“You brought me to your favorite spot,” she said, crossing her arms. “I feel honored.”
“You should. I’ve never brought a fake girlfriend here before.” Not a real one either, but he wasn’t about to mention that.
He rested his back against the trunk, close to her, but not touching. The moon was out, big and bright and almost full except for one sliver missing.
“Will this be a new favorite spot for you?” he asked.
She nodded, but her eyes surveyed the land in every direction, as if looking for something. “I was actually hoping to walk through the corn, but I don’t see any. Too late in the year?”
“Yep. Sorry. We’ll plant again when it warms up.”
“Dang. I really wanted to see if walking through a cornfield at night is as spooky as I always imagined.”
Dillon couldn’t help laughing at her. “Have you not been through a corn maze?”
“That’s not the same. That’s fake scary. I’m talking about a regular ol’ cornfield next to a farmhouse, the stalks so thick you have to slip through sideways. One night, you step out on the porch and suddenly hear a rustling noise. The beloved family dog takes off into the field to investigate, and you run after him with a faulty flashlight and get all turned around in the dark.”
“And then you hear a clicking sound coming from an alien?” he asked.
“Naturally.” She turned to face him. “Does it ever scare you, being out here at night when the corn is high enough to go over your head?”
“Not one bit.”
“Are you sure? I thought you were terrified of scary movies.”
“It’s my corn. It’s not allowed to be haunted or infested with aliens. That would be bad for business.”
She laughed, pushing one hand against his chest. They’d both moved closer while they were talking. This was where he should kiss her. It would be so easy, so natural. Her eyes were glowing and expectant. But he waited too long and the moment passed. She leaned back against the trunk.
“So, tell me wise farmer,” she said. “I’ve heard you call it feed corn. Is there a kind of corn that’s not for feeding people?”
“Feed corn is for feeding animals. You might hear it called field corn too. Sweet corn is what you and I eat. We don’t grow that here.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not what our customers want. With this stuff, we’re not picking ears, we chop it up into tiny pieces, stalks and all, and sell it for livestock feed. Then most of the fields go back to alfalfa and cotton. The corn adds nitrogen to the soil while the other crops take it out.”
She nodded, looking overly serious. “Nitrogen and aliens. The two corn byproducts.”
“You’re a dork.”
“Takes one to know one.” She jumped off the branch and made her way around the tree the way he had, climbing over and ducking under branches. A cloud moved to block the moon, taking most of their light, and despite all their climbing, he could tell she was cold.
“Ready to head back?”
“Yeah, I guess we should.”
He wrapped an arm around her, and they walked back to the house in comfortable silence.
Mom was waiting for them on the porch. “Trent’s gonna pounce on you as soon as you walk in, wanting to go home. That boy can’t stay in one place for more than a minute. But Lina, dear. I wanted to ask you about Wednesday. I’m a little nervous about being put under while they work on my teeth. Will you be there and stay with me? I’d feel so much better if there was someone I know and trust. Will that mess up your schedule?”
Lina gripped his mom’s hands. “I’ll stay with you the whole time. I promise.”
The relief and trust he saw in Mom’s face tore him up inside. After their “breakup,” she wouldn’t be seeing Lina again. That was a good thing. Wasn’t it?
***
Ashley leaned against the sink in the women’s bathroom at their dentist office on Wednesday, waiting for Lina to finish spilling her guts. There was literally nowhere else to have guaranteed privacy, and the second Lina had started to explain about Dillon and Brenda, Ashley had insisted on hearing it all.
