I laugh. “Is that what you do? You get a big bill and figure out what needs to be done to pay it?”
In the dim light from the open side of the barn, I see her shrug. “I guess. This whole farm is a matter of catching one problem and figuring out where to throw it. Big bill? Well, good thing I already had some ideas brewing. Mayor’s being a dick? Give him a smidge of what he wants. It’s all a give and take, a delicate balance of figuring out who wants what and determining the best way to make that come true so they can help me.” She snorts. “That’s why Isquander my monopoly, as you might say.” She shoots me a pointed look over her shoulder. “I do a hell of a lot of trade around hereto keep costs low. Keep the community on my side. Make sure this place stays afloat.”
I nod, something in her words tickling a problem in the back of my mind. “Something tells me that’s how this town works in general. You scratch my itch, I’ll scratch yours.”
She steps out onto the grass on the other side of the barn and switches her phone light off. “Oh, a hundred percent. You were probably too young to notice the corruption here but the best way to get anything you want or need is to find somebody who wants or needs the same thing but has more clout than you. Stupid, corrupt small town politics. I would bet good money Reed is trying to get something from you by not approving your development plans. I don’t know what it is, but figure out the way he wants to be greased and you’re golden.”
I nod, turning my attention to the water wheel Eve is now facing. She holds her hands out as if presenting it to me. “The prized water wheel.”
I nod, watching as it slowly turns in the stream. It creaks as it moves, and one of the boards must be hitting the barn because it clicks at an even pace. A good four feet of it sits beneath the water line, the bank of the stream sloping steeply from where it meets the barn behind the water wheel until it gets to the stream in front of it. In the narrow space between the wheel and the barn, a few old rakes lean against the wall.
“It doesn’t look like much, but it’s pretty damn cool, isn’t it?”
This side of the barn faces my currently vacant property. Two Adirondack chairs sit next to the stream, angled toward each other like the people who last sat there were riveted by each other.
And I wouldn’t expect anything else, here. Thanks to itspositioning on the far side of the barn, the water wheel exists in a somewhat secluded alcove. The stream putters by, the white noise of the water twinkling like music.
It’s calm. Romantic. The perfect place for a first kiss.
I swallow that thought.
“It’s really freaking cool,” I agree, giving the water wheel my full attention so I don’t think about the way her hair blows in the breeze.
After a few moments, she gestures for me to follow her. “Come on, we’ve still got plenty to see before we’re out of light completely.” She gives me a big grin as I fall into step next to her. “And don’t worry, if you want to look at it again before you leave, I don’t chase anybody away from the sunflower farm until they’re ready to go. You’re welcome to sit and watch it all night.”
Goddamn she's cute when she’s making fun of me.
“If you lose me on this tour, at least you’ll know where to find me.”
“Is that going to be our family meeting point?”
I nod. “You bet. Just let me grab my cream sweater from my car so we’re wearing the same colors.”
“And what’s our family code word?”
“Rooster,” I say, because that’s what happens to be on my mind right now.
She snorts. “You’re such a boy. Seriously, rooster? Just say ‘cock’ if that’s what you’re thinking about.”
“I don’t think ‘cock’ is appropriate for the children.”
“In our household, I’m sure they’ve heard much worse.”
I let out a long breath. “Evie, I keep telling you not to beg for it in front of the kids.”
She turns to me, whacking my elbow. “Ryder!”
“What? They’re fake kids.”
She rolls her eyes, her pace quickening as she heads forthe dirt road that runs by the barn. “Our fake children are ashamed of the things that come out of your mouth.”
“I think that’s just you getting bashful.”
She turns to shoot me a glare and I swear, even in the dim light of dusk, I see the pink in her cheeks.
I grin as I follow her along the dirt path, aching to throw an arm around her shoulders when she shivers against the cool breeze.
She leads me up beyond the sunflower fields, where a garage houses three delivery trucks that take fresh flowers to the shops in neighboring towns. An empty chicken coop that in the distant past held many chicken friends whose eggs Eve would eat for breakfast almost daily. Across the stream, her hand in mine as we steady each other, she shows me the wreckage of what was once a foot bridge that connected our properties and now lies in a pile on one side of the stream.
