Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Holly
“So, how was your first day on the farm?” Grayson's mom, Sherri, asks as she sets a large bowl of mashed potatoes in the center of the dining room table.
“Hmm?” I respond, nearly dozing in my seat.
When I asked to spend a day here with Grayson, I had no idea what that would actually entail.
I assumed I would get to see and pet animals, which I did, but I had no idea how physically demanding it can be.
I'm no stranger to being on my feet for twelve hours or more, and my body is always wrecked after a long shift, but when you add in the sunshine and fresh air, carrying buckets of water or feed, or trying to haul a bale of hay, the exhaustion I thought I knew is tenfold.
“Did you enjoy your time on the farm today?” she asks again, and I sit up in my chair, reaching for the glass of ice water that had been set in front of me at some point.
“Oh my gosh, yes,” I tell her, pausing to take a drink.
“Today was exhausting, but so incredible. You should be really proud of what you’ve built here.
The farm, the animals, it’s … magical, honestly.
” Grayson's grandma, LuAnne, enters the dining room with another platter, this one overflowing with what looks like beef brisket.
She sets it next to the mashed potatoes, and my mouth starts to water at the sight.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I ask again, knowing that they will likely shoo me away from the kitchen. Besides letting me join them in the garden when they picked lettuce greens and fresh cucumbers, they have demanded I sit while they dote on me.
“Absolutely not,” his grandma says, placing both of her hands on my shoulders to keep me from standing. “You sit and rest. You deserve it.”
Lukas enters the dining room at the tail end of her sentence, snickering when he overhears. “Yeah, must’ve been a rough day for the city girl getting to play with the animals all day like we’re her own personal petting zoo.”
“Lukas,” Grayson booms, entering the room behind him. Lukas’s shoulders pull together at the sound of Grayson’s voice, but he doesn’t answer.
“I may not have worked as hard as you guys, that's for sure, but…” I trail off, trying to think of something, anything to justify my day to get Lukas off my back. But when I come up blank, Grayson finishes my sentence.
“I'm not going to have her shoveling shit in the stalls or tackling a calf to the ground. She kept up with us all day long, and she was here ready to work before you usually get your ass out of bed in the morning, so why don’t you just lay off.”
Lukas, who had just pulled out his chair to sit down at the table, shoves it back in. He moves around the room, squeezing past his grandma with a gentle grip on her elbow as he goes into the kitchen. “Sorry about him,” she says sheepishly.
“No one needs to apologize for Lukas's behavior, except him," Grayson says firmly. He pulls out the chair next to me, sitting down and scooching it in. He looks like he barely has enough space, sitting again between the table and the hutch, same as he was the first time I was here.
“You look like you barely can fit back here,” I whisper to him. “Why don't we go sit on the other end of the table?” I gesture with my head to each end that is open, but Grayson just shrugs.
“We all kind of have our assigned seats, I guess,” he says. “My dad is on one end and my grandpa on the other for my whole life. It's not their fault I happened to grow up and be twice their size.” He winks and I inhale a heavy breath at that as I’m unable to tear my eyes away from him.
He sure is twice their size. His size was the first thing I noticed when he crashed into me on the sidewalk that day, but seeing him here in his element, throwing around fifty pound bales of hay like they weigh nothing, while being able to calm animals in that low-hushed tone of his, is every girl's wet dream.
The rest of the family filters in. Theo follows Grayson's dad, Warren, and grandpa, Edwin.
All of them smile warmly at me and ask polite questions about our day.
Lukas re-emerges from the kitchen, drinking a beer as he walks while holding another one in his opposite hand.
He offers it to Theo, and when Theo shakes his head no, Lukas shrugs, finishing off the one in his hand then cracking the second and taking a large drink before he even sits back down.
The food is passed around platter by platter, and I surprise myself at how hungry I am.
I let my stomach take the lead, and spoon a second ladle full of gravy over my potatoes and add an extra slather of butter to my dinner roll.
“This is incredible,” I say through my first mouthful, quickly covering my mouth with my fingers when I realize how rude that probably came out.
“Thank you again for inviting me to stay for dinner.”
“We wouldn't dream of not having you over,” Grayson's mom says with a warm smile. She reaches over to rest her hand on top of mine, squeezing it. “So, tell me your favorite part of today.”
