It Was Always You

The Farmhand Introduction

…Olive’s POV…

‘Maybe a little too much and definitely for a little too long’ what is that supposed to mean?! I know the walk in silence was a bit uncomfortable, but I had no idea what to say to him after that. It had always been harmless flirting. Lucas is just like that. Flirty by nature. But this morning? That felt different. It felt a like an admission. And I have no idea how to handle an admission.

I obviously find him attractive. I always have, but I never thought he’d feel the same. Besides, that’s not what I’m here for. this is supposed to be a drama free no boyfriend situation. Maybe I’m over thinking it. Maybe he was just joking. Maybe it’s all fine and i’m building this up to be more than it really is.

The silence made the small trek to the houses feel like a life time. The boards of the back patio were warm from the morning sun, and I focused on the steady sway of orchard trees ahead, anything to distract from the silence stretching between us. We started walking down a small foot path and Luke finally broke the silence “As you know, your brother takes care of anything that walks. From the cows, chickens, goats, pigs, sheep, down to the barn cats is all his domain. He has all of that covered with a little help from Sofia, so while you’re working here you will be helping me with the orchards and the gardens. I also took responsibility of the bees, but we will need to get another keepers suit for you before you can start in on that.” Lucas said. I knew almost all of that information from conversations with my brother when he offered me a place to stay. “Bees?” I asked with my eyes wide. That was the new information and I wasn’t too sure about my abilities there. “Those are new,” he said with a small chuckle “if anything, I’m surprised it took us this long to get them. They help with pollinating the plants and trees and we can sell their honey at market. We haven’t been able to collect any honey yet, but I’m excited for when we get there! We should be able too soon, Sofia will need to get your measurements for the suit tonight so that we’re ready when they are.” As if he could feel my hesitation, he followed up with “it is a lot easier than you think, I promise. I took some keeper classes last year in town and I’ll be able to walk you through it too.” His confidence was contagious and I nodded in agreement.

Before the silence could grow to be awkward, he pushed open the barn doors to reveal what could only be described as a golf cart with a tailgate and a small trailer attached full of crates. “The gator here makes work a lot easier.” Note to self- I guess it’s called a gator. And I shouldn’t call it a golf cart unless I want it brought up to embarrass me at every opportunity. It looked kind of fun though.. “So.. do I get to drive it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow like I already knew the answer.

“Absolutely not,” he said, laughing.

I gave him my best dramatic pout, hands on hips.

“I value my life, Olive.” He rolled his eyes. “Maybe we’ll work up to it—assuming you survive your first week.”

I snorted. “Rude.”

He smirked. “Accurate.”

I laughed and returned the eye roll. This felt normal. Maybe it was all in my head. Today was any other normal day and we were fine. I hopped into the passenger side of the gator as he sat behind the wheel and we began driving. It was time to get to work.

…Lucas’ POV…

I could tell by the silence on the walk that I had gone a little too far, but I tried to fill the silence and get us back on track. Thankfully, the hum of the gator filled the silence as we made our way to the back orchard.

As we pulled into the trees, I could feel Olive’s anxiety building. “I know it’s a little overwhelming at first, but I promise it won’t be that bad. I can usually get this one done by myself in two and a half-ish hours. With two people, I bet we can get it done in half the time!” I said, trying to calm her nerves.

“Please don’t overestimate my abilities on day one. There is PLENTY of room for failure over here.” she shot back with a small chuckle.

“It’s really not hard Oli.” I replied with my own laugh following. “We can do the first few trees together so you can get comfortable and we’ll go from there.” We stepped out of the gator and She followed me to the tree closest to the trailer. “This is the stone fruit grove, so think fruits with pits.” Hoping that explaining the difference between the orchards would help fill the silence.

“So Cherries, Peaches, Plums?” she asked.

“Yes, we also have apricots and nectarines.” I replied, happy that she seems to be relaxing a little. I saw her pull on one of the tree nets, as she looked to be debating weather or not to ask a question.

I decided to answer what I assumed her question “I netted trees in all of the necessary orchards a few years back. The nets catch the fruit that falls off of the trees, so it won’t bruise or rot on the ground. If the fruit doesn’t fall naturally, we can grab some of the tools from the trailer and shake the branches. Harvesting by myself got more and more difficult as we had expanded our operations, so I decided to make my life easier by installing these. Now, it’s more about gathering the fruits that had been caught in the nets and sorting them between the ripe fruits for selling and juicing and the over/under ripened fruits for compost. Honestly, I think I could train a money to do it, but your brother takes care of the animals” I joked. I pulled two crates to the front of the trailer. “The green one is ripe, the black one is for compost.” I explained as she nodded in understanding. We started sorting through the fruit around the trees. After showing her examples of what fruits are good for selling and which fruits are not, we got into a rhythm and quickly finished with the 25 trees. I looked down at my watch and noticed it was only 11:30.

“Woah. I honestly didn’t think we’d get it done that quickly.” I said, the shock evident in my voice.

“Didn’t think I could do better than a trained monkey?” She said, dripping with sarcasm.

“I honestly thought you’d have a harder learning curve than the monkey did.” I teased. I felt the back of her hand hit my shoulder and we both laughed.

“But in all seriousness, I thought this would take us until lunch. We still have an hour. Do you think we could try to finish the next one before we head up to eat?” I asked, not wanting to push her too hard on her first day.

“Bring it!” She exclaimed, with a smile that made my heart leap.

I laughed at her excitement and headed towards our next destination.

Her shoulder brushed mine every so often as we bumped along in the gator, and it was enough to send my brain places it definitely shouldn’t be going. I could practically feel the heat of her skin through her T-shirt. I wondered, just for a second, how her lips might taste.

But before I could spiral any further, her voice snapped me out of it like a splash of cold water.

“What’s the next orchard?” she asked.

“Um, citrus.” I replied, with a mix of relief that she chose to break the silence, and a hint of disappointment at being pulled from my thoughts.

“Orange, Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime?” She asked, looking proud of herself.

“Bingo, Oli.” I laughed at how adorable she was.