Page 10 of While the Sun Shines

Penny elbows him back. “I don’t think you can go on a single date with someone and call them a significant other.”

“What’d you just say?” Drew asks.

Penny pokes Whit’s arm. “No, don’t tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

“Tell you the truth about what actually constitutes a girlfriend,” Penny says. “Drew, I’ve dated more women than you have.”

“You’ve had like one serious girlfriend,” Drew says. And only two boyfriends, not that he’s counting.

Penny spreads her hands. “Like I said, more than you.”

“What’s the threshold?” Cooper asks. “Whit, you gonna take me out for a candlelit dinner?”

“Maybe if you clean up your clothes, sweet pea,” Whit says.

“Drew’s version would probably be to just wait for the power to go out,” Penny says.

Drew feels himself flush. “I can—guys, I date.”

“Date.” Penny draws air quotes.

“I do,” he says. “What about Meredith?”

Whit pauses with his fork halfway to his mouth. “That was—you two were dating?”

“Yeah, we were—what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“She came here like once,” Whit says.

“Okay, sure, but it was—we—that was fully a date. I hate all of you.”

“No tanto como Penny odia que otras mujeres vengan a verte,” Whit says.2

“Whit,” Penny snaps.

Drew points his fork at Whit. “What the hell are you saying?”

“You know what, Whit? You used to be nice. Cooper’s rubbing off on you,” Penny says.

“Oh yeah I am,” Cooper says and winks.

“That was definitely a date,” Drew says, but Penny isn’t listening, trying to reach past Whit to grab more bacon from Cooper’s plate.

Of course it was. One of a couple that Drew and Meredith had gone on.

Though that evening, after drinks and then dinner, she’d wanted to see the farm, and without an excuse at the ready, he’d ended up mumbling that sure, she could come over. And, of course, Penny had been home—Whit too. But it was Penny moving around the kitchen that had tied up Drew’s tongue, to the point that when they’d gone upstairs, Meredith had asked if he was okay.

His phone rings and he grabs for it, turning away from the table to hide his red cheeks. “Hello?”

“Drew? It’s Brad! Calling about that cheese order. I hope it’s not too early in the morning for you.”

Drew slips out of his chair. “No, not at all.”

“Up with the sun. I love it, and nope, I don’t miss it at all,” Brad says and laughs.

No, Brad probably doesn’t, having sold off his family’s land and closed his own dairy business. Last Drew heard, he’d gotten himself an apartment in Manhattan and has been growing his career as a provisioner for upscale markets in New York City, which really couldn’t be farther from a life of farming.