A few hours later
Grace returned to the house for lunch, muddy and tired.
“Hey, Momma. Luke wants turkey on wheat and Dad and I want
roast beef,” she called through the open screen door. She
heard a short, bubbly laugh carry out from the kitchen as she
walked inside.
“May’s here?” she asked. Grace swung
open the door to her small, but bright kitchen. She breathed in the
smell of roast beef and vanilla which she knew was her
momma’s perfume. Her best friend was standing there cooking
and laughing with Grace’s mother. May Watson was small and
dark with curly brown hair. May had lived in the same town as Grace
as long as she could remember but wasn’t really the typical
farm girl Grace was used to. The other girls were burly and big,
the exact opposite of May but it didn’t bother her. May
didn’t seem to notice or care if she fit in. To make this
point even more evident, May wore the cutest clothes known to this
small town. She stood in Grace’s kitchen wearing a wrap
sweater, tight jeans and tall brown Uggs. Grace looked down at her
old jeans, hiking boots and ratty long sleeve t-shirt.
“How is the…er…farming?” May asked.
Luke had followed Grace through the house and pressed up against
her, leaning against the frame. She leaned back almost
involuntarily until she caught herself and walked away from him.
Grace constantly found herself in oddly comfortable situations with
Luke. He never seemed to ever notice or care.
Her father walked in the room and Grace was caught up in his
appearance. It was so like her brother’s. While Grace was all
light eyes and blonde hair, just like her mother, her brother was
dark eyes and hair like her father. Her brother was gone though. He
had been gone for two years now. She bit her lip, thinking about
him. During high school, Grace’s brother, Ryan, had dated
this amazing girl named Annie. They both finished college and
continued their relationship and then he proposed. Annie said yes
and the wedding followed soon after. It was a beautiful affair,
Grace remembered, full of flowers and pretty dresses and candles.
The day after the wedding, Annie and Ryan ran off and never
returned. They wrote letters to both families, postmarked from New
York City.
Her mother was sick with grief with them living in a city so far
away from home but her father refused to let them contact Ryan or
Annie. The only news Grace and her mother got were whispered
conversations with Annie’s mother in the canned food isle at
the local grocery store. The smell of roast beef brought Grace back
to the present. Luke was holding out a plate in front of him. She
looked up into his face and something inside her lurched. Luke was
certainly good looking enough. He had blue eyes and brown hair. He
was tall, tan and very well built from working on a farm all his
life. Luke smiled a lopsided grin, gathered the saliva in his mouth
and spit in Grace’s roast beef.
She opened to mouth to retort but Luke interrupted,
“Ya’ll hear the news about the Jacobs’
farm?”
“Yeah they’ve gone and sold their farm, that’s
what Mrs. Collins told me last week,” confirmed her
mother.
“Yeah but the house is already sold,” said
Luke.
“That’ll mean new neighbors for us,” said
Grace’s father, shaking his head.
“What’s wrong with that?” asked May.
Grace’s dad smiled. He had always liked May in a way Grace
couldn’t understand. May was the exact opposite of Grace; she
didn’t work or study very hard, she loved clothes too much
and talked about boys incessantly. Meanwhile Grace spent most of
her days studying and working on the farm. Her boyfriends were
nonexistent and she could care less about what she was wearing. Yet
the patience her father had for May…it was odd.
“It means they might want to use the land the Jacobs
haven’t farmed in years. We’ve gotten permission to use
it but the new neighbors might want to farm,” replied her
father.
Grace and Luke were returning to the fields after lunch when a very
familiar blue bronco drove up the muddy drive way. Luke had kept
walking but stopped when he saw that Grace was frozen in place.
“What?” he asked. He got no answer because the door of
the bronco opened and a tall, handsome young man stepped out. He
walked around to the passenger’s side and opened the door. A
dark haired beauty stepped out and smiled at Grace. But Grace only
had eyes for her brother.
“Ryan?”
“Hi there, Gracie,” he said.
She ran across the driveway, kicking up mud with her boots. She
jumped and landed in a bear hug in his arms.
“I missed you so much,” he muttered into her
hair. She couldn’t speak.
Grace detached herself from her brother and looked behind
him. His beautiful wife, Annie, stood there smiling kindly.
Grace ran and hugged her too. Her mother came out on the porch to
sweep and looked up, surprised.
“Hi, Momma!” called Ryan.
“Oh Lord- Ryan and Annie!?” she said in disbelief.
“Nick! Nick! They’re back, honey, they’re
back!” she shouted over her shoulder. Her eyes hadn’t
left Annie and Ryan. Grace’s dad slowly walked down the porch
steps and crossed the yard to reach the group.
“Ya’ll back then? For good?” he asked Ryan.
“Yes, Sir.”
They shook hands then and her father walked off to the field.
“Grace. Luke. Get going,” he called as he retreated
through the high wheat field.
