Page 31 of While the Sun Shines

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yeah, but I gotta make it,” Drew says. “And I don’t even know when that’s going to happen because we need to get that hay cut on Caroline’s land and—and—”

“And her selling it is kind of a nightmare?”

“Yeah.” He rubs at his forehead. “Yeah, it so fucking is.”

“Seriously. I need another lady around here, an actual human one, because Sadie’s great, but it’s not quite the same.”

Caroline. Gone. Caroline, who sent him home as a kid with apple pies, banana bread, blueberry buckle. Who came over the day after Uncle Bert and Aunt Mary packed their car and left for their retirement in Florida, as if she were welcoming him to the neighborhood. Handed him a loaf of freshly baked bread and patted his cheek and told him he’d do great here, the new owner of this entire farm.

To have her just…gone. Living somewhere else. And a new neighbor he doesn’t know in her house.

Drew tries to smile. “Well, apparently, at some point in the next twenty years, I’ll have found myself a girlfriend.”

“Ugh, I hate her already.”

Drew looks up. “You do?”

“And I need Travis to go back to his goblin cave in the city.”

The image of Cooper’s gesture rises in Drew’s mind, suggestive teasing that in any other context, Drew probably would’ve laughed at. “That’s not, uh, working out?”

“He thinks it’s more of a thing than it was.”

Was. Drew likes that word. When, he wants to know. And how.

But, no, he doesn’t. It’ll just drive him wild if he ever finds out. Pretending that he might be able to pull off the same thing. Imagining himself in Travis’s place. Inventing a scenario where Penny looks at him with that same type of interest.

God, Travis of all people.

He sands the wall until dust coats the toes of his socks, floating down in a tiny shower. Knowing his luck, Drew’d end up being who Penny’s groaning about. Drew that great friend I had, before he hit on me and now we don’t talk.

“It’s just been a day,” Drew says.

“And you want some peace and quiet to think your thoughts, you giant introvert you, away from people.” Penny stands, sets her bottle down, and comes over to him. “And you want to work. Like always. I’ll leave you alone.”

“You don’t count as people,” Drew says.

She smiles softly. “Thank you.”

Take a step backward, he tells himself. But the wall’s behind him, and there’s nowhere to go.

“Go hang out with your friend,” Drew says. “I’m shitty company, like always.”

“Yeah, well, good thing I still like you.” She moves even closer to him, close enough that his heart gives a lurch.

Kiss me, he thinks.

But like she did to Cooper downstairs, she gently grasps the side of his shirt and tugs at it. Friendly. Funny. That’s all.

“Now finish this fucking room,” she says and steps away.

Drew lets out a breath when she leaves, and when he’s sure she’s gone, the hallway squeaking as she walks back to the stairs, he touches the spot on his shirt that’s still wrinkled from her grip.

CHAPTER SIX

Drew pulls the pillow over his head, trying to ignore the first spokes of sunlight streaming into his room. He squeezes his eyes shut too, like that will help dampen the soft bustle of the house in the morning.