Page 20 of While the Sun Shines

“Ajá, agrónomos encantadores,” Abelardo says.1

“Shut up,” Penny says.

“Well, actually, that’s our land you’re looking at right now,” Travis says, pointing toward where Abelardo’s turned, gazing across the road and the fields stretching farther up the hill. “Drew owns down that way, but the rest of it here is my family’s.”

“The swamp, you mean,” Drew says. “Yeah, I get the wet part.”

Drew tries to pick up his pace, but Abelardo’s tall and Travis is even taller, and all it does is begin to leave Penny behind, so he slows again until they reach Caroline’s house.

When she comes out onto her porch, she’s barefoot, her dress swirling around her ankles, her gray hair swept up on her head. She plucks at Drew’s shirt, straightening the fabric over his shoulders. “Look at you. I could’ve sworn that was your uncle walking up the road there. You’re starting to look just like him.”

“I need a favor,” Drew says.

She smiles up at him. “You sound like him too. Whatever you need, dear.”

“I thought our fields were ready to hay, but it looks like that whole lower half is wetter than I want it to be. Any chance we could take advantage of this weather we’re having and cut your fields? I know I don’t normally hay them until later in the summer, but—”

“Of course, of course. You go right ahead.”

“Mom,” Travis says.

Caroline waves a hand at Travis to quiet him. “No, it’s fine. You have to get the hay cut while you’ve got the weather, don’t you?”

“Mom,” Travis says, louder.

“If it’s not a good time, it’s fine. I can wait,” Drew says quickly. Fuck, he thinks.

Caroline pulls Travis to her, a hand on his shoulder. “It’s absolutely not a problem at all.”

“Mom, I have to be back in the city this weekend, and if we wait much longer spring’ll be over—”

“Shush, dear,” Caroline says.

“You, ah—” Drew points back down the road. His hand feels heavy. “You need the fields for something?”

Because he hays them, every single year. Like his uncle did and his grandfather too. And if Travis is using them this summer, and Drew doesn’t have those bales of hay, he’s good and fucked. That and he’ll be saying goodbye to the dim, half-formed idea he’d lately been turning over, of asking Caroline if he could put up a fence around some of the fields and turn cows out to graze, what with how big his herd is getting.

“Travis just wanted to take some pictures,” Caroline says.

“Getting into photography?” Drew asks weakly. “It’s going to take me a minute to get the mower set up, depending on how long you need.”

Travis pouts out his lips, looking over the fields, then turns to Drew. “Could I actually get a shot of you on the tractor?”

Drew’s cheeks heat. “Me? Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“Please, let Cooper do it. You know he’d be thrilled,” Penny says. “Though what’s it for? ’Cause he’s not really fit for public consumption.”

“It’s not anything,” Caroline says and squeezes Travis’s arm. “That’s a good idea, hon. Go take your pictures now, and Drew, you just go right ahead and do what you need to do. We wouldn’t want your herd to be low on hay.”

“Yeah, ’cause they’ll stomp through the gardens over here looking for food,” Travis says.

Drew feels himself blush even harder. “I’m so sorry about that. Their fence, Cooper and Whit rebuilt it and—”

“Oh hush, Drew, darling. You know I love my visits from your ladies,” Caroline says. “Keeps me young to have some excitement around here.”

“I can’t believe you’d miss it,” Travis says.

“Quiet, you,” Caroline says.