“I know, Dad. I was thinking, with my brothers off at war, we’re going to need some extra hands with the harvest. We’d been talking about hiring a few people anyway, so maybe we couldhirethem.”
His dad rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth. He turned and twisted, surveying thefields.
“It’s a lot of work,” his dad said. “Are they up for it? Do they lookstrong?”
“The guys look strong and I was thinking that the girls could help Mom and Samantha with canning,”Gregsaid.
“All right. Let me go take a look at ‘em. Where’d you say theywereat?”
“Up on themainroad.”
“How far? Do we need thetruck?”
“No. They’re about amileout.”
His dad pulled up short. “I thought you said they weren’t on ourproperty.”
“Yeah, I uh, I didn’t realize how close they were,” hestammered.
“You better not be lying tome,boy.”
“Iwouldn’t.”
But he was. He was lying through his teeth and there was no way his dad wouldn’t take one look at the hippies and pop him for being deceitful. For a split second, he considered calling the whole thing off. He could walk back, tell them his dad had refused to help, and then send them on their way. It would be the safe thing to do, but he’d been playing it safe hisentirelife.
Daisy’s radiant smile flickered through his mind. He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her to fend for herself. Even if she was as flighty as they came, his bear would pitch a fit if heabandonedher.
“Let’s get going,” hisdadsaid.
As Greg walked through the woods, the tension in his body increased until he was ready to snap. This wasn’t going to work. He’d been delusional to think that itwould.
When they approached the spot where the bus sat, Daisy jumped up tomeetthem.
“Hello, Mister…” She lookedatGreg.
“Grant.”
“Hello, Mr. Grant,” she said. “Thank you so much for agreeing to let us stay at yourranch.”
“I didn’t agree yet,” his dad barked. He raked his gaze across the four of them then turned to Greg. “You told me they weren’t hippies. Don’t you know what a hippie looks like? This one—” he pointed at Daisy, “—is half naked. And that guy over there looks like he hasn’t taken a bath in a month. No way. I’m not letting these lazy sons of bitches into myhouse.”
“Wait,” Daisy cried as his dad turned to leave. “We’ll work hard. I’m not lazy and neither is mybrother.”
Greg noted that she hadn’t mentioned Meadow and River. He hoped they’d pull their weight if—by some miracle—his dad agreed to letthemstay.
“All hippies are slackers,” his dad said. He turned to River and Andy. “You two aren’t draft dodgersareyou?”
Andy glanced at Daisy. She slightly shookherhead.
“No,”Andysaid.
“No, sir,” Riveradded.
“I’m going to have to talk this over with Betty. I don’t want her having to cook for four more mouths unless she thinks she can handle it,” hisdadsaid.
Since when couldn’t his mom deal with four more people to feed? Before his brothers had left for the war or college, she’d been able to feed an army of kids. He didn’t question his dad. The fact that he was even considering letting them stay on the farm gave Greg enough hope that he kept hismouthshut.
“You can all follow us back to the farm, but I want you to wait outside while I talk to my wife,” hisdadsaid.
