Page 4 of While the Sun Shines

“Their room is very much almost done.”

“I think I’ve heard that one before.”

“This time, I swear it is.”

“Says the farmer who brought the mower out to cut hay, like that isn’t the most all-consuming thing you do every summer.” Penny pinches her lips closed, puffs out her cheeks, and quickly, nervously, eases the clutch out. Drew applauds when the truck drives forward. “Tell me that you’ll actually finish their bedroom, and I won’t have to live in such close proximity to how disgustingly in love they are.”

“Hate to break it to you, but they’ll only be moving back down the hall,” Drew says.

“Yes, but then you and I get our end of the hall, or, as I like to call it, Singlesville. And our lovely, besotted roommates can have their side of the house, their own damn bathroom, and never again will I have to try to fall asleep to the most horrible noises I can imagine.”

“I absolutely don’t want to know.”

“I’m going to tell you anyway so that you have to suffer with me. Giggling, Drew. Them fucking laughing. I’d take their headboard pounding a hole in the wall over having to listen to how fucking adorable they are together.”

“Well, we can just institute farm regulation thirty-four point seven, no driving you nuts since you’re our hookup for free beer.”

“I already told Cooper that if I find blond hair in my shower again, I’m never making him another drink at Murry’s, free or not.”

“Harsh.”

“Necessary.”

“Shift into second,” Drew says. “And I swear, I really am nearly done with their room, so they’ll be out of your bathroom before you know it.”

“Promise?”

“I do, ’cause this summer”—Drew drums his hands on the dashboard—“is gonna be the best yet. I can feel it.”

“I think that feeling you’re getting is the joy of the privacy of your own en suite bathroom.”

“Well, it is pretty nice,” he says and dodges when she tries to smack him again.

With her hand hovering over the gearshift, Penny steers carefully around the turn that takes them down the hill. Drew waves at Caroline tending her flowers when they pass the white farmhouse that’s a smaller twin to their own. Caroline waves back, brushing her gray hair from her face. Gingerly, Penny shifts back into first as they leave the paved road for the dirt driveway to the farm.

Best yet, he thinks as they pull into the barnyard. A stray hen strolls across the gravel, clucking to herself as her head bobs with each step. There’s clear weather on the horizon, he can cut hay earlier than most years, and Whit and Cooper are working here full time. Cheese orders are piling in, the herd’s healthy and happy, and for the first time in four years since he took over the family farm, the bank account isn’t ringing hollow.

The summer he has his shit together, he thinks. He’ll get the hay mowed, no problem at all. Cut, tedded, dried, baled, and in the barn in a matter of days. The mower was only a hiccup.

“Can I just park here?” Penny asks, pulling up to the house. “Don’t make me try to put this in reverse and leave it next to the tractors. None of us want to see that.”

“What I’m going to do is make you eat strawberry shortcake and a separate, unadulterated rhubarb pie.” Drew looks around, but that car is gone, the only sign of it the tire tracks left in the soft mud from the morning’s rain. “C’mon, let’s go see if that guy set back our baking plans.”

But Whit’s truck pulls into the barnyard before they make it inside, driving over the tire tracks and forming deeper ruts.

Cooper rolls down the passenger window and leans out to call, “The sheep are cute as shit!”

“Ah, the adorable roommates have returned,” Drew says.

Penny pretends to gag a little. “Ew.”

Drew raises his voice, a hand cupped around his mouth to shout over the rumble of the truck engine. “Did you guys see the car that pulled in here?”

Cooper shakes his head, still halfway hanging out the window. “Didn’t see anyone on the road.”

Whit parks next to the barn, and Cooper jumps down from the truck, already hurrying back to the trailer. “Come look. I love them.”

Whit follows without Cooper’s haste, pausing to hand Drew the bill of sale, a stack of vet records, and the farm checkbook.