wiped a hand over her forehead, catching a couple drips of sweat that were running down her temple. “Much warmer than Switzerland.”
“Dad says it’s a lot hotter than it usually is around here too.” Dallas was jumping around the driver side door and accidentally bumped into Reid, shoving him closer to Emerson.
He was able to catch his balance before he touched her, and he turned irritated eyes on his son.
“Remember what I told you in the airport, buddy? About paying attention to where your body is in space, and watching that you don’t hit people?”
Dallas nodded his head up and down really fast. “Yes. I’m sorry. I was just trying to hop on one foot, and I was up to two hundred twenty times, and I didn’t want to stop and lose my balance, and I knew I was going to run into you, but it was an accident. I’m sorry.”
Reid remembered doing the exact same kinds of things. Jumping on his foot and counting, having a competition with himself to see how high he could get. Unable to just stand and eat, even when that was what everyone else was doing.
“You didn’t hurt me, you just have to watch. I know you like to be moving all the time, but you have to pay attention to other people.”
“Yes, sir,” Dallas said, with a sly glance at Houston.
Reid noticed the look. What was up with that? It was that twin speak that they’d started doing since they’d been spending time together.
Maybe if he’d been a twin himself, he’d understand a little more, but it just seemed like they were communicating without words, and he felt left out. Although he also felt like they were saying something important that he really should know.
He hadn’t been able to find the words to ask about it yet.
If he were on better terms with Emerson, he’d talk to her.
She leaned against the truck, her head lifted to the breeze, and her eyes closed with her face tilted up to the brilliant blue sky, cloudless and vast.
She loved it here. He was sure of it.
Maybe you could convince her to stay.
That voice in his head was always so annoying.
“We’re done eating. Is it okay if we go play for a little bit?” Houston asked, shoving the last of his sandwich in his mouth.
Reid looked at the sandwich in his hand. Normally he had two eaten by the time Houston had a half done. The kid must’ve been starving.
He looked over in time to see Dallas giving Houston a look that almost seemed like he was asking, “What in the world are you doing?”
Half of Dallas’s uneaten sandwich sat on the edge of the truck.
“Doesn’t look like Dallas is done.”
“Dallas wasn’t very hungry today,” Houston said, grabbing Dallas’s hand and seeming to almost pull him toward the standing corn.
“Are you sure about that?” Reid asked as they got further away. He’d never known Dallas not to eat everything. Sure, he had trouble sitting still while he did it, but he always had a hearty appetite.
“We’re sure!” Houston called as they reached the edge of the corn.
“Don’t go out of shouting distance,” Reid called.
“Yes, sir,” the boys called back before they disappeared into the corn.
“That was kind of weird,” Reid said, not really making conversation but almost to himself.
He wasn’t sure how Emerson was feeling right now.
She’d talked a little bit at breakfast, but she’d been clear that there were walls between them.
“It really is,” she said thoughtfully. “Dallas never leaves his food uneaten. Houston sometimes doesn’t eat much, but he eats slowly. Now today, Dallas is leaving uneaten food sitting around, and Houston is eating faster than you.”
Reid grinned at the way she’d lifted her brow and talked about his fast eating, like she remembered that he’d always eaten quickly.
She’d been much more methodical, chewing carefully and occasionally lecturing him because “chewing is the first step of digestion” and accusing him of skipping it.
There was some truth to that accusation.
He was trying to think of something he could talk to her about, some common ground they could find where they could just talk without antagonism and maybe lose the stilted feeling that still sat between them.
She beat him to it, although she picked a sore subject.
“The farm seems profitable.” She didn’t look at him as she spoke but gazed out across the field that they’d been working in.
He supposed there were factors that could still affect the price of corn. They’d had an abundant harvest, but