“Ummm…” I trail off, feeling multiple sets of eyes burning in my direction. Today was filled to the brim with everything I could think of, from meeting Maple, to scaring Grayson with a chicken, to taking rides out in the fields and getting to sit on a tractor for the first time.
I loved it all. I twist my head to face Grayson, and when a smile curls my lips, he shakes his head.
“Don’t say it.”
“But it’s so good.”
His hand slides under the table to land on top of my knee, squeezing once. “Don’t say it,” he says through gritted teeth. He rests it there, and when I give in to a full smile, I place my hand over his, squeezing back.
“I learned that Grayson is terrified of chickens,” I blurt out to the room.
Theo howls with laughter, leaning back in his chair to clap his hands. “Big bad Grayson is nearly two hundred and fifty pounds and still cries when the chickens come around.”
Grayson groans, leaning back in his chair as an embarrassing blush blooms over his cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I say through a giggle, raising my hand to squeeze his shoulder. “It was too easy.”
“I’m not afraid of them. I say this every time. They’re just … they’re just…”
“We know,” Theo interrupts. “They have three sets of eyelids. It’s weird—we get it.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t be afraid of them if Theo didn’t lock me in the coop when I was little.”
I slap my palm over my mouth, and a rush of guilt fills my chest at the thought of scared little Grayson locked in with the chickens.
“He’s lying, Holly,” Theo calls out. “He’s trying to play on your soft side. I only shut the door on him; I didn’t lock it.”
“I was seven years old!” Grayson shouts, and his dad bursts out in laughter.
“You seem to forget that we’re twins, Gray, I was also seven years old, but I didn’t run crying to mom.”
“I’ll never forget you running to find me in the house,” his mom adds. “He was so mad at Theo.”
Their dad tries to hide his laughter behind his hand, but it’s no use. Soon, everyone in the room is chuckling, even Grayson. I lean my body to the side, playfully bumping my head against Grayson’s shoulder. “Sorry, I had to.”
“Trouble,” he murmurs, so low that only I can hear.
His burning gaze is back. The same intense gaze he wore in the barn when he had me pressed up against the wall. My body heats, and I reach for my glass of water, taking a long sip as most everyone resumes eating.
“Wait…” I set my glass of water down next to my plate. “Did you say you’re twins?” I look from Theo to Grayson, and back again. They are roughly the same height and boast the trademark Hart family crystal-blue eyes, but that seems to be where the similarities end.
“We’re twins, not identical, obviously,” Grayson says. “I’m technically six minutes older than him, so he should have some damn respect for the eldest brother.”
Theo cackles from across the table. “Maybe it’s payback for stealing all the space in the womb. Grayson was born a tank and I was a puny little thing.”
“Now, now,” his mom interrupts. “You were both the most perfect boys ever, just in your own way.”
I bring my glass to my lips to hide my smile.
Her answer is a classic mother's answer. Theo is tall like Grayson, but definitely more slender. He’s strong, muscular, and conventionally very attractive, but when I look at the man sitting next to me, my attraction to him is something that almost can’t be put into words.
“So, where’s Harper?” I ask, begging for a change of subject.
“She's at work,” Grayson responds. “She bartends downtown at the local bar Wednesday through Saturday.” I nod my head in understanding, then Grayson's dad pipes up.
“I really wish she'd find something more responsible to do with her time.”
“Responsible?” Grayson questions. “I know bartending isn't your ideal job, Dad, but Harper is a social butterfly. It's the perfect place for her to be able to talk as much as she wants and listen to music as loud as she wants. She pays her own bills, doesn’t have any debt—I don’t really see the problem.”
“The problem is she's twenty-three years old and doesn't have a savings account or a plan for her future.”
“I get that,” Grayson says, and I can feel his entire body tense alongside mine with the need to defend his sister. He chooses his words carefully, tactfully, which is something I’ve come to notice about him. “But she's also only twenty-three. She has her whole life ahead of her.”
“Yeah,” Theo pipes up. “I mean, Lukas is twenty-seven, he's kind of a loser, and you don't nag on him.”
Lukas tosses a dinner roll at Theo who catches it with a laugh, and tosses it back, hitting him square in the chest.
“Now, you boys settle,” Grayson's mom says, rolling her eyes with affection. She leans into me and asks, “Holly, do you have any brothers? Tell me it’s not just my boys and that all boys are this obnoxious.”