Levi sat sweating in his Tundra in the middle of the gravel road about a mile from his childhood home. The sweat wasn’t from the sweltering Texas sun, however. It was a cold sweat at being so close to the place he had escaped from when he went to college. The day he had left, his teenage self had vowed to never set foot on the place again, but here he was, a grown man come home. C’mon Levi, you can do this. Mom’s waiting. It’s just a set of buildings.
He took a deep breath and put the truck back in gear, driving slowly until he arrived at the driveway. His mother must have been watching for him from the front windows because she burst out of the front door, screen door slamming behind her as he pulled up. She grabbed him in a hug before he could get completely out of the truck.
“Come here, you!” She kept his neck in a vice grip and kissed him repeatedly on the cheek.
Levi laughed and picked his mother up off the ground in a bear hug. “I’d have come home sooner if I knew I was going to get a reception like this!”
Wanda finally let go of his neck, happy tears in her eyes. She took his scruffy face in her hands. “I had just about given up hope I’d ever see you back on this land. I’m so glad you’re home!”
She let go of his face and grabbed his hand pulling him behind her to the porch. “C’mon, honey, I’ve got fresh lemonade and those pecan sandies you like so much.”
Levi tried to pull back a little. “I’ve got stuff to get out of the truck…”
“Never you mind. All that stuff can wait!” She started pulling him again. “You come in and visit with your mama first.”
“I never could say no to you, or your pecan sandies.” Levi threw an arm over her shoulders and grinned at his mother’s enthusiasm to have him home. He hoped he could muster the same in time.
Levi made it to the kitchen in his mother’s wake. He focused on her and her happy chatter, studiously avoiding looking around the foyer or dining room, until they made it to the kitchen. She had painted it a bright cheery yellow and it was obvious to see she was enjoying the new appliances he had bought her a couple of years ago for Christmas. Not only did she have freshly baked cookies on the table but he could smell the heavenly scent of enchiladas in the oven. His favorite.
“Mmmmmm….” Levi said. “Can we skip the sandies and go straight to the enchiladas?” He gave her his best pleading, puppy dog eyes and was rewarded with a laugh.
“They’ll be done in half an hour. I’m sure you can make it until then.” She smiled as she set a tall glass full of ice in front of him and poured lemonade.
He took a large swallow and thought how it made his heart happy to see his mother smile. He’d seen it so infrequently growing up.
“So, have you set a date for the official move-in at Gladewater Terrace?” Levi asked. He had sent her the money for the down payment last week but wasn’t sure when the new build was officially going to be completed.
“You’ll have to put up with me for at least another week,” Wanda announced brightly. “They are finishing up the hardwood floors then I am good to move in!” She clasped her hands in front of her chest like she was trying to hold in her excitement. “I can’t wait for you to see it!”
“A whole week, huh?” Levi stroked his chin, pretending to have a weighty decision to make. “I guess you can stay here another week…if you keep cooking for me.”
She smacked him on his arm playfully. “Oh, you! You know I already have all your favorites planned! Tomorrow is chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, then I have a lasagna already in the freezer to thaw out one night and….”
Levi grinned and threw a hand up to stop her. “Stop! I’m gonna weigh 500 pounds before you move out! I’m gonna have to start plowing the back forty with horses to stay in shape!”
Wanda beamed. “Oh, you’ll have plenty to do to work it off. Even with the hands, there’s a lot to keep up with. I declare, those new bulls of yours….”
Levi ate his cookies and drank more lemonade just enjoying his mother’s happy prattle, not really listening to all the escapades of his champion stock. Maybe coming home wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.
At first light the next morning, Levi headed to the garage attached to the house to find his old, red Chevy pickup. His mom had told him that she had farm tags put on it and still used it to get to the outer edges of the farm or lent it to one of the hands to go into town to pick up supplies. He was surprised at the well of emotion seeing the old Chevy brought up in him. Some of his best times were had in that truck. Mostly hours and hours spent with Dani.
Levi had gone to Dani’s for dinner, as he often did their Senior year, and was so full he was about to pop. Miss Lu always cooked enough for an army and he was always as hungry as one.
“You’re always starving,” Dani giggled. “I don’t know where you put it all!”
“It all goes down my hollow leg.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her jokingly. “Where it goes from there, I’m not sure but I know I have to fill it up again at the next meal!”
They laughed and continued to cut up as they cleared the table for her aunt. No matter how much he ate, he stayed thin as a rail, but he had developed some lean muscles under his loose T-shirts and jeans this past year with all the work his dad had him doing on the farm.
