The stench might go away eventually, but the thing I couldn’t wash off was the realization that everyone in my life was right. There was no way I could survive on this farm. For the first time in my life, I was going to fail at something. My eyes stung as last night’s tears returned. My phone buzzed on the nightstand, and I recognized my best friend’s ringtone. The soreness in my arms made me wince as I reached for it.
Becks was the only person I would risk this kind of pain for, especially since I didn’t feel like talking to anyone else.
“Hey!” Her high-pitched trill succeeded in waking me all the way up. “I figured you’d be awake since you have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to run a farm.” She wasn’t wrong. Once again, the unmistakable cry of my feathered archnemesis woke me up way before the alarm on my phone would have.
“Actually, the farm is running me.” I tried to keep my voice calm and even, so my college roommate wouldn’t know that I’d been crying.
“Talk to me, mija.” She sighed.
“Nothing.” I cleared my throat and continued. “I guess I didn’t…” I trailed off and my eyes stung again. My phone began beeping. Becks was trying to FaceTime me.
Shit. Busted.
“You might as well answer because if you make me bring my ass to a farm, you’re gonna regret it.”
I sighed and tapped the green camera icon. Rebecca’s eyes widened as her face filled the screen.
“God… damn, mami,” she said, astonished. “You look like who did it and ran.”
“I know,” I muttered, and I couldn’t repress a smile.
“No, I mean, you really look bad. Did you get attacked by a bobcat?” The corners of her lips were curling into a smile.
“Shut up.” I rolled my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing.
“For real, though. Did you get the license plate of the bus that hit you? Should I call Cellino and Barnes?”
“What?” I finally snorted, not able to hold in my laughter anymore. “Who the hell is that?”
“It’s a New York thing, but I think it’s just Cellino now—” she mused.
“Hello?” I interrupted.
“Girl, I’m just trying to make you laugh.” Her teasing grin faded into a smirk. “Of course, your first day working on a farm kicked your ass. You, Miss Chess Master and Southern debutante, are not a farmer—”
“Who’s not a farmer?” a deep voice called from over her shoulder as her husband, Ben, walked into frame wearing low-slung pajama pants—in the same pattern as the top Becks was wearing—and no shirt. They’d been together as long as me and Teddy, but unlike me and Teddy, they were still madly in love. By the looks of those abs and the lazy, contented smile on Becks’s face, their love was stronger than ever. My mind flashed to Dan’s broad and exquisitely toned physique the night he mistook me for a burglar while wearing nothing but very tight black boxer briefs, armed with a wooden stick.
“Oh, shit. What’s up, girl?” A brilliant white grin stretched over the smooth dark brown skin of Ben’s unblemished face—what was that man’s skin routine?—before he pressed a kiss onto Becks’s neck and reached for her coffee mug.
“Hey, Ben,” I said weakly, knowing that I must look like death sucking on a Lifesaver. “No surgeries today?”
“Oh, the doctor is in, baby girl.” He leaned down and kissed Rebecca’s neck again, making her dissolve into giggles and slap his chest. “They call me Dr. Feel-Good,” he growled.
“Boy, stop!” Becks squealed. “Emma does not want to see this.”
“She’s right. I don’t.”
“Anyway,” Becks continued when she regained her composure, “I was just telling my brilliant but ignorant-when-it-comes-to-hard-labor friend—”
“Hey, I’m not—”
“I said hard labor, not hard work. This is new, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever done before. I know you’re smart. I know you don’t run away from challenges. We all know that, but this is one thing that you can’t just jump into and be good at. It’s gonna take time. Slow down and give yourself some credit. If anyone can do this, it’s you.”
“You really think so?”
“You got this, girl!” Ben chimed in before breaking into a hip-hop rendition of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” Becks joined him by beatboxing… terribly.
“I hate you.” I laughed into the phone. My body was a little less sore, and I felt a lot less hopeless.
