Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 21010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Our hands intermingle. We sample the ciders, give our royal reviews, and continue being a bit of a spectacle.
In more ways than one. The way people look at us is surprising.
“A McCormick and a Rowdy? Never thought I’d see the day.”
The feud is a bit of a town legend, and people don’t know what to think. Do they expect us to throw fists at one another on sight? To live up to the feud? Maybe a gun battle where we both take cover and try to take pot shots for hours, like my grandpa used to say happened?
“We had to go public about this, huh?” I say, sipping some cider and smiling despite my nervousness.
“Our hands got forced. We won the crowns by accident, after all. Everyone thought we were coordinating our costumes like every other couple.”
“We’re a couple now, huh?”
“I suppose. In a way. Do you object to being called a couple?”
“With you? Of course not.” I glance at another person giving us an uncertain stink-eye. “It’s just that I could go without being a public spectacle.”
“But we get so much free cider this way. Isn’t that a small price to pay?”
“Nelson, my family’s ludicrously wealthy. Getting anything for free just seems like I’m stealing from people.”
“They aren’t gonna object if you drop ‘em five bucks. But getting stuff for free still feels good for me. I mean, I can totally afford all this myself, the Rowdys aren’t broke, but it just makes you feel special to win something.”
We watch people on the hayride go past. They ride in the back of a big carriage pulled by a tractor and the carriage is, get this, full of hay. It shouldn’t be so exciting for farm people in the twenty-first century, but it’s part of the seasonal fun.
We stroll along, our fingers clasping, literally unable to keep our hands off one another, taking in the event that surrounds us.
Nelson’s eye twitches like he’s had a revelation. “Wait, if you’re so damn rich, why did you show up dressed as an avocado for a paycheck?”
“Oh. Right. I guess that doesn’t make much sense on the outside, huh?”
“Don’t think a pretty princess like yourself needs another grand on top of everything else you got from Daddy’s fortune.”
I smile. “I want to start my own business, Nelson. I just got back to Burly from college, and now I’m raising capital to get started.”
“Your father is refusing to just give you the money to get going? Seems kind of rude of him to deny you like that.”
“I don’t want everything given to me on a silver platter. I to prove I have the hustle to make the business work. Of course, my dad insisted on matching whatever I raise in support, but he thinks it’s important to let me raise some of the money myself. He says it’ll keep me levelheaded and remembering where I come from.”
Nelson chuckles. “That sounds like something my dad tried to do.”
“Your father? I thought you said you weren’t well-off.”
“Doesn’t stop him from trying. My brother Williams engineered this thing for car engines with his girl. They were looking for an investor, and after the first person they met with fell through, my dad tried to help him by saying he’d match Williams’ hard work with his own investment.”
“Did he?”
“Nah, it wasn't necessary. One of our cousins’ husbands is more loaded than even your dad could ever hope to be, and he liked what Williams and his girl had to offer. Just one of the many benefits of having a big family, I suppose.”
I sigh, content as I walk with Nelson. We’re more alike than our parents would ever admit. We have shared values of hard work, helping family out, and trying to encourage those around us to do better. It makes the whole family feud so much sillier, to be quite honest.
Speaking of families? There are a lot around us. The hayride was always a big attraction to me as a kid, and the next generation is all about it as well. It’s such a sweet picture. Kids running around, clamoring onto bales of hay, their parents watching from afar, trying to subdue their own huge grins. I have to admit that watching this with such a handsome man next to me makes my ovaries feel weird, and it’s really unexpected.
“I was thinking of taking you on the hayride, Nicole,” Nelson says, stroking his sexy stubble.
“Oh, you think I’d enjoy that, huh?”
“What I want to do on it, maybe. See that truck over there?”
One of the vehicles pulling loads of hay isn’t a tractor like the others. It’s a flatbed truck with a huge wall and seats made of hay stacks surrounding it. Like all the other hayrides though, it’s loaded with kids, climbing around and using the hay as if it were a jungle gym.