“Okay.” He felt a little stupid. It seemed obvious now that Dusty had shown him where he needed to hold on and where to step. He climbed up carefully, coming almost face to face with Dusty in the small space of the cab. Cool, dusty air from inside the cab filtered over him. The air conditioning unit was working overtime in this heat.
“Not a lot of room in here.” He wasn’t sure where to go now, and not wanting to upset Dusty, he thought he’d wait to be told what to do next. After all, he didn’t want Dusty to change her mind and not let him drive the combine. He’d been hoping for a chance to get behind the wheel for a while now. Blaise wanted to drive a combine harvester and brag to his mates back in Adelaide, but more importantly, he really did want to embrace the farm life. There was a lot riding on whether he could adjust to this new world or not and whether Dusty would really let him into her life as well.
He paused and looked at her. Messy hair, dirty face, clothes smeared with dust and oil, all the result of having to work long, hard, physical hours. She was tired. Frustrated. The attraction was still there, he thought she was beautiful. A twist in his belly made him wonder if she really could go the next step of commitment with him.
With Christmas fast approaching, and the business of harvest stopping any sort of must-have conversations they needed, the doubt was increasing within him.
Dusty smiled. “I don’t bite.”
“You so do.” He grinned, looking straight in her blue eyes. A flash of desire reflected to him, but it was gone before he was sure he’d even seen it.
“I don’t mean to.” She rolled her lips together as if fighting against an inner pain. He knew things had been bad, to say the least, between her neighbor and ex, Jack, and he left wounds on her soul, and even her body. It was a reminder to stay strong for her, and to be patient. No matter how hard it was getting.
“Take a seat.” Dusty gestured to the dirty seat in front of the large window.
Blaise took a deep breath. The conversations they needed to have weren’t the ones to have here in the combine. He grinned and shimmied past her, making sure his body brushed against hers as much as possible. Shivers of pleasure coursed through him with a longing that was hard to ignore.
Dusty took the bag of food from him.
He plonked himself in the seat, and it bounced up and down.
“Wow! Great suspension.” Blaise naturally put his hands on the steering wheel. He grinned. It was a little boy’s dream coming true.
“Well, it is needed. The paddock isn’t smooth like the roads you’re used to.” Dusty reached out of the cab, grabbed the handle of the door, and with her body weight behind her pulled it shut with a force that caused Blaise to jump.
Dusty shuffled over to behind the side of the seat. There was no room for two people here, so it forced them together.
“How do I accelerate?” Blaise couldn’t wait to get driving. A quick glance at the controls made it clear he had absolutely no idea of how to drive the combine.
Dusty leaned over him and flicked some switches. The combine jerked as if in gear.
“Gently push on that lever there.”
Blaise braced himself, held his breath, and did exactly as he was instructed. The combine rolled forward. His body prickled with excitement, and he suppressed a whooping that he wanted to yell out. He was driving big machinery, so he needed to concentrate.
“Where do I go?” Blaise looked around, glad they were in a paddock with plenty of room. He wasn’t sure how Dusty managed to park the combine in the shed.
A flutter of nerves moved in his belly.I got this.
“See over there, the crop is a bit higher.”
“Oh yeah.” It seemed obvious now that she’d pointed it out. He steered the combine over to the crop.
“Do I just start anywhere? Shouldn’t I go from where you left off.” He’d learned a little from when driving the tractor during seeding, but this was so different.
“No, just start here, it will work out in the end. The point is to reap the crop, not have straight rows like when seeding.” He cringed. When driving the tractor with the seeder hooked up at the back, his rows hadn’t been very straight. Dusty had promptly sent him back to the house. This time he wanted to prove to her he could do this. He could be hands-on with farm life. His motivation went deeper, he also wanted to prove it to himself.
“I can drive to the where you stopped,” he suggested. He was finding it hard to concentrate. Driving was taking all of his brainpower.
How does she do this?
“You’ll waste diesel getting to that point,” said Dusty.
There it was again, another reference to ensure money isn’t wasted. It always amused Blaise how tight everything was on the farm with money. He was an accountant and tight himself, but life on the farm took things to an entirely new level. Blaise understood, especially when he offered to secretly do the farm’s accounts with Dusty’s mom nearly two years ago. He had saved them a lot on returns, which gave them a bit of breathing space financially. A good crop this year would help them maybe get a little in front.
Could I live like this year to year?
“Just keep going straight, then turn right, easing the header, the part where the blades are moving to cut the stalks into the crop.” Dusty instructions interrupted his thoughts. “And you can go a bit faster, you know.”
