Page 61 of Love Off-Limits
“Yeah? How are they doing?”
“Good, I guess. They seem happy. Isaac asked what you were up to.”
I stilled. So far, Isaac didn’t have any idea where I was. I’d pretty much stayed off of social media since leaving, and from what I could tell, Isaac hadn’t mentioned my departure on the show either. Eventually, he would have to. But I appreciated that he hadn’t pushed to make anything official just yet. He was giving me the space to figure stuff out. And that meant a lot. All the same, I probably owed him an explanation of my whereabouts just because he was my friend. Unless Olivia had told Rosie, and he’d found out that way. “What did you tell him?”
“Just that you were staying in North Carolina and working on figuring some stuff out.”
“That’s it?”
“I didn’t know what you’d told him already, so I was vague on purpose.”
“That’s—vague is good. Thanks for that.”
She was quiet for a beat before asking, “Does he think you might come back, Tyler? Like, is he expecting you to?”
“I don’t know. Possibly. All I told him was that I needed to leave, and he said to go. We didn’t really talk specifics.”
“But you’ll have to talk specifics eventually.”
“Yeah. Of course. This job only lasts to the end of the summer, so I’ll have to figure something out then, at least, if not sooner.”
“Listen, I trust you. But maybe don’t wait to text Isaac until you’ve figured everything out. Even if you don’t talk about work stuff. He’s your best friend. And I could see in his eyes how worried he is about you.”
I leaned into the bunkhouse wall, the wood scratchy against my scalp. “I know. I’ll reach out to him.”
“How’s farm life treating you? Used your camera at all?”
“A lot, actually. The chef in the kitchen is this really flamboyant French guy with this enormous smile who sings while he cooks. I’ve gotten some great shots of him, though I have no idea what I’ll do with them. And the landscape around here, it’s amazing. There’s always something to film. I can send you some stuff if you want. Maybe you can help me figure out what to do with it.”
“Videos that aren’t just of Penelope? I feel so special.”
“Don’t pretend like you haven’t fallen in love with Penelope.”
“You have no idea. She deserves her own TikTok.”
Penelope was spending more and more time with the other goats, but I was still feeding her four meals a day, so we were together a lot. Most of that time was thoroughly documented with a ridiculous number of photos and videos. “There’s a little teeter-totter out in the yard for them to play on, and the other day she spent a solid ten minutes balanced in the middle of the board like she was surfing.”
“Yeah, you sent me the video. All ten minutes of it.”
“Don’t be hating on my goat love.”
“Perish the thought,” she said with a laugh. “Is that all they have you doing? Playing with Penelope?”
“Not entirely. I cut about five million acres of grass this morning.”
“What, like, on foot?”
I chuckled. “Of course not on foot. They have this monstrous tractor thing. It’s actually kind of fun to drive.”
“I can’t even wrap my head around the idea ofyousitting on a tractor.”
“The tractor’s nothing. I can hook up four dozen goats to a vacuum-powered milking machine without help.”
She started to laugh. “I... don’t even know what to say.”
“Olivia’s mom uses the milk to make soap. Did you know soap has to cure for six weeks before it’s ready to be used? At least when you make it by hand, it does. It’s crazy. They’ve got this whole set-up they showed me.”
She was quiet long enough for me to start thinking there was something wrong.
