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“To work”

Work?

That tellsto pick apart our conversation last night Hattie drove Layla, which means she can’t liveon a plane tonight and going to work tomorrohich means she probably lives in Florida Possibly somewhere nearby

I roll the n and twist et excited Every ti, like the prospect of seeing Layla again, life shits all over my plans “What do you do?”

“I’ve been working forit takes to set up an event froers through her hair I tuck my elbow in and roll mine up too, so not to come across as a dick

“Oh?” I don’t know shit about fundraisers My knowledge goes about as far as showing up and handing them my money

“Yeah, the one we’ve got on Thursday has been a beast It’s taken fourin order” She turns her head to look out the , a frown tugging at her lips “Where are we?”

We’re in the e stretches of open land and pines My tires cross off the paveraded road Coins infro like a pendulum My tire sinks into a hole with a thud and we bounce in our seats If not for the belts strapping us in, we’d be slung around like a forgotten bullet in a pair of pants in the dryer

After about fifteen ate to Sam’s dad’s place He has a nice chunk of land, ten acres, but ours is bigger In fact, our ranch is only thirty more minutes down this road

So, why airls ho to our annual Fourth of July party, and have been invited by someone other than me, the only people to ever walk on my land are my bros

I’m not embarrassed about where I live We have two houses on the property: Pahich is close to the barn, and then Morew up in Our land has been in the faenerations and our farandfather’s nans in don Sebastian

But I’ve seen the way Bret’s girlfriends’ eyes light up when he brought them around Some saw the beauty of our home, while others saw a fortune and they wanted in We aren’t rich by anythe ranch costs a lot of money, more than most people realize, and it's a lot of work, even more so since Paw passed, but it was his pride and joy I’ll be daoes to some yuppie because Mo tail

Sam’s place, on the other hand, could only be considered a ranch on Halloween, when things pretend to be what they’re not They have a dilapidated double-wide and a handful of scrawny cows that aren’t worth the cost to feed them I keep my mouth shut, because those cows aren’tto do with his dad The only thing this place has going for it, besides the acreage, is that they have a killer barn

Crossing over Sarate, I veer to the left of the property and park beside that pole barn I was talking about I turn the truck off, but leave the keys in the ignition “You ready for this?”

Layla looks around, her eyes slowly taking in the scenery “What are we doing?”