Page 11 of Why We Break

“Oh, well, that’s fine. Just don’t pair me up with Will,” I say, causing the other girls to share a look of amusement.

“We’ll see. I mean, I would prefer that the church is left standing when we’re done with it, and I’m pretty sure the two of you would find a way to bring the place to the ground with the way y’all fight,” Caroline teases before adding, “but we can figure all that out later.”

“So I know I’m the newbie here, but I still can’t quite figure you and Will out. Sometimes you act like you hate each other, and others I’m pretty sure you’re about to rip each other’s clothes off,” Margaret adds while dipping her chip in the queso in front of her and waiting for an explanation.

Caroline chuckles while I roll my eyes at Margaret, hoping that it hides the fact that I don’t hate that idea at all. “Oh my gosh, can we give that a rest already? Even if I didn’t find him absolutely repulsive, he probably couldn’t handle me in the bedroom anyway. I bet he’s as boring and selfish there as he is outside it,” I say, hoping that they don’t hear the lie in my voice.

“Whatever. Anyone with as much sexual tension as the two of you have is just like a can of gasoline waiting on someone to throw a match on it. And when it happens, you’ll end up taking down everything around you,” Margaret teases playfully.

“Stop, Caroline, tell her she doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” I argue, turning to my best friend sitting next to me.

I expect her to jump to my defense immediately, but instead, she hesitates for a moment. “Welllll, I don’t know.”

I look at her incredulously before bursting into a bout of uncontrollable laughter. “Gosh, how many margaritas did you two have before I got here? ’Cause clearly neither of you are thinking clearly.”

And with that, while my friends continue to giggle about the possibility of my supposed nemesis and I dating, I try to ignore the twinge of sadness over what almost was.

CHAPTER 10

HANNAH

SEVEN SUMMERS AGO

“So, are you ready for this?” I ask Will as I pull the tractor up next to where he’s standing, waiting for me.

“Sure, let’s get to it,” he says as he makes his way toward me.

I wasn’t sure what to think when Gramps told me that Will would be helping us around the farm this summer, but I have to admit that it’s nice having some extra hands around here. Add in the fact that he looks like he belongs in a GQ magazine, and I have no complaints.

“Uh, where am I supposed to sit?” he asks, looking up at the cab of the John Deere tractor where I’m sitting.

“Well, unless you’re ready to drive this thing by yourself, you’re gonna have to ride the buddy seat here for a while,” I tell him, gesturing to the small buddy seat I pulled down before heading this way. “It was either this or the open cab where you’d be sitting on the wheel well, and trust me, that’s not a fun experience.”

“No problem,” he says, pulling himself up and folding himself into the small seat beside me.

I try to fight the urge to laugh at the sight of his knees nearly touching his chin, but when he leans over to close the door and almost falls off the small seat, neither of us can hold it in anymore.

“Sorry ’bout this,” I tell him, trying to keep a straight face, starting up the tractor and watching him try to get settled in the small space. “After today, you’ll be able to take this on by yourself. So you ready to get started?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he says with a grin.

“All right, let’s get right to it then. First things first, when you go to start, you're gonna press the clutch,” I explain, before pushing the pedal down with my foot while I continue. “Then, you’re gonna grab this gear shift and put it in drive. There are a bunch of different gears that we can worry about later, but just to cut hay, you don’t have to worry about that too much.”

“Got it,” Will says, watching me intently as I move the gear shifter beside the wheel.

“And then you’re gonna slowly let off the clutch with your foot. But if you do it too fast you’re gonna choke the damn thing down and you’ll have to restart.

“Okay, so press the clutch, shift gears, and then let off slow?” Will asks, and I feel hyper-aware of how close we are in the little cab of this tractor while I try to focus on pulling us into the hay field we’ll be spending the day cutting together.

“Yep. Then you take it easy to get through the gate, and once you’re ready to start cutting you’re gonna stop, press the clutch, and shift this lever to engage the PTO,” I explain, ignoring the way his breath feels on my bare shoulder while he looks at the switch I’m pointing to.

“PTO? Pretty sure those are the meetings my mom keeps getting messages about attending for my siblings,” he teases with a laugh.

“Not this time,” I say with a giggle. “This is the power take off, and when it clicks on, you’ll hear a hum. It’s what cuts the hay. That noise means you’re ready to go. After that, you just drive around in squares until everything’s cut.”

“Simple enough,” he replies, leaning back in his small buddy seat as I start to drive. “So have you and your grandfather really run this farm completely by yourselves?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” I tell him, feeling the weight of his gaze burning through me as I try to focus on the field outside instead of meeting his gaze. I’ve never been super confident talking about myself, and combined with our proximity and how freaking hot he looks, I need something else to focus on.

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