“So nice to finally meet you,” she says, stepping back with a smile. “Levi talks about you all the time.”
“Uh, yeah. You… too,” Silas says, his eyes flicking to me, and I have to fight the urge to roll mine.
Dude.Don’t tell her Italkabout her…
“That’s sweet,” Amara says, squeezing my arm, and I give her a small smile.
“We’re going to grab drinks and do the rounds,” I say, nodding for Silas to follow me. “I’ll come find you in a bit.”
“Sounds good,” she says with a sly smile, and heads into the living room.
“Si.” I stare at him.
He spreads his hands with wide eyes. “What?”
I sigh and shake my head, turning to the fridge to stick our beer in there. Honestly, Silas and girls. At this point, I don’t know if he’ll ever get it.
I pass him a beer just as some of my friends step into the kitchen.
“Hey!” Kristian says, a big grin spreading over his face when he spots us. “Silas, right?”
Silas nods, and before I can say anything, Olivia appears beside him.
“Hi! You’re visiting from PEI?”
Silas nods again, and his eyes land on me like a plea for help.
I point between them. “Kristian and Olivia.”
“And Jack,” Jack says, appearing on my other side and holding out a hand.
Silas takes it. “Silas.”
“So, what do you do in PEI?” Jack asks. “School or work?”
The music suddenly grows louder, and someone in the living room yells something, followed by loud cheers.
Silas scrunches his forehead as his eyes flick towards the living room, then back to Jack. “Work.”
“What do you do?” Olivia asks.
“I work on a farm.”
Jesus Christ.
I roll my eyes and nudge him. “His family owns one of the largest potato farms in the province. They’ve run the farm for over sixty years and supply potatoes to Cavendish and McCain. His dad and grandfather run the place, and he’s next up.”
Silas huffs and shakes his head like he doesn’t believe that. As he takes a drink of his beer, his eyes once again dart to the living room as the music booms and loud laughs drift into the kitchen.
“Oh damn, that’s so cool,” Kristian says, then tilts his head curiously. “I bet the data behind your yearly crop rotation is fascinating. How do you track soil health metrics across fields to adjust inputs?”
Hm. Good question. And I can’t say I hadn’t thought about the farm myself when we were studying agri-data systems this year.
“You probably use field sensors, right?” Olivia asks.“With a farm that big, I can’t imagine you’d be taking manual samples.”
Silas glances between them as we all wait for his answer, and he just shrugs one shoulder. “I don’t know. I just run the tractors.”
Kristian and Jack nod, and Olivia’s eyes flick to me.
