I looked up at him. I noticed he couldn't help but stare into my eyes; he seemed transfixed, which was flattering but a tad unnerving when his gaze was so powerful. When he noticed he was staring, he shook his head as if to clear a cloud and kept his eye forward.
“Ah, well, I bought the skyscraper on 76th Street downtown. I have the most expensive cars I could buy. I have been to seventeen different countries on vacations, and I own a yacht for parties. Greg said that I couldn’t buy the feeling of a hard day’s work, so I wanted to prove him wrong.”
Why was he boasting like that? Sure, he had always gotten women with money before, but why did he care about me? He had given me up a long time back. He no longer wanted to impress me.
“I’m already sore, so I think I won this bet, huh?” He chucked breathlessly to himself.
I didn't laugh.
“Ah, same as ever then, I guess?” I quipped. “William is all about money, too. He was fighting with me almost every single day after I got home from college to find some way to increase my net worth. If I weren’t willing to comply with the path he had set for me, he treated me like garbage. All of my family did. That’s the real reason I left.”
I sounded genuinely sad and for a good reason. It all made me feel disgusted with the people I came from. My voice had a bit of a rasp in it from being out in the heat that morning. I hoped Andre only found that charming.
“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that, Lilly.” His tone was quiet.
“Nah, don’t be, they don’t seem to miss me now that I’m gone. I guess I was as much of a burden on them as William said I was. I don’t feel bad.” I gave him a blinding-white smile, trying to impress him and seem unfazed, hoping my pink lips framed my perfect white teeth in a stunning grin.
I had freckles thanks to all the sunny work—Andre loved a girl with a few freckles…
“Well, it still sucks. But you seem like you're so much happier here. You seem like a whole new person. I honestly barely recognized you until you said my name. You could’ve passed right under my nose, and I would've never known it.”
I laughed. It was a charming, soft sound that I hoped caressed his ears like cotton. What the heck was going on? Our last interaction consisted of the complete breakdown of our relationship. I was always great at burning bridges—Andre had told me that my best skill was using the light from the flames to show me the path to a new bridge. I had laughed it off at the time, but he didn’t find that quality particularly attractive. I tried to act like it didn’t bother me, but of course, it did; how couldn’t it? I thought I was better, but then again, I came to the farm to grow. Hopefully, I had only improved from who I used to be. Hopefully, he had improved, too. We both had enough room for it, after all.
“Things have been wonderful. I had never seen so many trees before moving out here, and I have so many friends now. Honestly, the Freys are like a family to me. My parents never treated me as nicely as they do.”
After making sure Filbert was content in his stall, I followed up on my offer to walk with Andre back to the house for lunch. Normally employees weren’t allowed to eat with guests, but Mrs. Frey always managed to pack some to-go bags for the workers who wanted them. I could grab mine while I dropped him off.
“It has been wonderful to see a familiar face, though. I was starting to feel a little weird, but things seem to be brightening up.”
I wasn’t lying—I did feel better and more cheery seeing Andre despite our past blow up. “What are your afternoon chores?”
“Um…” He pulled out the itinerary and looked it over. “A gardening lesson? Taking care of the landscaping.” He checked out the rest of the information on the page. “But it looks like there is a party tonight, some square dancing nonsense. You’d be a square if you didn’t go with me.”
Andre gave a gentle huff at his own joke and wrinkled his nose.
I remembered he always thought that he was the funniest person he knew, and I gave him a shrug with a smile. Employees were allowed to go.
Giving him a nod of agreement, I stopped at the porch. "Alright. Meet me outside the barn when you hear the music start."
I backed away, biting my lip, turning as I blushed. He grinned, watching me intently, and bowed like a true southern gentleman. Oh boy…what was I getting myself into?
Andre
After a delicious little lunch of roasted ham and cheese sandwich with mustard and Worcestershire crust, I went to the nursery behind the house for the gardening lesson.
I absolutely could not stop thinking about Lilly. I found myself daydreaming during the brief flower-pruning lecture about how good we were together in high school. She was two years younger than me, but we were so in love back then. We dated her entire time in high school, and every person knew that we were an exclusive and reputable couple.
She wasn’t the head cheerleader like many expected the quarterback to date, but she was better than that. Lilly was smart. She was kind. She was fun to be around. So many other girls her age hadn’t learned those qualities yet, and I valued them in her. I had loved her so much, even if she did have a few nasty quirks here and there, but who didn’t? We were young, that was what being young meant—figure out your problems and work on them.
My daydreaming was interrupted by the group moving through the nursery. Mr. Frey had a particular inflection in his voice. "The farm is getting' ready to end the summer growing season, and we'll then move into fall harvest and overwintering crops. In the nursery, we're growing some new flower bushes that, once established, will be transferred to another location on the property."
Pretty. What did she call them? Hibiscus? Huh, I thought that was a tropical flower.
The group moved outside, and Mr. Frey showed us how to do some work with the beds, weeding, trimming, and cleaning. We shaped the bushes, and once our teacher was assured we knew what we were doing, we were left to our own devices to fix up the flower beds for the afternoon. At first, it made me bitter. Why should we be doing literal hard labor? At least horseback riding was considered leisurely. Wasn’t this why they hired people, so I could relax?
My statement made me suddenly realize that it would mean Lilly would have to be out there in the hot sun doing it. I felt the pain in my back from bending over and realized that she would be the one feeling that pain if that were the case. She must have gotten so many sunburns, so many sore muscles, so many cuts from those damn thorns. If that were the case, well, then it was better for me to do it. I didn’t want her to struggle, and I didn’t want her friends to struggle, either. Which was a whole new feeling for me, that was for sure.
Lillian
My job for the afternoon was to put things together for the party later that night. I was in the kitchen with Mrs. Frey, helping to take care of some of the vegetables being brought in from harvest elsewhere on the farm. We sat at the table, shucking corn when I thought to ask Mrs. Frey a question. I did consider her a mother-figure after all, and we were very comfortable with one another.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you meet Mr. Frey?” I questioned gently, not wanting to push boundaries.
I threw a few husks into the bucket to be dumped in the compost later that evening, shaking my hand free of the sticky and irritating hair.