Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
PATRICK
This car ride is awkward.
It’s so obvious that we had both been hoping to ride with a Warren sister.
I know I don’t want to dive into any of those feelings right now, so I don’t question him.
As Jude enters the highway, he flips on the radio, it’s low but better than the sounds of our breathing being the only sound in the cab.
Google told me that it’s about a two hour drive.
I’m extra glad for the music, knowing I would have spewed some word vomit if we sat in silence for that long.
It’s still dark out but I take the opportunity to take in the state I’m now calling home.
I’ve only been officially living in Utah for just over a week but haven’t really been anywhere outside of my apartment and the Farm.
It’s a beautiful state.
After I had applied for the job at the Farm, I did some research on the state and was slightly put off by how religious the state seemed to be but the nature exploration options overshadowed most of those concerns.
Five national parks, how could I say no to that?
I’d worked in a Yellowstone gift shop in Montana for four months before getting a job driving a bus from the Seattle airport to a cruise ship port and I was excited to be close to that park again as well.
I’d found an attraction in Rexburg, which takes about the same amount of time to drive as it will to drive to Timpanogos, that was a drive-thru wildlife experience with black and grizzly bears and other animals that I couldn’t wait to visit when I more settled in my new space.
Maybe I could ask Elle to go with me.
OR maybe I could stop being a weirdo and find friends outside of my workplace.
Jude finds a parking spot under a tree and once he throws it into park, I hop out and stretch my arms in the air, bending side to side in an attempt to wake up my muscles.
After about an hour into the drive, Jude finally broke the silence and asked me how I was liking the Farm so far.
I had no complaints and shared my excitement about getting this program up and running.
That led to a more in-depth conversation about how Jude came to work at the farm.
Jude chuckled as he reminisced about how his best friend Mason has begged him to work a summer at the Farm because he has a crush on the Warren twins.
Mason had only lasted that one summer, as he hadn’t caught the attention of Lola or Paul, but something had clicked for Jude while he was on the Farm and he never left.
This was the most I’d ever heard him talk. I was honestly shocked he shared so much.
I was less shocked when he decided to turn the focus on me.
From the questions he asked, I could surmise he had seen the messiness of the resume I sent over.
I told him about my favorite jobs and how no matter where you are, people are typically the same.
Jude seemed to perk up when I mentioned working as a surf instructor while I couch hopped around Cancun for 8 months.
Who would have thought the giant of Warren Farms would be interested in surfing.
I chuckle to myself again thinking of it as Lola’s car pulling into the spot next to us while I was still stretching, my arms up in the air.