“Oh my gosh, yes,” I tell her, pausing to take a drink. “Today was exhausting, but so incredible. You should be really proud of what you’ve built here. The farm, the animals, it’s … magical, honestly.” Grayson's grandma, LuAnne, enters the dining room with another platter, this one overflowing with what looks like beef brisket. She sets it next to the mashed potatoes, and my mouth starts to water at the sight.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I ask again, knowing that they will likely shoo me away from the kitchen. Besides letting me join them in the garden when they picked lettuce greens and fresh cucumbers, they have demanded I sit while they dote on me.
“Absolutely not,” his grandma says, placing both of her hands on my shoulders to keep me from standing. “You sit and rest. You deserve it.”
Lukas enters the dining room at the tail end of her sentence, snickering when he overhears. “Yeah, must’ve been a rough day for the city girl getting to play with the animals all day like we’re her own personal petting zoo.”
“Lukas,” Grayson booms, entering the room behind him. Lukas’s shoulders pull together at the sound of Grayson’s voice, but he doesn’t answer.
“I may not have worked as hard as you guys, that's for sure, but…” I trail off, trying to think of something, anything to justify my day to get Lukas off my back. But when I come up blank, Grayson finishes my sentence.
“I'm not going to have her shoveling shit in the stalls or tackling a calf to the ground. She kept up with us all day long, and she was here ready to work before you usually get your ass out of bed in the morning, so why don’t you just lay off.”
Lukas, who had just pulled out his chair to sit down at the table, shoves it back in. He moves around the room, squeezing past his grandma with a gentle grip on her elbow as he goes into the kitchen. “Sorry about him,” she says sheepishly.
“No one needs to apologize for Lukas's behavior, except him," Grayson says firmly. He pulls out the chair next to me, sitting down and scooching it in. He looks like he barely has enough space, sitting again between the table and the hutch, same as he was the first time I was here.
“You look like you barely can fit back here,” I whisper to him. “Why don't we go sit on the other end of the table?” I gesture with my head to each end that is open, but Grayson just shrugs.
“We all kind of have our assigned seats, I guess,” he says. “My dad is on one end and my grandpa on the other for my whole life. It's not their fault I happened to grow up and be twice their size.” He winks and I inhale a heavybreath at that as I’m unable to tear my eyes away from him.
He sure is twice their size. His size was the first thing I noticed when he crashed into me on the sidewalk that day, but seeing him here in his element, throwing around fifty pound bales of hay like they weigh nothing, while being able to calm animals in that low-hushed tone of his, is every girl's wet dream.
The rest of the family filters in. Theo follows Grayson's dad, Warren, and grandpa, Edwin. All of them smile warmly at me and ask polite questions about our day. Lukas re-emerges from the kitchen, drinking a beer as he walks while holding another one in his opposite hand. He offers it to Theo, and when Theo shakes his head no, Lukas shrugs, finishing off the one in his hand then cracking the second and taking a large drink before he even sits back down.
The food is passed around platter by platter, and I surprise myself at how hungry I am. I let my stomach take the lead, and spoon a second ladle full of gravy over my potatoes and add an extra slather of butter to my dinner roll. “This is incredible,” I say through my first mouthful, quickly covering my mouth with my fingers when I realize how rude that probably came out. “Thank you again for inviting me to stay for dinner.”
“We wouldn't dream of not having you over,” Grayson's mom says with a warm smile. She reaches over to rest her hand on top of mine, squeezing it. “So, tell me your favorite part of today.”
“Ummm…” I trail off, feeling multiple sets of eyes burning in my direction. Today was filled to the brim with everything I could think of, from meeting Maple, to scaring Grayson with a chicken, to taking rides out in the fields and getting to sit on a tractor for the first time.
I loved it all. I twist my head to face Grayson, and when a smile curls my lips, he shakes his head.
“Don’t say it.”
“But it’s so good.”
His hand slides under the table to land on top of my knee, squeezing once. “Don’t say it,” he says through gritted teeth. He rests it there, and when I give in to a full smile, I place my hand over his, squeezing back.
“I learned that Grayson is terrified of chickens,” I blurt out to the room.
Theo howls with laughter, leaning back in his chair to clap his hands. “Big bad Grayson is nearly two hundred and fifty pounds and still cries when the chickens come around.”
Grayson groans, leaning back in his chair as an embarrassing blush blooms over his cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I say through a giggle, raising my hand to squeeze his shoulder. “It was too easy.”
“I’m not afraid of them. I say this every time. They’re just … they’re just…”
“We know,” Theo interrupts. “They have three sets of eyelids. It’s weird—we get it.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t be afraid of them if Theo didn’t lock me in the coop when I was little.”
I slap my palm over my mouth, and a rush of guilt fills my chest at the thought of scared little Grayson locked in with the chickens.
“He’s lying, Holly,” Theo calls out. “He’s trying to play on your soft side. I only shut the door on him; I didn’t lock it.”
“I was seven years old!” Grayson shouts, and his dad bursts out in laughter.