“Let’s go for a ride,” he whispered to Dani as they carried plates and bowls to the kitchen. Up until tonight, they had always gone out with Maggie and JT unless they were studying at her house. Levi, however, had been wanting to get her alone for a while now
Her eyes widened a little but then she smiled, a faint blush tingling her cheeks. “OK, but we can’t be too late.”
As soon as the dishes were done, Dani announced they were going down to the Dairy Queen to see what was happening. It was the teenage hangout in the small town, for kids from Gladewater and surrounding towns. On Friday and Saturday night, it was filled with all manner of trucks, borrowed cars and even a motorcycle or two full of kids from Gladewater and some places even smaller.
“Y’all be back before 11,” Eustace said to them as he started to fill his pipe. “And be careful.”
“We will, sir, of course.” Levi nodded to her uncle as he opened the back door for Dani. “I’ll have her back on time.”
“Where are we headed?” Dani asked from the passenger seat as Levi took the road opposite from the street the DQ was on.
“Out to the farm. There’s a place out off Hwy 233 I wanted to show you.” Levi glanced hesitantly at her. “If that’s ok.”
“Sure.” Dani agreed. He saw her blush again in the dimming light. She hated that her pale skin blushed so easily, but he thought he’d never seen her prettier than when she blushed like that. It made her green eyes as bright as peridots. And it gave him a full feeling in his chest that he could make her do it.
When they pulled off the road past a single line of pines into a clearing, Levi turned off the truck but turned the key backwards so the radio would continue to play.
“How far are we from your house out here?” Dani asked, sounding a little nervous.
“It’s a few miles catty cornered. It’s all wooded out here.” Levi looked at her earnestly. “Dad never comes out this far, don’t worry.”
“Oh, it’s not that,” Dani said, looking up quickly with surprise. “I was just curious is all. I know y’all have a lot of property.”
They sat silent for a few long moments with just the radio playing. Finally, Levi built up his courage and scooted over the bench seat closer to Dani. He took her hand and she looked up at him.
He immediately glanced down and started studying her hand in his. He watched himself stroke her long, white fingers with his sun darkened, rougher ones.
“I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.” He looked up briefly into her eyes. She returned his look with a small, expectant smile on her face. He looked away again. “I really like spending time with you.”
“I really like spending time with you too,” Dani said, a slight quiver in her voice.
That had him looking up again. Now or never. “Aw, hell, Dani, can I kiss you?” He said a quick prayer that he hadn’t screwed it up.
Dani gave a quick intake of breath then squeezed his hand. Her lips curved up just a bit. “Yes, please.”
He cupped one side of that beautiful, blushing face and kissed her lightly. He thought he’d never felt anything as soft as her lips. He tilted his head and kissed her again, a bit more forcefully; her silky hand came up to his cheek then traveled into his hair.
They must have spent half an hour exploring each other’s mouths, touching each other’s faces. No more than that. Both satisfied to learn this small part of each other’s bodies. When Levi dropped Dani at home later that night, he just sat in the truck staring at the window of her room. He knew he’d never forget this night.
Shaking off the bittersweet memories, he headed out toward the bunkhouse to meet with his hands and check on his new stock. If he was lucky, he’d catch them at breakfast and be able to sit down and get to know them a little better. He knew Tim and Ronnie had come to him with good references from several other farms and seemed to know what they were talking about over the phone but in person could be different.
On arrival at the bunkhouse, he was surprised to find no light shining out from the windows and no smells of breakfast on the air. He flung open the old wooden door to find the kitchen and living room empty but a disaster zone. Dirty clothes were strewn all over the furniture. Dirty dishes filled the sink and lined the counters. He even saw a pink bra going round and round on the ceiling fan. His temper began to boil as he stomped over to the bunks. When he saw them passed out, the volcano overflowed. Both his hands were obviously fully dressed from the night before, down to their muddy boots. The whiskey bottles and beer cans lining the walls showed it probably wasn’t the first time either. They had the nerve to do this to his mom?
Levi strode to the first bunk, leaned over and put his face right in Ronnie’s. “GET THE FUCK UP!” Levi yelled.
Ronnie jumped up, narrowly missing hitting his head on the wood of the top bunk. He tried to scramble up, but Levi already had him by the belt, throwing him out of the bunk and onto the floor.
Tim heard the commotion and had his eyes open before Levi got to him. Being so hungover, however, he wasn’t coordinated enough to haul himself from his bunk before Levi roughly grabbed him and threw him across the room too.
