Page 24 of A Farmer’s Guide To Gamers

“Looking for Dean to get date ideas,” Jack answered bluntly as he pushed his glasses up his nose. “Have you seen him?”

“I think he went out to get another part for his project motorcycle. He was trying to tell me about it but I didn’t really follow.” He ran a hand through his messy hair, the strands sticking up straight in all directions. “Were you not going to ask me?”

“Well, Dean grew up with her,” I answered with a slight edge to my voice before I could hold it back. Clearing my throat roughly when he shot me an odd look, I waved him off, “It just made sense to ask him.”

“Why don’t we think of a few things and then he can help narrow it down,” Aiden pointed out. “She didn’t seem like the type to be offended by us taking her on the ‘wrong’ date.”

I hated how reasonable he was being.

“Fine,” I cut out. “Thoughts?”

“What’s going on with you?” he demanded, his voice now holding the same edge mine had. I winced, hating the sharpness to it.

“Sorry. I guess I’m just freaking out a bit,” I admitted as I ran a hand roughly through my hair. No way was I going to bring up any of the complicatedness with Aiden. Guess we were both experts at ignoring things we didn’t want to deal with.

“We all are,” Aiden said, as blunt as ever. “Don’t be a dick.”

Jack cleared his throat and fidgeted with his glasses as he not-so-subtly stepped between us.

“He shot down my dinner idea. Said it was too simple,” Jack said to get us back on track. It was a fact, not said with a bit of emotion, so at least I hadn’t offended him.

“We need more ideas,” I said.

“Then we find some alternatives and vote on it,” Jack said as he pulled out his phone to look.

Every one of our phones pinged with a notification, my eyes going right to the group chat.

Tillie

Hey, so I was thinking of this first date thing, and I’d like to cook for you. Would you guys mind joining me at the farm?

All the tension drained from my body as I read it out loud. I wasn’t the only one letting out a breath, either.

“There, solved,” Aiden said, already typing.

Aiden

What can we bring?

Tillie

Yourselves. I’ve got it covered!

Tillie

Actually, bring drinks if you don’t like sweet tea or lemonade.

Jack

Those are perfect, we’ll bring something if one of us wants something else. This is very kind of you.

Tillie

Hey Jack. If you were a fruit, you’d be a fine-apple ;)

I groaned out loud at the awful pickup line but the smile on my face was genuine. It was kind of nice to hear his laughter boom out around us and see his eyes light up like that. Aiden and I shared a look that said he agreed whole-heartedly.

Tillie