Chapter Eight
Daisy
I wake each morning feeling more guilty than the last that there are three men sleeping outside while I’m cozy in the house. And not only that they’re sleeping outside, but that they’re forced to be chickens, too.
“Oh, Grannie…”
It’s been a week since Gus showed me the safe in her closet.
A week that I’ve tried multiple times a day to get into it, yet every combination of numbers doesn’t work.
I’ve tried birthdays. Death days. Random numbers.
Nothing is working. The worst part of all is who knows what’s in there?
All this trying, and it could be empty. The answers may not be inside that safe at all.
Maybe the guys are right, and there isn’t a reverse. But I won’t stop trying until I know. What else do I have to do with my time?
I love Grannie, but enough is enough. It’s not these guys’ fault that their family was cruel. They were just boys—babies. They didn’t have a say in what was going on. Their grandparents are long dead—as are their fathers, so it’s not like they’re suffering anymore.
I hear voices outside, so I go to the window to listen. The warm air flutters in, the days getting hotter.
“—care what you do, but I’m helping.”
That’s Gus.
“See how much good it does you,” Wade responds.
“Better than sitting around and doing nothing,” Gus says. It’s quiet a moment, then, “Are you going to help?”
I assume he’s asking Rhett, and I wait for the response.
“I don’t know…”
“Fine. Don’t need either of you,” Gus says.
I don’t know what he plans to do, but I change into my yardwork clothes to get to work.
“Morning, Daisy,” Gus says, closing up the chicken pen. He offers me the basket.
“Oh, thank you,” I say, taking the basket with two eggs inside.
He lowers his voice and says, “When Wade is stressed, he won’t produce one of those.”
Right… egg is another trigger word. How am I ever going to get used to this?
“I understand. Thank you.” I head back into the house to put the eggs away. I hear Gus following me, so I glance over my shoulder.
“I was hoping I could help you today.”
“Help?”
“Yeah.” He smiles. “You know, with the work around the farm.”
“Uh, sure. Okay. If you want to.”
Shrugging, he says, “I don’t have anything better to do. I don’t have to hide in bird-form now that you know the truth.”
“That is very true.”
“I’ll meet you in the barn?” he says, and I agree.
I meet him there a few minutes later. I get to feeding the horses while he measures out their food for the week.
“Here are some treats for them,” he says, hurrying over and offering me a couple of carrots. I take them from him, our fingers brushing and tingling—a lot. I yank my hand back at the same time he does, and we look at each other, confused.
“Must’ve been a static shock,” I say, brushing it off.
But it didn’t feel like a static shock. It wasn’t a quick zap. It lingered and didn’t hurt as much.
I feed Butter and Pecan their carrots while Gus keeps working on the food. I’m moving on to the cows when I hear more footsteps.
“Morning, Charlie!” I call out without looking.
“Oh, I’m… not Charlie.”
I whirl around to see Rhett standing in the barn doorway, looking unsure about being here.
“I’m so sorry, Rhett. I just assumed…”
“I thought I could help,” he says, toeing the dirt. “You know, since there’s nothing else to do.”
“Of course. Feel free.” I smile, then grab the food to fill the trough.
“Let me get that,” Rhett says, hurrying over. He picks up the pail that isn’t all that heavy, lifting it so hard some flies out. “Shoot,” he mutters. “Sorry, I thought it would be heavier.”
I giggle and lead the way to where the food needs to go. He pours it in and then we work on filling their water.
When the morning chores are done, I ask if they want to come in for lunch. I offer to make some sandwiches. They both agree, and as we walk into the house from the back door, moving by the pen, we get stared down by Wade—in chicken form.
“The fences could be replaced too,” Rhett says, pointing to an area of the fence that’s more worn than the rest. “It’s not dire, but it’ll give us something to do. And if you’re going to stay then—”
“Oh, I’m not staying,” I say quickly.
Gus and Rhett give me a questioning look.
“You’re not staying?” Gus questions.
“Not for long. I’m just here to go through Grannie’s things, make sure Charlie is good, and then I’d planned on selling the property.
“You can’t do that,” Rhett says. “What about us?”
Well… that’s a good point.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I guess I hadn’t considered that. When I made this decision, I didn’t know about you being chickens.”
“Ba-cawk!”
“Sorry!”
Gus shakes his head, taking a calming breath.
I can tell he isn’t mad at me, just embarrassed. Rhett ignores it, still staring at me.
“So, you’ll stay then?” he says.
“I can’t stay, Rhett. I have school and a home.”
“You can go to school here,” he says.
I huff a laugh. “Have you seen this place? There’s no college around here.”
His jaw falls open, he scoffs, and then storms off.
“What was that all about?” I ask Gus.
“I think he likes having you around, and you just told him you’re leaving.”
“He doesn’t even know me…”
“Yeah, well… we don’t meet many new people. And he offered to help. It may not seem like much, but to him, it’s the start of letting you in, and that’s big.”
With a sigh, I chew on my lip and watch Rhett head back to the house. He doesn’t go inside, but around it and disappears behind the house.
“You think I should go see if he’s okay?” I ask.
“I’m sure he’s fine. I’ll talk to him in a little bit. Hey, you want to see something cool?” he asks.
“Uh, okay?” I say.
I’m not sure what he could show me that I don’t already know about, but it could be fun.
He takes my hand, those little tingles tickling my skin, and leads me up the dirt drive. When we make it halfway up the hill, I already know where he’s bringing me.
There’s a large tree with a tire swing hanging from it that pops into view. Another couple of minutes, and we’re standing in the shade of the tree.
“I haven’t been on this in years,” I say as I run my hand along the old rubber. “I played on it all the time when I was a little girl, and then, one day… I forgot it existed.”
“So, this was yours?” he asks, giving it a little push.
“Yep. Charlie hung it for me on my sixth birthday. Grannie was a little worried, thinking I’d break something, but I never did.”
“Wow.” He looks up. “And it’s still hanging on.” His gaze comes back to me. “Get on. I’ll give you a push.”
“Uh… how about you get on, and I’ll give you a push. You know… in case it falls.”
“Oh, so you don’t care about my well-being?” he says with a smirk as he climbs into the tire, shoving his legs in and taking a seat. The branch creaks beneath his weight, and I look up at it, but it seems sturdy as ever.
With both my hands pressed to his back, I give him a hard push. When he comes back at me, I follow through with him and shove him when he goes forward.
The branch creaks more, the tire spins, but it holds on tight.
Gus laughs, shouting, “Higher, higher!”
“You’re heavy!” I call back, pushing him as hard as I can.
He laughs, kicking his feet to help him swing.
My arms burn from his weight, and my face hurts from laughing so much.
“Your turn!” he calls, putting his feet down as he swings back and forth to slow himself down. Once he’s off, I slip inside, holding on tight because I’m still not convinced it won’t break.
Gus pushes me. It takes a few shoves for me to really get going, but when I do, I laugh, the fluttering in my stomach all too familiar. He keeps pushing me. I keep laughing. And for a moment, I forget about all the craziness going on around me.
Gus helps me off the swing, and I step forward, tripping on an exposed root. I fall into his arms and look up at him, my lips parting when I see the way he’s looking back at me.
The sun is going down, the air a little cooler. His fingers brush away some stray hair from my face, and I swear he’s going to lean down to kiss me. I jerk out of his grip.
“Sorry,” I say quickly. “I’m clumsy.”
Gus smiles. “It’s okay,” he says softly.
“We should get back,” I say. “I could use a shower.”
“Of course.”
He keeps his hands in his pockets as we walk back to the house and split ways.
And as I wash up… I wonder when the last time they took a shower was.