Page 21 of While the Sun Shines

“The fence is fully fixed. You won’t have to worry about the cows,” Drew says. Then he frowns. “Miss it? Are you—are you moving?”

“I’m not,” Caroline says.

“She is,” Travis says.

“What?” Drew asks.

“No, no, no,” Penny says. “You can’t leave. Oh please don’t.”

“We’re at the very least getting the house ready to put on the market,” Travis says. “That’s what we agreed to, right?”

Caroline tugs her son closer, hugging him around his shoulders. “I agreed to have you up here to enjoy these gorgeous spring days, and what you do with your time is up to you, my dear.”

“You’re selling your house?” Drew asks. His voice sounds weak. Watery. No, he thinks.

“I’m not doing anything other than having Travis here to visit me,” Caroline says. “But oh, Drew, I wanted to talk to you about all of this first.”

“Of course,” he gets out. Selling her land—new neighbors living in her house. Or the property subdivided, dozens of houses dotting the landscape. No, no, no, no.

“Spring’s the time to sell,” Travis says.

Caroline smooths his hair. “Spoken like a true Realtor.”

I can pay you five dollars for it, Drew should tell Caroline. Maybe six, if he counts up all the change in the cupholder of the truck.

Quickly, he takes a step back. “Well, good luck with it,” he says.

Oh, what fucking bad timing. Investing in a bigger herd of cows, buying new equipment for the cheese room so he can keep up with all the orders, buying the sheep—of all the money flowing into the farm this year, almost as much has been rushing straight back out again. Five years from now, he might’ve had a chance of making an offer. Now? He tucks his hands into his pockets as he walks away.

“You okay?” Penny asks as she jogs to catch up with him.

“Oh, yeah, no, I’m fine.”

“That’s a shock,” Penny says.

“Probably should’ve seen it coming,” Drew says.

Because wasn’t this always going to happen? Travis was never going to take over Caroline’s farm.

And she’s old, older than his uncle even, and living here all by herself. As old as his dad would be, if he were still alive. Wasn’t that the fun of looking through Caroline’s pictures? Back when he was a kid, and she’d have him over for cake and soda that his aunt refused to keep in the house? Pictures of Caroline and his dad in grade school together, in high school, and then in their twenties, and Drew had watched his own face start to look more and more like those age-tinted photographs as the years had passed.

“Drew,” Penny says and hooks her hand through his elbow.

He can hear Abelardo behind them. Drew forces a smile, pulling free of Penny and trying to shake off the hard knot settled in his throat.

When he keeps walking, she lets him head off alone, lagging behind to walk with Abelardo. It leaves Drew to chew at the inside of his cheek and watch his boots, scuffed and muddy, as they hit the pavement that’s already beginning to shimmer with the day’s heat.

His shirt’s stuck to his back with sweat by the time he rounds the curve of the road into the barnyard. In the shade beneath Drew’s Jeep, Socks rolls onto his back when Drew comes closer. If he tried to pet that soft-looking belly, he’d get a handful of scratches.

I’m on to you, he sometimes says to Socks. Even will pull out a scrap of baling twine and drag it across the gravel driveway for Socks to lunge at, batting until he’s satisfied the string is good and dead.

Today, Drew lifts the sleeve of his shirt to wipe his forehead and can’t muster more than a small smile at the sight of Socks trying to tempt him with those four white paws stuck so innocently in the air.

“Tell me the sheep are out on pasture,” Drew says when Cooper waves to him from the mouth of the barn.

“The sheep are out on pasture.”

“Oh, really?” Drew’s shoulders relax. “Thank you; that’s great.”