I nod, swirling the sunflower diffuser in my mug beforeshooting him a quick grin. “Do you enjoy being a professional big shot?”
He gives me a flat look. “Stop it with the big shot stuff.”
“Do you?”
He shrugs. “I guess. It’s kind of cool sometimes, seeing a project through from idea to completion. I get to do big things, you know? Impactful things.”
I wait to see if he’s going to continue. “That didn’t answer my question.”
His eyebrows crinkle.
“Do you like it?”
“Sure. What’s not to like?”
I snort. “You hate it so much that you can’t even come up with half a response.”
He rolls his eyes. “I don’t hate it. I’m not a fan of the corporate bullshit, but like I said, I get to do cool stuff.”
“Yet you’re spending all your time hanging out on a farm instead.”
“I am a man of varying interests. I can do a suit and tieandseduce farm girls with my best lumberjack impersonation.”
He gives me a sly grin as I do my best to hide the blush creeping into my cheeks with my mug. “Oh ha, ha. So you look good in a flannel. Like that’s so hard to do.”
“You certainly seemed impressed.”
“Remind me why I agreed to babysit you?”
“My grandmother wants to test drive her new hips with your farmhand.”
I can’t help the laugh that bursts out of me, and he snickers as he takes another small sip of his tea, resting it gently on the armrest when he’s done.
He turns to me, his foot keeping us at a gentle sway. “Sowhat about you, Eve? Do youlovebeing the caretaker for the town’s namesake sunflower farm?”
“Of course I do.”
“Bullshit answer.”
I rear back. “Excuse me?”
“I gave you a full explanation with nuanceandfamily history. Give me more than the canned response you tell tourists.”
“Idolove being the caretaker for this farm. It’s what I was born to do. It’s the only thing I was evermeantto do.”
He cocks his head to the side. “It kind of seems like you didn’t have much of a choice.”
His words aren’t haughty or daring, just curious. And with a wistful glance at the gift shop, wondering how Nora and Vic are getting along, I decide to give it to him straight.
“I didn’t, really. I was in college when my grandmother passed and rather than chance the farm going to someone who wouldn’t care for it like she would, I dropped out. I always thought one day I might go back to school, maybe even learn how to make this place reallywork, but there’s no time. So I can’t actually improve it. I just have to work and work and work until one day, I die, surrounded by nothing but sunflowers.”
He blinks, nodding slowly. “Wow, you really managed to make this whole thing sound incredibly depressing for revolving entirely around sunflowers.”
“I think I’m entering my burnout phase.” I shrug, glancing at him to see just how hard he’s judging me. “It hits every year around this time, culminating with an existential crisis and likely a good old-fashioned breakdown once the season is over. On the bright side, foot traffic on the farm drops so severely that Abby can basically manageeverything on her own so I can eat ice cream in bed and wax poetic about selling the place off and freeing myself.”
He raises his eyebrows, and I realize I let out a little more of the crazy than I intended.
“Joking,” I say.
