13. Will
CHAPTER 13
WILL
SEVEN SUMMERS AGO
“ O kay, so our job for today is to check on all the animals, and then focus on the garden later this afternoon. Gramps is tettering the hay, so it’ll probably be on us to get it baled tomorrow. Sound good?” Hannah asks as soon as I pull up at the farm this morning.
“Sounds great,” I tell her honestly, looking forward to spending the day with her again. She’s wearing jean shorts, and I try not to stare at her long, tanned legs while she walks ahead of me.
“Well, come on then, we don’t have all day,” she teases over her shoulder, and I hurry to catch up with her.
I hadn’t been looking forward to this job when Huey helped me set it up, but over the last week, I’ve enjoyed settling into a routine with Hannah. She has a way of making me laugh, and she’s also hot as hell which makes the day go by faster. Plus, the farm seems to bring me an unexpected sense of peace that I’m not quite used to.
“We’re gonna take the Polaris around to check the fence line after that wind we had last night first, so let’s get that over with,” she suggests, already getting ready to jump in the driver's seat of the ATV.
“Sounds good. Did the weather get too bad here?” I ask, taking the seat next to her and looking out at all the land in front of us.
“Uhh, not too bad. But let me tell you, Leroy was not happy about all the racket the storm caused. I didn't think we’d ever get him to settle down,” she says with a laugh.
“He certainly keeps things interesting around here, huh? I’ve never seen a pig with such an attitude.”
“Yeah, he’s a mess but I love him. Anyway, like I was saying we had a lot of wind, but that was about it. What about you?” she asks, taking off toward the cattle field.
“It got a little bumpy in town,” I tell her, thinking about the hour and a half I spent trying to get my little sister Kit to calm down after a limb fell in the yard. Mom was at work, and Kit’s always been terrified of bad weather. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell Hannah about it, but I stop myself, unsure why she’d care that my little sister doesn’t like bad weather.
“Well, I didn’t want it to get bad but God, we need some rain. I can’t believe we didn’t get a drop with all the thunder and wind we had last night. But also, I guess it’s kinda a good thing since we just cut hay. Gramps always says that the best way to get rain is to cut hay, since that’s the only time you need it to stay dry. But apparently, that didn’t even work this time,” she says with a laugh.
I hum in approval, as Hannah nears the fence line toward the back of the property. “So we’re basically just looking for any limbs that might have fallen, but we just want to make sure there isn’t any way for the animals to get loose. These little shits love causing chaos.”
We ride in comfortable silence for a few minutes, both of us looking out at the fence line in front of us before something hits me. “Wait, where are the cows?”
Hannah bites her lip, and I have to focus to keep from getting distracted at the question. “Umm, I’m hoping they’re just in the front of the field over the hill where we can’t see them. If not, we’re about to have a much bigger headache on our hands.”
“Oh, well, hopefully you’re right,” I say, squinting to look ahead and see if I can see the animals in the distance.
“Damn it,” Hannah groans, and I look at her in confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
She gestures to a spot in the distance ahead of us, and I can barely make out a huge tree limb down on the fence by the road and several of the cows are already trying to butt the slack in the wire.
“Great. Well, the good news is it doesn’t look like any of them have gotten out yet.” She sighs.
“And the bad news?” I tease.
“It looks like there’s a chainsaw or two in our future,” she replies, causing me to laugh.
But an hour later, as I’m dripping in sweat and wood shavings, I can’t say I can still see the humor in the situation. God, it’s barely even eight in the morning, and it’s already hot as hell. Despite the heat, we’re able to clear the limb and fix the fence without too much work. I grab a bottle of water out of the cooler in the back end of the ATV and gulp it down while Hannah inspects the area.
“Okay, I think that’s good enough here, but now we’re behind on fields so finish that up so we can get going,” she tells me, wiping her brow with the bottom of her T-shirt and drawing my attention to her bare stomach.
I watch her for a moment, before needing something else to focus on. “This farm thing’s pretty fun, but damn if it isn’t a shit ton of work,” I tease.
“Tell me about it,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I love this place with my whole heart, but damn it wears me out sometimes.”
“Yeah, I knew I’d have my work cut out for me when I started, but I don’t think I realized how much went into all of this,” I admit.
“Well, don’t go quitting on me now,” she says with a laugh. “We’ve still gotta pick corn and the rest of the veggies for the farmers market this weekend, and then somebody has to check the horses this afternoon.”
“No problem. You wanna take it all on together today?” I ask, suddenly desperate for her to say yes. The idea of spending the day with her even if we’re working sounds like the perfect way to make the day pass.
“You not tired of me yet?” she asks with a laugh.
“Not even close,” I tell her, and I don’t miss the way she smiles at that.
“Okay. Well, I was going to offer for us to split once we got to the fields, but if you insist,” she says. “But don’t you come complaining to me when I start to get on your nerves.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about that one bit, Hannah,” I tell her truthfully.