10. Hannah
CHAPTER 10
HANNAH
SEVEN SUMMERS AGO
“ S o, are you ready for this?” I ask Will as I pull the tractor up next to where he’s standing, waiting for me.
“Sure, let’s get to it,” he says as he makes his way toward me.
I wasn’t sure what to think when Gramps told me that Will would be helping us around the farm this summer, but I have to admit that it’s nice having some extra hands around here. Add in the fact that he looks like he belongs in a GQ magazine, and I have no complaints.
“Uh, where am I supposed to sit?” he asks, looking up at the cab of the John Deere tractor where I’m sitting.
“Well, unless you’re ready to drive this thing by yourself, you’re gonna have to ride the buddy seat here for a while,” I tell him, gesturing to the small buddy seat I pulled down before heading this way. “It was either this or the open cab where you’d be sitting on the wheel well, and trust me, that’s not a fun experience.”
“No problem,” he says, pulling himself up and folding himself into the small seat beside me.
I try to fight the urge to laugh at the sight of his knees nearly touching his chin, but when he leans over to close the door and almost falls off the small seat, neither of us can hold it in anymore.
“Sorry ’bout this,” I tell him, trying to keep a straight face, starting up the tractor and watching him try to get settled in the small space. “After today, you’ll be able to take this on by yourself. So you ready to get started?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says with a grin.
“All right, let’s get right to it then. First things first, when you go to start, you're gonna press the clutch,” I explain, before pushing the pedal down with my foot while I continue. “Then, you’re gonna grab this gear shift and put it in drive. There are a bunch of different gears that we can worry about later, but just to cut hay, you don’t have to worry about that too much.”
“Got it,” Will says, watching me intently as I move the gear shifter beside the wheel.
“And then you’re gonna slowly let off the clutch with your foot. But if you do it too fast you’re gonna choke the damn thing down and you’ll have to restart.
“Okay, so press the clutch, shift gears, and then let off slow?” Will asks, and I feel hyper-aware of how close we are in the little cab of this tractor while I try to focus on pulling us into the hay field we’ll be spending the day cutting together.
“Yep. Then you take it easy to get through the gate, and once you’re ready to start cutting you’re gonna stop, press the clutch, and shift this lever to engage the PTO,” I explain, ignoring the way his breath feels on my bare shoulder while he looks at the switch I’m pointing to.
“PTO? Pretty sure those are the meetings my mom keeps getting messages about attending for my siblings,” he teases with a laugh.
“Not this time,” I say with a giggle. “This is the power take off, and when it clicks on, you’ll hear a hum. It’s what cuts the hay. That noise means you’re ready to go. After that, you just drive around in squares until everything’s cut.”
“Simple enough,” he replies, leaning back in his small buddy seat as I start to drive. “So have you and your grandfather really run this farm completely by yourselves?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” I tell him, feeling the weight of his gaze burning through me as I try to focus on the field outside instead of meeting his gaze. I’ve never been super confident talking about myself, and combined with our proximity and how freaking hot he looks, I need something else to focus on.
We make small talk for a few more minutes before I ask, “You ready to try your hand at this thing?”
“Heck yeah. Let’s swap,” he agrees, rising from the buddy seat and waiting for me to slide over.
I look at the small space and stand, having to press my front to his as I try to maneuver myself into the small space. I’m pretty tall, and I’ve grown used to towering over all my friends, but Will is well over six feet, so he still towers over me. I imagine how it would feel to curl up in his lap as he drives, before shaking my head at the ridiculous turn my thoughts just took.
I settle into the seat and feel myself blush as he grazes against me, taking his place in the main cab seat. “Okay, let’s see if I’ve got this… We’re gonna push the clutch, shift gears, and let off—shit that wasn’t right,” he says as the tractor groans and shuts off. “What the hell did I do wrong?”
“Remember what I said about letting off the clutch slowly? That was still a little quick. Just try again,” I tell him.
After a few moments, he gets it going and re-engages the PTO to start cutting again. “So, this hay we’re cutting. What do we do next?” he asks, looking between me and the field.
“Well, we let it dry out for the next day or two, then we’ll come back through with the tetter and fluff it, then we’ll get the baler after it,” I explain, relieved we’re talking about something other than me.
“Damn, I don’t think I realized how many steps were involved in this whole process. I guess we have our work cut out for us this summer, huh?”
“Yeah, there’s a ton of shit we need to cross off the list before I leave Gramps alone again,” I say, already dreading how much work lies ahead of us over the next eight weeks.
“Good thing I don’t mind the company,” Will says, looking over at me with a wink.
Damn, I guess the next few weeks might be more eventful than I planned.