Page 54 of A Fine Line

Winnie rolled to the other side and I quickly stripped of my shirt and jeans, sliding on clean boxers and black gym shorts. “Alright, I’m done.”

I turned to face Winnie but she was still turned to the window. Tiptoeing around the frame, I took one glance and smiled. She was completely passed out.

My hands reached around her, taking one of the many pillows she could spare, and a throw blanket on the foot of the bed. I made a little pallet and did my best to fall asleep as well. Though it was much more difficult the more her sweet bunny sniffles turned into full on brown bear snores. Seriously, the girl had a problem.

The next morning I woke up with an extremely stiff neck and sore back and just as Winnie sat up in her fluffy bed I had plans to share how little sleep I got. But then she looked over at me, with the sunlight of the window beaming against her auburn hair, a halo wrapped around her and I just…forgot.

“Good morning,” she stretched until her arms and legs shook away.

“Morning.” I smiled, running a hand through my rogue hair.

“Mmm I smell bacon.”

All I could smell was warm vanilla and toasted coconut, the smell I had been wrapped up in all night. The same smell I wanted to pack in my bag and take to Philly with me.

Winnie stood up, rounding the bad to where I was laying, stepped over my half-limp body, and began rifling through her suitcase.

“I was thinking,” she started as sweaters came flying out one by one.

“Uh oh,” a sweater with very heavy buttons fell right on my nose.

“Woops.”

“Alright, go ahead. You were thinking…”

“Maybe this morning, after breakfast, we could go on a tour of the farm? I bet one of the ATV’s is open.”

I sat up fully, a little too quick because my head began to spin, before answering back. “That sounds perfect.”

Thankfully, breakfast wasn’t the large audience of people I expected. Besides Winnie and I, there was Lottie, who reminded me so much of Rachel that I knew as soon as we were done I needed to text her and let her know I found her twin. Then there were Lottie’s parents whose names entirely slipped from me. Winnie’s grandparents were there as well, her Papa patting a heavy hand on my back and her Nana doing her best to throw more bacon on my plate when I wasn’t looking. Halfway through us eating, a tall blonde man covered in dirt with a handful of baby ducks strolled in. Lottie’s mom yelled at him for tracking in red clay and he shrugged it off before setting the ducklings down in a small decorative box in the living room. I swore I heard himwhisper ‘daddy will be right back’ before grabbing a handful of bacon and eating above the sink.

With greasy hands after eating, the man I came to find out was Knox, another cousin, came to Winnie and gave her a hug so tight she coughed, then proceeded to do the same with me, nearly knocking the breath out of me.

Each family member took their turns asking Winnie about her life updates, what she’s been doing, how the truck is, her love life (coming from her nana whilst staring at me).

They loved her. Each and every one of them loved her so much that I couldn’t help but dwell on the fact that I hadn’t missed a single text from my siblings other than one in the group chat where Nathan told me to fly safe and bring him back some deer jerky. To which Calla replied gross, don’t kiss me with deer breath. Which lead to an entire conversation of all of my siblings and their spouses arguing over what meat was superior or the least likely to cause foul breath.

After breakfast Winnie snuck us out of the front door, away from her very chatty cousins and baby ducks and led us straight to the far right of the property, where a giant hanger sat loaded with ATV’s, four wheelers, and farm equipment that looked equally cool and terrifying at once.

We stole one of the ATVs. Well, she stole it. I just happened to be along for the ride, and there wasn’t a part of me that was going to stop her. Plus, is it technically stealing when your family owned them? The sun was inching higher in the sky, throwing a golden haze over the leaves changing colors around us. Winnie slid into gear and drove us down the dirt path like she knew every inch of this land by heart—because, clearly, she did.

First, we passed through the strawberry fields. She said they were best in June, though right now they looked more like rows of sleepy green plants, waiting for their time to shine. Then camethe cattle and horses in the far back by the creek, grazing lazily in the distance, their silhouettes peaceful against the horizon. She waved a hand to each worker we passed by. We also took a temporary stop by the house next to the creek- apparently where Felicity and Knox lives. Winnie insisted on telling Felicity that Knox had stolen the ducks again to shadow him, I assumed that was a regular occurrence. She kept going, showing me every corner of her world, like she was letting me in on all of her past secrets. Her past haunts. Past loves. And as much as I hated the thought that I wasn’t the only guy she had brought here, I loved the thought of a young Winnifred bouncing around in an ATV having no idea I was back in Philly waiting for someone just like her.

We passed a chapel, quaint but proud, sitting in the middle of nowhere like it was waiting for love stories to unfold. “They do a lot of weddings here,” she told me with a grin. Weddings were apparently a regular thing around here, most of the town got married here and there were anniversary vows renewed, engagement parties, etc. hosted here all the time.

Then there was the new “bloom barn”—a massive flower field, stretching on and on in rows of pink, yellow, and orange, with a big white barn at the end. Winnie said it was one of the most popular spots around and I could easily see why. Even in its ‘off-season’, there was something enchanting about it. Like it had been pulled straight out of a postcard.

We greeted her cousins and the seasonal workers along the way, a small wave here, a nod there. She watched my reactions to everything, her eyes flickering with something soft, something kind, but questioning. Wondering if I liked it here. Wondering if I understood why she left?

Pulling into the front gate, right by the bake house, she pushed the gear into park and elbowed me. “You fit in here, you know. Like, really fit in.”

It caught me off guard enough to cause my chin to pull back, eyes assessing her. “You think?”

“Mhmm,” she nodded. “Very well.”

“Maybe you can take me back next time.”

She didn’t respond but she smiled back at me, slow and soft. Enough for now. Maybe making future plans was pushing it, considering neither of us had a clue what was happening here. But there was something bouncing around, I couldn’t be the only one to notice.

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