Page 72 of Sweatpants & Sweet Tea

It had been three and a half weeks since we found her aunt unconscious on the floor of the barn. In that time, we’d sort of fallen into a routine. Every morning, I ran my classes, and Daphne spent a few hours at the hospital. Then, during the afternoon, she worked on the Moore Farm Moonshine business, while I worked on the farm. In the evenings, we had dinner together and discussed the brand deals and collaborations that Bethany emailed that day and the merch line that I was going to start selling, which included shirts, sweatpants, whistles, hats, and flannels. When Daphne said I was leaving money on the table, she wasn’t lying. My projected earnings for this quarter were six times last year’s net profit.

“How was the chicken pot pie?” Ms. Shaw asked.

The dinner train had not stopped chugging since Miss Rhonda was admitted to the hospital. There was more food in Daphne’s freezer than we could eat.

“Delicious!” Daphne enthused. “Thank you so much!”

“Of course, you just let me know if you need anything.” Ms. Shaw took Daphne’s hands in hers and patted them. “We’re all here to help.”

“Thank you.” Daphne’s smile was tight, and she nodded her head as Ms. Shaw pulled her into a hug.

If I wasn’t mistaken, there were tears in Daphne’s eyes. I’d witnessed how much it meant to her these past few weeks that the community had rallied around her and her aunt. I understood why, since her childhood, she had been nomadic and lonely. College was the first time she’d been in the same place for two Christmases. Before she graduated college, her mom passed away, and her dad moved overseas.

My heart broke for her. Losing my dad and then Meemaw Mitchell had been hard. Really hard. I hated thinking of the factthat I didn’t know how much longer I’d have Grandad. But I had the entire town of Firefly as part of my extended family.

Daphne didn’t have that. From what it sounded like, Davina and Lydia were basically her entire support system. She’d dedicated herself completely to work. But Davina and Lydia both had families to go home to. Daphne didn’t even have a dog. The memory of her holding Cowboy in her arms popped into my head. I hated knowing that she couldn’t even adopt him because her job made it impossible for her to care for him. I hated thinking about her going back to L.A. where no one was taking care of her. No one was there when she had bad days. Or good days, for that matter.

“Daphne!” Cora Clemons, the president of the SBA, waved her hand, motioning for Daphne to come over to her.

Daphne glanced up at me, giving me a quick smile before crossing the room. I watched as she spoke with the mayor and the three council members on the tourism board. I assumed they were picking her brain for marketing tips. Word of her marketing expertise had spread around town.

“Have you given any more thought to my offer?”

I turned and saw Ariana standing beside me.

“Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you,” I apologized.

Ariana had left me several voicemails, just checking in to see where my head was at, over the past couple of weeks. I’d been hesitant to get back to her because I’d wanted to see if my new manager and the sponsorships and collabs would pan out. So far, things were ahead of projections by forty percent. Even if the workout itself was a fad, which is what I’d always worried about, I had the confidence to trust that I would be able to pivot, especially with the help of Daphne. Who was my ‘friend.’

“I wanted to be sure of where I was at before speaking to you so I would have a definite answer.”

A soft sigh fell from her lips. “I have a feeling I’m not going to like that definite answer.”

“Right now, I’m not looking to sell.” I still wasn’t sure why she wanted to buy my property, but I’d heard that she’d made offers on several other pieces of land on the island as well.

“If it’s the offer itself, that is negotiable.”

“The offer is generous. More than generous. But I want to keep the farm in the family.”

“If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

As she walked away, Daphne was walking toward me.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, fine.”

She nodded and glanced back in Ariana’s direction.

“She’s really pretty.”

Not as pretty as you, I thought, but I didn’t say it out loud because we werefriends,and that’s not something afriendwould say.

“She is,” I agreed.

Daphne’s lips pursed, and there was a fire in her eyes that wasn’t there a second ago. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear she was jealous. It was the same look I’d seen her have when she’d taken my class about a week ago. I’d seen her look at several females with a not-so-happy expression. I told myself that it was just in my head, wishful thinking that she would even care if other women were flirting with me. If she did, then why didn’t she want anyone to know that we’d hooked up, and why had she insisted that we take a step back when she friend-zoned me?

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she didn’t like the fact that Ariana and I were talking or that women flirted with me during my class.

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