“How dare y’all lie in here drunk on my dime! Is this how you take care of my mama and our land?”
“Who the hell are you to - ”
“What the fuck?” Ronnie and Tim started before their brains caught up with their ears and they suddenly realized who had woken them so abruptly.
The men managed to scramble up and stand, slightly swaying and stared at their dirty boots. “Now, boss, yesterday was Ronnie’s birthday so we just….”
“So you just got shitfaced drunk and thought you’d never get caught?” Levi motioned around to the room full of empties. “You fucking expect me to believe this was a one time thing? How stupid do you think I am?”
Levi continued like a freight train, his eyes flashing and voice hard. “I hired you and trusted you to take care of my assets and, more importantly, my mother’s land! You thought it would be easy to take advantage of a woman alone, didn’t you? Well, y’all made a huge mistake because I’m back!”
The men looked at the rage on Levi’s face and recognized silence was probably their best option.
Levi took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair. He paced the room trying to work off some of his anger, kicking empty bottles and beer cans out of the way as he went. Finally, he came to stand in front of the two men.
“You have one hour to get your shit together and get off my property.” Levi’s voice was now low and ice cold. “I suggest you start packing now.”
“But…” Ronnie started to protest but Levi rounded on him and leaned down into the smaller man’s face. “One. Fucking. Hour.” He eyed them both again then turned and left, slamming the door behind him hard enough to make the bottles quake.
Levi got back in his truck and sat for a minute breathing hard. It had been a long time since he had been that angry at anyone. He thought he had gotten his temper under control. He had worked hard at it, never wanting to be anything like his old man. Never wanting to be out of control again. Damn if I didn’t sound just like him, though. Even though they had it coming.
He’d have to go tell his mom he fired the hands and what he had found. He felt guilty for letting her down. He should have vetted them better. He’d also have to check out his cattle very thoroughly to make sure they hadn’t been slacking there as well. One bull in the wrong pasture and he’d lose a season of breeding. First, though, he had to go to the back corner of the property to remind himself who he didn’t want to be. He started the truck and drove.
It was a joyful and proud day when her Aunt Lu was released from the hospital to go home, well enough to start outpatient rehab. She and Maggie had tied balloon bouquets to the carport and made a WELCOME HOME sign for the front of the house. Maggie, JT and their neighbors had gathered to welcome her home. Her aunt and uncle both teared up when they saw the display. “Oh, yyyou! Yyyou shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble,” her aunt said, wiping her eyes. Dani leaned down to the wheelchair and gave her aunt a big hug. “Everyone wanted to be here. You deserve a few balloons for all the hard work you’ve done!”“C’mon Lu,” her uncle said, pushing her toward the door. “Time for you to start making me some dinner!”Everyone laughed. She reached back and patted his hand, looking up at him lovingly. “Dddon’t you think I wwwon’t be soon! You’ve wwwasted awwway on that hospital ffood!”Dani looked at her aunt and uncle longingly. They had been together for so long and were so happy together. T
An hour later, Dani and Maggie were in Pearl trying to navigate the old gravel road out to the homestead. She had remembered the route but had forgotten the giant potholes in the road. Out that way there was just the old Cooper spread and theirs and apparently no one had even been trying to maintain the road. Poor Pearl was not a happy camper with the constant scraping of her undercarriage. “Gee, Dani,” Maggie said as they bounced through yet another pothole, hitting their heads on the soft top of the convertible, “if you had told me we were going out here we could have taken my Explorer. Your expensive car is going to be ruined.”Note to self, if I did move out here, Pearl and I were going to have to have a difficult chat about replacing her with a 4-wheel drive.“Yeah, well, it’s been a minute and I kinda forgot how bad this road can get,” Dani said, gritting her teeth as gravel flew up to hit the windshield despite creeping along like a turtle. “It’ll be ok. We’re almost there.”A
Levi couldn’t remember being so tired in his life. Even when his dad had him working long hours as a teenager, he hadn’t felt this exhausted. It was a good kind of tired, though. One earned with accomplishment. After he had fired the farm hands, he had been happy to discover that they had at least kept up with his cattle. The prize breeding stock was well taken care of and his pastures looked good. He spent hours studying bloodlines and creating his own specialized feed that would be mixed by Johnson’s Feed & Seed as soon as he could make time to get into town. He also updated the spreadsheets for the farm’s finances and did maintenance on equipment that had seen better days. It was also up to him to make sure the stock were fed and watered and check all the fences were up to par. He’d also made a first pass at the gravel road trying to fill in some of the holes and smooth out the ruts. He couldn’t believe his mom had been traversing this road on a regular basis and never got anyone
