying 'I told you so.' That was the mistake people made - thinking that they could control every aspect of their life. If it hadn't been the tree, it probably would have been something else. The important thing wasn't avoiding disaster. It was how you dealt with disaster when it inevitably entered your life.
Barrett had a good education and his physical health was still improving. For that he was thankful. It could have been a lot worse. There was no point wallowing in self-pity. Uncle Del was feeling sorry enough for him. Uncle Del admitted he felt responsible for the accident, but he insisted Barrett was selected for the current job because of his education. No doubt his knowledge of trees and the wilderness in general was an asset, but Uncle Del couldn’t afford to pay someone to search the forest for specific trees on a regular basis. He didn't fully understand why Uncle Del decided to work with Logan, but he suspected the motive was probably busy work.
His current job was dangerous. No one pretended otherwise. Barrett was intrigued from the beginning. One of the appeals of being a Forest Ranger had been the opportunity to protect public land from lawbreakers. He didn’t know if he was capable of the extent of subterfuge that would be required for this job, and was frank about that concern from the beginning. Logan assured him that he need only tell people he was looking for rare trees. He would be driving a vehicle clearly marked with the lumber company name. He was only supposed to observe and report.
Logan had always wanted him as a partner. Barrett had no training as a Private Investigator, but Logan’s logic about his experience being an asset was sound. He was trustworthy and woods wise, but more importantly, his presence in this kind of country was believable. Barrett knew enough about the lumber business to convince anyone that he was actually searching for a stand of hardwood. He'd found enough quality lumber to satisfy an order. The use of Uncle Del’s company vehicle provided a convincing cover.