Silas laughs as I nod vigorously. I wasn’t too excited about walking across a massive field in the dark.
“Get in,” Scott says with a chuckle.
Silas elbows me out of the way to quickly climb in first, and I grumble at him as he claims the buddy seat next to his dad. Great. Now I have to wedge myself between him and the console. Tractor cabs aren’t built for three full-grown people. This was a lot easier when we were kids.
“Asshole,” I grunt as his knee digs into my hip and I awkwardly find a place to rest my arm over the console.
Silas just smiles, and Scott shakes his head with a huff of laughter as he smacks my other arm out of the way to shift the tractor into gear.
I throw both arms in the air with an exasperated sigh. “This better?”
“Yeah, actually,” Scott says with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Keep them just like that.”
I glare at him as I lower my arms, but he just chuckles again as he turns the tractor onto the field.
The headlights sweep across the large field, skimming over rows of potato plants that will soon be ready to harvest, as Scott drives along the edge of the property. We follow the coastline for a few kilometres, the beach just on the other side of the dunes, until we reach the far side of the field. The soft flicker of firelight glows between the dunes, and Scott pulls to a stop at the edge of the field.
“Have fun,” he says as Silas reaches behind me, nudging me in my ribs as he unlatches the door.
I shoot Silas a glare as I wriggle my legs free from under the console to awkwardly back out of the tractor cab and down the steps.
“Thanks for the ride,” I say to Scott as I brush the dirt from my jeans, and Silas easily hops down from the cab.
“Anytime.” Scott’s gaze flicks between us, and something shifts in his expression.
It’s the same quiet grief Silas and I have been carrying all day. He’s feeling this too. For us, and himself. Because I know his favourite thing in this world is seeing Silas smile. And his smiles are probably going to be gone for a while.
“Be safe,” Scott says, reaching forward to close the door.
“We will,” Silas says. He watches his dad for a moment as he shifts the tractor back into gear and rumbles off, then turns to me.
I tilt my head towards the beach. “Come on.”
We step onto the beach, and the sound of laughter grows louder as the fire comes into view. Connor, Aiden, Bell, Sarah, and Jaelyn are gathered on blankets around the roaring flames, which shine bright against the dark beach.
“Hey!” Bell says, sitting up straighter when she sees us, and her eyes land on Silas. “I thought I heard a tractor.”
“Yeah,” I say, dropping onto a spot on the blanket, purposefully leaving the only spot for Silas right next to Bell. “Silas’s dad gave us a ride over.”
“Awesome,” Bell says, smiling as Silas sits next to her.
He gives her an awkward, tight-lipped smile, then looks right into the fire as he stiffly drapes his arms over his knees in front of him.
Connor passes us each a beer from the cooler, and I have to chuckle to myself as Silas does everything he can not to look at Bell. We’ve all told him—countless times—that she’s into him, but he refuses to believe it. Even though he’s good-looking, fit, a genuinely nice person, and she has done nothing but show her interest in him, he can’t see how she’d be into him. But Bell is persistent and patient and doesn’t seem to mind Silas’s inability to pick up on cues, no matter how loud they are. And she’s heading to UPEI, which is only thirty minutes away, so it could, and should, work.
If he let himself believe he was worth something, this could actually work.
“So, Bell,” I say, getting into meddle-mode, “you’re lucky to be going to school so close. You’ll be able to visit home a lot.”
She smiles and nods, her curls catching the firelight as she tosses another quick glance at Silas. “Yeah, I could visit most weekends.”
Silas flicks his eyes to her for a quick second, then stares harder into the fire and takes a long drink from his beer.
My god.
“We’ll all be close enough to visit often,” Aiden says, then turns to me as he playfully rolls his eyes. “Except you.”
I huff and take a drink of my beer, catching sight of Sarah across the fire as she releases a breath and looks down at her drink.
