It did seem easy, but still, I was much slower at it than Ali or even Bridget. I saw the little girl out of the corner of my eye, cruising down a row a few over from me. I scowled and tried to pick up the pace.
“Don’t let her intimidate you. She’s been doing this since she could walk, pretty much.” Sam’s voice behind me made me jump.
I straightened and looked at him over my shoulder. He was working on the row to my left, and he didn’t pause as he spoke.
“She’s fast.” I shook the dirt off the next onion and laid it in the basket. “I’m afraid I’m not much help.”
He flickered his eyes to my face briefly. “You came out to help. That counts. We’re doing well, actually. Should finish up tomorrow.”
“Does that mean you’ll be around the house more?” I blurted out the words and felt my face heat. “I mean, you won’t have to work so hard, right?”
Sam laughed, and I smiled in spite of myself. I hadn’t heard that sound before, and it turned out that he actually had a pretty great laugh.
“Summer on a farm means all hard work. No let up, really. But yeah, I’ll be around a little more. I won’t have to run off after dinner every night.” He slanted me another glance. “Why, did you miss me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” I smirked. “I don’t even really know you. But I was afraid maybe you were avoiding me. I don’t want to make things difficult for you.”
Sam straightened and stretched his back. “Like you said, we don’t really know each other. We got off on the wrong foot, and I jumped to some conclusions. I’d have to be pretty stupid to let you push me out of my own house just because of that.”
I smacked my forehead where a particularly aggressive mosquito was attacking. “Okay. Just checking. Because if I do make you uncomfortable, I can always see about living somewhere else this summer. There’s got to be another family who’d host me.”
“Don’t you like living out here? What’s the matter, not exciting enough for you, city girl?”
I dropped another onion in my basket. “See, that right there, that’s what’s wrong with you. You come over here, you’re nice to me, sort of, in your own special way, and then you say something like that. You don’t know anything about me, as I think we established that day at Boomer’s, but you make assumptions. For your information, I love it out here. I couldn’t think of a better place to spend the summer. The farm is beautiful, and I want to explore it. I want to paint the orchard at sunset and that empty side pasture at sunrise. Ali’s been sweet to me, and I love Bridget already. And I’m not a city girl. I go to school in Savannah, and yeah, it’s bigger than Burton, but it’s hardly New York City, is it? I grew up on the beach. Oh, and I might be slow at onion harvesting, but I’m a damned hard worker.”
“Whoa, there.” We’d come to the end of the rows, and Sam held out one hand toward me. “Nobody said you don’t work hard. You’re the one who brought up moving.”
“Only because I’m trying to be nice, dumbass!” I stamped my foot, which in the soft dirt had far less effect than I might have wanted. “I’m giving you an out. To say—yes, Meghan, you make me uncomfortable and I don’t like you, so take your stupid self off to another place.”
He frowned and glanced over the field. “I didn’t say you were stupid.”
I set my jaw and rolled my eyes. “Oh my God, you are the most irritating man. Fine. I’m not stupid, and I work hard.” It struck me what he hadn’t denied. “But I do make you uncomfortable? Why? Because of the drinking still? I promise you, I don’t make a habit of it. You don’t have to hide the vodka while I’m here.”
“No, not because of the drinking. I told you, I realized I was wrong to say what I did that day. Your friend—Laura—she told me you didn’t get drunk very often.”
“Then what is it?” My basket was getting heavy, and I set it on the ground, rolling my shoulders. Sam’s eyes dropped to my chest as the motion drew the cotton T-shirt tight over my boobs. I watched in fascination as his Adam’s apple bobbed and he licked his lips. Interesting.
“I don’t know.” He closed his eyes and ran a grimy hand through his hair, leaving it standing on end.
“If you don’t know why I make you uncomfortable, then I don’t know how to stop doing it.” I took one deliberate step closer to him, standing on the lumpy ground where the onion plants had been. His eyes widened slightly, and he stiffened.