“All right. I’m going to run back to the farm and grab some tools. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it might be a while if mydad’sup.”
“Thanks, Greg,”Daisysaid.
“I’ll bebacksoon.”
He turned and hurried into the forest. Daisy’s earthy scent stayed with him as he trekked through the woods. His bear begged and pleaded with him to find a way to make her stay, but he couldn’t. After spending two years in auto shop in high school, he knew his way around most engines. Ultimately they were allthesame.
When he reached the barn, he glanced around but didn’t see his dad. He quickly gathered up the tools in a bag and headed back toward the front of the barn. He’d almost made it when a large shadow passed across theentrance.
Greg froze. Shit. He’d been caught red-handed.
“Hey, son. What are you up to?” hisdadsaid.
“Uh, I ran into some people up on the road. Their car broke down so I offered to try to help them get it goingagain.”
“They’re not on our land, are they?” his dadasked.
“No,” he lied. “I won’tbelong.”
“Want me to come with you?” his dadasked.
“No. I think it’s a simple problem. I’ll be back innotime.”
“All right. But if you need any help, let me know. I can’t stand these dammed unprepared tourists always roaming around here. I wish we could afford to buy all the land from the road in to our place,” hegriped.
“I think we have enough land as itis,dad.”
“Without your brothers here to help, we have a handful with what we have,” his dad said. “But when they come back, I’m going to try talking to the county again. They’re not doing anything with the land anyway. I don’t know why they refuse tosellit.”
“Maybe they’ll change their minds,”Gregsaid.
He doubted the county would decide to sell to them, but he needed to placate his dad long enough to get away. Although he hadn’t explicitly told the hippies to stay with their bus, he couldn’t risk having them show up at the farm. His dad wouldflipout.
“I should get going,”Gregsaid.
“Right. When you get back, I want to saddle up a couple of horses and ride thefenceline.”
“Soundsgood,Dad.”
He bypassed his father and hustled toward the tree line. When he reached the edge of the forest, he glanced back to make sure his old man wasn’t following him. Hewasn’t.
Good. At least he’d be able to keep this whole situation a secret. Well, provided he could fix the bus. He’d worked on one years ago so he had a good idea of what could go wrong. It shouldn’t take too long to get to the bottom of theproblem.
The hippies stood in a tight group behind the bus. Andy jiggled a few engine parts as Greg strolled up. He dropped the bag of tools on the ground then bent down to choose awrench.
“I’m going to have to take it apart to see what’s going on,”hesaid.
“Be my guest,” Andy said. “It’s not like we have much choice at thispoint.”
“You’re welcome,” Greg saidsarcastically.
Andy really didn’t like him. Or maybe he just didn’t like having anyone around his sister. Either way, he stood to the side with his arms crossed over his chest. When Greg smiled at Daisy, Andy narrowed his eyes. Yep, he definitely didn’t want Greg talking toDaisy.
In an act of defiance, he pulled a flashlight out of the bag and held it outtoher.
“Would you mind holding that for me?” heasked.
“No, not at all,”shesaid.
