“It’s not like he wants me to come back. It’s like I don’t even register as female to him. He keeps trying to get me to date boys my own age, but none of them matter. Not when there’s him.”
I go to Prim and wrap her in my arms. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a true crush on anybody. When you head box office blockbusters, there isn’t a man in the world that doesn’t want to date you. But you eventually find out it’s all superficial.
I can see why she likes Garrett. He’s handsome, strong, hard-working, and…everything I had wanted when I was her age. Damn, this isn’t going to be easy.
“Prim, you’re so young, and you have so much to offer someone when the time is right. Garrett is just not the right person for you.”
Prim shrugs off my embrace, casting me stinging eyes. “Because he’s older? Mom and dad are seven years apart!”
“Yeah, that’s half the years between you and Garrett.”
She’s hurt, and I feel like an ass. Young love is so unique, so untainted by the reality of dating.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“No, I get it. I knew you wouldn’t understand. He’s a good man. Owns a body shop. He’s kind.”
“But, I do understand.”
“Sure, you do. Name a man that wouldn’t date you.”
I cross my arms over my chest.
“Go on, I’m waiting.”
“Prim, it’s not so much that I can’t get a man, it’s that I can’t get a man that actually likes me for me. They see me on the big screen and expect me to be a certain way, and when I’m not, well, let’s just say, I’m no stranger to heartbreak.”
It’s not a lie, although the heartbreak is different than what she probably assumes. It’s not so much that I’ve been heartbroken over a man as much as I’ve been heartbroken over the inability to form a meaningful relationship.
The door to the greenhouse opens and in steps Jake and Garrett. Prim straightens her stance, smoothing the tangles from her hair. She really is so pretty, and I’m glad Garrett hasn’t taken advantage of her innocence. Lesser men would.
“Prim,” Jake says, “didn’t you check the calendar? You need to get ready for camp.”
Prim’s face contorts from confusion to fear. “Crap!”
My brow furrows. “Camp?”
“Yeah, I’m running a cross country camp for middle schoolers,” she says, jogging to the door.
“Well, hurry up,” Jake says. “After I drop you off, I have things to do that can’t wait.”
Jake and Prim exit, leaving Garrett and me alone. When I was young, I thought him cute with a hint of danger hidden behind his shaggy black hair. Now, as a man, he stands taller, his muscles filling out his plain white shirt.
I’m not the bashful girl I once was, and a part of me wants to ask him just what he’s packing under that shirt of his.
And lower.
“How’s the farm treatin’ ya?” Garrett asks.
“Well, my diet was destroyed by sausage and biscuits this morning,” I return.
“I bet it was worth it.”
“If I had to do it all over again, I would.”
I remember his words from yesterday, how he was wondering if I were practicing for a kissing scene. I halfway wanna tell him that I’m ready to graduate from kissing scenes to something with a little more action and a lot less clothes. Show him there’s a little spice sprinkled into America’s Sweetheart.
But then I remember Prim. It would crush her.
I don’t understand what’s gotten into me. There must be a thousand country farm boys just like Garrett across the country, and yet, there’s never been another like him, not back when I was a girl, and certainly not now.
“Come on,” he says, dangling a set of keys from his finger.
“Where we going?”
“To see an old friend.”
