Page 40 of Lovewell Lane

“She’s a menace, will talk for an hour without letting you get a word in edgewise. Plus, I think she has a thing for me.”

“Pretty conceited, Weston.”

I shot her a look. She returned my look with a playful smirk.

We found my dad a few minutes later with a beer in his hand and a crowd hanging onto his every word. There was a reason he was banned from visiting the farm during the workday. It took about five times for Sam or I to walk down to the fields to find all of our workers laughing at one of Slick’s stories from his youth instead of working.

“Hey, are you going to give your speech?” I interrupted his story.

“I thought I’d let you do it this year, son. You are in charge after all,” he said with a good-natured grin. I knew him too well for that though, the glint in his eye told me he knew how much I despised giving speeches.

“Is this because I told you I was the old man of the family? That was just a joke.”

“No, it’s because I’m getting old. And youarein charge.”

I could tell he wasn’t going to back down. I walked away to get it over with, leaving my dad and Margo to finish the rest of his story and chat amongst themselves.

“Hey everyone,” I cleared my throat. Most people here worked for me or had a spouse working for me. They probably thought I was an asshole, and knew I wasn’t one for pleasantries, so they shut up quickly. “In front of you are seeds, dirt, and water. Let’s get these planted and start off the season right.”

I raised my beer and everyone else raised their drink along with me. Then I nodded. And that was it. Done. Easy.

I walked away from the head of the table shortly after and found all of my siblings plus Lila and Margo standing together. Giving Calli a quick hug, I joined their circle. Most of them were laughing or doing an awful job of hiding it.

“What?”

Sam burst out laughing at that. He almost doubled over. I shot Margo a confused look, and she started laughing silently. Her cheeks pinkened, and I immediately wanted to know what caused it.

“What is it?”

“You sound like a caveman,” she explained. Then she lowered her voice to make an awful impression of me with one of the worst Southern accents I’d ever heard. “Dirt. Seed. Water. Make plant grow. Do. Now.”

Everyone broke out into a flurry of laughter again. I stood there, trying to hide a smile while glaring at the beautiful woman standing in front of me. She was so painfully charming. I stole her away to introduce her to a few of the other families that were there. They would be potential customers for her, after all. And selfishly, it made the experience less painful knowing she was next to me to smooth over any awkward conversation.

“Do you want me to show you how to plant your first seedling?” I asked during a lull in between people coming up to us.

Margo looked at me, shocked. “Oh, yeah that’d be nice. I need to make sure to get my wish in.”

I nodded and gently grazed my hand against her lower back to lead her over to the tables in the center of the barn. She sneaked a glance at me while we walked and I thought I caught a hint of a blush on her cheek. Once we were in front of an empty section of the table, I started grabbing the things we needed.

“I’ll try not to sound like a caveman this time,” I grumbled.

She laughed in my ear and it was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard. “I’m ready for my verythoroughexplanation,” she teased.

I rolled my eyes and stood closer to her, so I could shove what she needed into her hands. Grabbing an empty aluminum tray first, I pushed a Sharpie into her other hand. “So we need to label the tray. What seeds out of these do you want to plant?”

“I think basil.”

“Great choice. Write it on the side.”

She wrote basil on the side of the tray in her typical smooth cursive lettering. I waited for her to finish and inspected her freshly painted nails. “You’re going to ruin those with this next part.”

Margo did a double take. “My nails? Oh, that’s fine.”

“Alright then, we’re going to fill it up with dirt. I grabbed a bag of potting soil and pulled it closer to us. We each grabbed a handful before smoothing it down into the tray together. Our hands brushed against each other and I did my best to focus on the planting.

“You want it to be about halfway full,” I added. “This looks good. Now, you want to press your thumb down into the tray.”

She pressed the tip of her thumb right down into the soil in the center of the entire tray. I tried not to laugh but failed to hide my amusement as she looked up at me with an innocent confusion.

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