Page 6 of Why We Break

“Aww, you big softy. I didn’t think you’d care if we tore each other to shreds,” I say with a chuckle.

“Oh, I don’t, but my woman would, so that makes your shit my problem. You two can barely stand to be in the same room with each other. Has it always been like this? I asked Caroline, and she said she just remembers it getting really bad when you both started working here a few years ago,” Theo asks skeptically, not making eye contact but clearly still curious as to what I’m going to say.

I think back to the younger version of Hannah from high school and the girl I once shared so much with all those summers ago. And while I can’t tell Theo about it, all I can think is—no, we definitely weren’t always like this.

CHAPTER 6

WILL

SEVEN SUMMERS AGO

When Huey called me to tell me he’d found me a summer job at Falling Oaks Farm, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But given the fact that I need to be in Springside this summer to help my mom with my siblings and the fact that there never seems to be enough money to cover all their expenses, I was pretty desperate for a job. Ollie has senior fees coming up this year, and I know Mom will struggle to cover them without my help. I accepted the job immediately, hoping I’d be able to save a little extra to help her around the house once I go back to school.

Mr. Scott has always been kind to me when I see him around town, but I don’t know anything about him other than he took Hannah in when her parents ran off a few years ago. Hannah and I have never been close, but I know she and Caroline have gotten to be pretty tight over the last few years.

Pulling my old beat-up truck into his drive, I’m met with the sight of one of the largest farm properties I’ve ever seen. The pastures seem to stretch for miles and there are hundreds of cows grazing on the grass.

Noticing me pulling in the drive, Mr. Scott waves and pulls the Polaris from the side of the garden where he was checking the corn. After throwing my truck in park and grabbing my beat-up Saints hat, I step out into the sweltering Alabama heat.

“Will, good morning,” the older gentleman says with a smile. “You sure you want to spend the summer helping an old bastard like me?”

Chuckling, I extend my hand to shake his before replying. “Heck, I don’t see why not. Huey told me that you need a hand around the farm. Anything in particular?”

“Damn, son, what doesn’t this place need? I’ve spent the last few years trying to do it by myself, and I’ll be damned if every time I fix something, something else doesn’t break. I should have sold this place years ago, but it’s my home and I just can’t imagine looking out of my window and only having a patch of grass to my name. But that’s neither here nor there. We’ve got quite the workload ahead of us. We need to add in a fence line halfway between the house and the edge of the property so I can get another bull or two and keep some of the cows split up. We also need to bale at least a thousand bales of hay over the next two months to be sure we’ve got enough to get us through the winter and sell to the farms that buy from us every year. You can’t see it from here but there are about two thousand acres behind the woods of the house we’ll cut. We’ve also got the garden to tend to as well so we can keep up our business at the Summer Farmers’ Market. And there’s the horses too, which are in that old barn back down there on top of all the broken shit I can’t keep up with anymore,” he finishes with a sigh.

Damn. I had no idea this farm was this big. He wasn’t lying that we had our work cut out for us. I had no idea how he’d been managing a farm this big by himself. “Sounds good, Mr. Scott. Is it just the two of us?”

The words are barely out of my mouth when the front door to the house opens and Hannah bounds out in denim shorts and a hot pink tank top. Her blonde hair is tied into braids, and she’s tucked them into a gray Springside Feed trucker hat to keep the sun out of her eyes.

Shit. This is definitely not the Hannah Scott I remember. I haven’t seen her much over the last few years since I moved away, and all my weekends at home have been consumed by taking care of my mom and my siblings. The girl I remember had been pretty, but she had braces and hadn’t quite grown into her nearly six-foot frame so she hunched awkwardly as if she was scared to take up too much space. But now? She’s a fucking bombshell.

Mr. Scott smiles at his granddaughter and gestures to her. “My Hannah Banana’s home for the summer, and she loves the farm almost as much as I do. So she’s offered to help out too.”

“Gramps,” Hannah groans and rolls her eyes. “I’m twenty years old, you have got to quit calling me that in public.”

“Hush, hush,” Mr. Scott says with a laugh. “We’ve got work to do. Why don’t you and Will head over to the garden and take some inventory of what we might have ready for the market this weekend? I’ve got some cows to check on.”

She nods before murmuring, “Oh wait, Gramps. Leroy tried to dig through his pen again.” I look around in confusion as Hannah walks over to a chain link pen.

“Yeah, I noticed he’s been doing that every once in a while, but I think he’ll grow out of it,” Mr. Scott says with a laugh.

“Uh, is Leroy your dog?” I ask Mr. Scott while Hannah leans down and reaches into the huge dog house, talking softly to the creature.

“Actually, he’s my Hannah Banana’s pet pig,” Mr. Scott replies, laughing at my shocked expression as Hannah stands with a huge pink pig in her arms. Leroy squeals in excitement when he notices me standing there, wiggling in Hannah’s arms until she puts him down and he makes his way over to me.

“You have a pet pig,” I observe, not knowing how to respond.

“Yeah, and he’s the best boy. He’s still a baby, though. Gramps gave him to me two years ago, but since there aren’t too many apartment complexes in Tuscaloosa that are pig friendly, he stays here with Gramps while I’m in school,” Hannah says, leaning down to pat him again. “Go on and pet him. He’s really sweet.”

“Oh, uh, okay,” I say skeptically, bending down to pat the pig’s head. He’s softer than I expected, and after my shock wears off, I smile as he wiggles his butt in excitement. “Never met a pig before, but he’s pretty cute.”

“Yeah, he is,” Hannah agrees, standing and looking back at her gramps. “You think he’s okay to go back in his pen? I don’t want him to get out and wander.”

“I think he’ll be fine. Like I said, I’m sure he’ll grow out of his digging phase and even then, he won’t go far,” Mr. Scott reassures his granddaughter, and she nods.

Hannah leads the pig back to his pen, while Mr. Scott turns back to me. “Okay, you ready to get started? My Hannah Banana can teach you pretty much anything you need to know, but I’ll give you my cell number just in case you need it.”

“Gramps, if you’re gonna give people your cell number and tell them to call you for help, you’ve gotta remember to charge the dang thing,” Hannah teases, causing both her grandfather and I to laugh.

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