Page 19 of While the Sun Shines

Not the only one standing next to this tractor, either, he’d put money on.

“I’ve heard so much about him,” Abelardo says.

“Do not walk up there,” Penny says.

Abelardo claps Drew on the shoulder. Drew jerks, surprised. “I’ve heard a lot about you too, Drew, but this Travis, I’ve got to meet him.”

“You absolutely don’t,” Penny says.

“My trip to the farm won’t be complete otherwise,” he says. “I’m going to introduce myself, if you’re not coming with me.”

Abelardo starts up the hill and Penny groans. “Fine, but I need reinforcements.”

Drew kicks at the tractor’s tire. Uncle Bert used to drive a dump truck of gravel out to this spot every fall, smoothing it out so that come spring, the road would be firm enough to drive on. Drew loved watching it when he was little, standing perched on a rock to wait until the moment the truck bed tilted high enough that the gravel would start to fall.

He wants to sit on that same rock now. Let his weight settle on it, put his head in his hand, and hope that when he looks up again, everyone’s gone and they’ve agreed to forget this ever happened.

“Drew,” Penny says.

“Yeah?”

“I mean you,” she says and grabs his wrist.

She tugs him with her until she seems satisfied that he’s following her, and then jogs ahead, legs working against the hill’s incline, calves flexing.

Drew ducks his head, shoves his hands in his pockets, and follows, skin warm where she was gripping it.

When he catches up with Penny at the top of the hill, Abelardo and Travis are already shaking hands.

“So nice to meet you,” Abelardo says.

Travis points between Abelardo and Penny, his thick, shiny watch catching the morning light. “You’re, uh—”

“Visiting,” Abelardo says.

Not what Travis was asking, Drew could say because this is Penny’s personal fan club standing here, and whatever Drew is wondering about her and Abelardo, Travis is speculating too.

Well, Travis probably always has had a better chance than Drew. He wouldn’t look out of place in the pages of a menswear catalogue, even early on a Thursday morning, visiting his mom. Drew plucks at his own T-shirt. He might’ve worn something else, if he’d known he’d be stuck here between two guys who bother to match their belt to their shoes.

Or not. He was always going to just grab the first shirt in his drawer, threadbare and faded from the sun. Yank it on and go in search of the damn shear bolts.

“Is your mom around?” Drew asks as Travis keeps looking between Abelardo and Penny.

“What happened to your tractor?” Travis asks.

Drew blinks. He had to have seen, right? “Nothing,” Drew says. “It’s fine. I just wanted the walk.”

Penny snorts a soft laugh.

“Mom’s home,” Travis says. “But—”

“Thanks.” Drew starts down the road.

But Abelardo jogs a few steps to catch up to him, and when Penny follows, Travis trails only a step behind her.

“Wow, you all live a charmed life. Look at this view, and fresh eggs and milk,” Abelardo says. “Pen, I get why you like it here.”

“It’s got its perks,” she says.