“Good Lord. Jesus take the wheel!” Dani said, her eyes widening. “What did I miss?” asked Maggie, her lively brown eyes darted around, looking for the action, as she set their lunches down on the table at Common Grounds. She was well-aware of her friend’s new favorite sport of people watching and was always ready to add to her ever-growing pot of fertilizer for the Gladewater grapevine. “That.” Dani pointed with her chin, trying to be discreet but failing miserably. Her eyes ogled the man who just climbed out of an old, faded red Chevy pickup, a truck that somehow looked familiar.The man himself looked like he was hot off some cowboy romance novel cover. He was at least six foot four, his dusty, faded Wranglers were tight in all the right places and sported holes that she bet were put there from hard work and not by a designer. His white t-shirt was so tight it left little to the imagination. No wondering if there was a six pack under there, you could count every ab muscle. His bice
Dani managed to mostly avoid town for the next couple of weeks, meeting with contractors at the farm and talking Maggie into bringing her things under the guise of desperately needing her design expertise. At the end of the day, she would haul herself back to her aunt and uncle’s house, grab a bite and fall into bed. Slowly but surely the house was taking shape and she had avoided accidentally running into Levi. “I know what you’re doing,” Maggie told her one evening when Dani had begged her to come out to the farm to help her pick out paint colors and bring wine.“I’m kicking ass and taking names getting this house together,” was her cheeky reply, trying to pretend she didn’t know what her friend was getting at.Maggie completed an Olympic-worthy eye roll. “Sweet baby carrots! You know what I’m talking about, Daniella Lynn. You haven’t been to town in 2 whole weeks! You’ve been dragging me out here every couple of days for some imaginary design emergency. Tonight is an intervention.
“Thanks, Sofia,” Levi said distractedly, not even looking up as his burger and fries were placed in front of him. “Well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” Maggie said dryly, crossing her arms over her chest.Levi hunched almost imperceptibly and slowly turned to face Maggie. “Uh, hey, Maggie,” he said trying to use a friendly tone, “kept hearing such good things about this place, I couldn’t stay away.”“Glad you finally made it in,” Maggie motioned to the chair opposite him silently requesting an invitation to sit.Levi scrambled up halfway from his chair, remembering his manners at the last second, “Please, have a seat.”Maggie sat and crossed her legs. “JT told me you had moved back. Are you staying?”Levi nodded. “Yeah, it was time. I’ve started a new breeding program. Time to get out of beef cows. And the city was starting to wear on me.”When Maggie continued to watch him placidly without comment, he rushed to fill the silence. “Uh, and my mom wanted to move over to that new
“Goddammit straight to hell!” Levi cursed, dropping his hammer and shoving his thumb into his mouth. He’d been trying to work on framing up the new bathroom in the bunkhouse but had spent more time hammering his thumbs and yanking out crooked nails than making any progress. All because of Dani.He couldn’t focus. His mind kept drifting to seeing her sitting there right in front of him in Maggie’s café. It still felt like a dream – looking into her burning green eyes, putting his arms around her and holding her close again. He’d never felt that thrum of electricity with anyone else in all these years. Her hair even smelled the same, like coconut and citrus.He’d checked his phone multiple times today making sure his ringer was on and he hadn’t missed a call from her. “I’m acting like a teenage girl,” he muttered, disgusted with himself but unable to stop.Why didn’t I make her give me her number? He hadn’t wanted to push too hard, didn’t want to spook her or make her shy away from him
She sat there staring out the screen door until the sun was on its last descent, casting long shadows from the trees onto the front porch, the cicadas’ song gaining volume. “What am I going to do?” she questioned out loud to her freshly painted walls, walking to the kitchen to find her cell.As she listened to Maggie’s phone ring, she retrieved a half empty bottle of pink Moscato from the fridge and a jelly glass from the cabinet. She hadn’t gotten around to unpacking her ‘kitchen’ box yet but had found a few old jelly jars she had washed and was using for glasses.Maggie finally answered just as Dani was preparing the message in her head that she wanted to leave on the voicemail. “Hey, girlfriend! Sorry, I was going over menus with JT and left my phone on the charger. What’s up?”Dani decided the direct approach was best. “Levi just left here. He kissed me.” Her voice sounded flat to her ears.“Whaaaaaat?” Maggie shrieked into the phone. “No, don’t say another word. I’m on the way o