Page 10 of Burn With Me

“Penny, sit still,” I say as I try to wrangle her, but since she knows what today is, she’s a wiggle worm.

While I’m an introvert who would be a hermit if I could get away with it, my dog is the opposite. She loves people and loves every outing we go on.

I give her the command to hop in the Jeep, and once she’s in, I loop the seat belt through her harness and head to the farm.

When I pull into my spot next to the farm’s van, a smiling Pam is holding my latte from Atomic.

Bless her soul.

I smirk as I turn my Jeep off and hop out. I grab my drink and sniff it before taking a sip and setting it on the hood. I open the back door and grab Penny’s bag before unbelting her. She jumps down and runs toward Sam.

A deep voice says, “Shit, her leash isn’t on. Is she going to run off?”

I stop mid-step and slightly panic at a voice I don’t recognize here with us this early in the morning. I look around, and it dawns on me that the extra voice must be Sam’s friend, Luke.

Sam laughs and says, “The day Penny runs away is the day the world stops turning. She won’t stray far from Am. She does like me more than everyone else though.”

I just roll my eyes.

With a laugh, he‌ turns to me and says, “It’s about time you got here. Hurry up and unlock the door so we can load the van up while you grab any last-minute stuff you need.”

I nod and turn to the newcomer, who sticks his hand out and says, “Hi, I’m Luke. Nice to meet you.”

I just look at him for a moment, blinking as my brain tries to catch up.

My eyes flick down to his hand and back up at him.

I shake his hand and walk to unlock the door, feeling three sets of eyes on me.

Was that rude? Yeah, probably, but it’s early, and I don’t people in the morning.

Sam and Pam both know I don’t talk until I’m ready. Honestly, they’re probably shocked I even stopped and shook his hand at all.

“Uh, did I do something wrong?” Luke says from behind me.

“Nah, she isn’t a morning person. I should have warned you that you can’t talk to her until she’s eaten, and even then, you have to wait for her to say the first words. Hence the peace offering of the chai latte,” Pam says.

“Oohhkay,” Luke says.

And now I kind of feel bad because he is up early on his day off.

With the door unlocked, the three of them get to work loading, and I grab the produce. I fill up the last of the baskets I didn’t do last night and hand Penny one of them to carry out, because she likes to help, while I load up the prepackaged produce.

After several trips, I throw Sam the keys because if I don’t have to drive, I’m not going to.

“I just have to test the water and log it, and we can go.” I give Pam a pointed look. “And we’ll still be thirty minutes ahead of schedule.”

“So she does speak,” Luke says with a deep chuckle.

“I do. I just don’t like mornings enough to communicate with people. It’s nice to meet you, though, and thanks for helping,” I say genuinely.

I turn back to the Jeep, and Pam is strapping Penny in, and then she gets into the driver’s seat.

“No problem. Not everyone is a morning person. Sam told me you had a farm, but this isn’t what I was expecting. What kind of farm is this?” he asks.

“Aquaponics. If you want, I’ll explain while I’m testing the water.” I look over at him and am hit with how attractive he is.

He’s taller than me by half a foot with slightly mussed brownish-blond hair, like he just ran his hand through it, giving it thatI just rolled out of bed looking this goodappearance. A fitted shirt to show off that he doesn’t skip the gym rounds out the look.

---