“Will you please tell me what’s wrong?” Christian asked, falling into step beside her.
Her chin quivered, and she said the only believable excuse she could come up with. “Cramps.”
Thirty
Christian hadn’t slept a wink last night. He felt terrible for crashing the four-wheeler. He had promised to pay Eric every cent it took to fix it, but Eric had just waved the offer away and made sure he was okay. He’d had a killer headache last night, but the pain meds had fixed that right up. All he cared about was Maizie. She insisted she wasn’t hurt, but Christian had seen the truth in her eyes. Something was wrong, and she wouldn’t tell him.
After the longest and most silent walk back to the house, he’d watched her go inside, and had hated himself ever since. He needed to see her. See for himself that she was okay. Get her to talk to him. He’d achieved it once before. He could do it again, right?
“Ready to get to work?” Eric strolled out of the house right when he pulled up.
“Yep.”
“Good. I’ve got two tractors in the north field ready to start cutting. I’ll get you set up.”
“Okay.” He would have to find Maizie later. He didn’t dare ask Eric for a few minutes first. When something needed to be done on the farm, it wasn’t in five or ten minutes, it was now.
Maybe Maizie would be willing to talk after she had more time to herself.
Eric took him to the field and put him in the smaller of the two swathers.
“Remember to lift the head when you go around the turn, and watch out for the risers. I don’t have time to dig one up today,” Eric said and Christian nodded resolutely. He only needed to make that mistake once to know it was worse than picking rocks in a dusty field.
“What if I don’t make the rows straight?” he asked.
“It’s just like mowing a lawn,” Eric said.
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. Just like mowing the lawn.
“I’ll do the tricky parts then take that other tractor to Grandpa’s field. Just call me if you have a problem.” With that, Eric hopped down, and the small tractor became intimidating.
He shifted the swather into drive and followed Eric. If this was anything like baling, he’d likely be here for the next eight hours before he got a break. Thankfully this tractor had good AC and radio to distract his thoughts from Maizie.
Not.
* * *
Maizie lookedout the car window, watching the sagebrush and cactus fly by as Lindsay drove. They were in Lindsay’s car, headed to Las Vegas for their graduation trip. They’d had this trip planned for months. They were going to swim, shop, get pedicures, and most importantly watch Cirque du Soleil.
“Please tell me there is something going on between you and Christian.” Lindsay looked at her over the middle console. They had made it almost forty-five minutes before Lindsay’s questions started. This was a new record.
“Uh. Maybe.” Maizie shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable again.
“Tell me everything,” Lindsay demanded.
“I saw him with his shirt off twice the other day.” She hadn’t meant to start with that part, but she hadn’t been able to get the image out of her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, bam, there were his washboard abs.
“Oooh, girl. Has he kissed you again?”
“No. But the other night when my cramps were trying to kill me, he got me a heating pad, and watched a dance movie with me. It was really sweet.”
“You let him see you while you were on your period? It must be love.”
“He didn’t give me much of a choice. Wait, who said anything about love?”
“It’s all over your face.” Lindsay giggled.
“No, it’s not.” Maizie frowned.
