My whole body feels like it was put into a mixer and continuously stirred for hours, which isn’t too far from the truth. The last few days, I replaced Hazel on the tractor that’s pulling the cherry harvester. The machine shakes the fruits from the trees, the constant motion making my arms and legs feel weak after a day spent in the driver's cabin, so I'm glad that today is the last day—for this year, at least.
All the first-class fruit has been handpicked, and this is the last load of cherries that will go into the juicers.
There's a short pause while the conveyor belt finishes funneling the last cherries into the boxes, which are then packed into the back of a truck. Hazel settles in next to the cherries while Mom drives the truck back to the farmhouse. I watch them disappear around the next turn, though I make no move to follow just yet. It's best to wait until the way is clear so I can have the tractor pull the harvester straight into the garage.
I’m also hoping that Micah might be amongst the group returning from the orchards and that we can steal a few moments together.
Ever since we arrived, the work hasn’t gotten any easier. If anything, seeing the end of the season approach turned it into a frenzied run against the sun, which steadily beat down on the fruit, threatening to turn it. Because of that, ourstudyinghas suffered a bit.
A short while later, Aspen passes me in another tractor, pulling a wagon with neatly arranged baskets of the deep red cherries from the trees farther back. Two men are sitting next to them. I think it’s her and Hazel’s husbands, but I cannot tell for sure.
I’m about to accept that I missed Micah when there’s a short, admiring whistle from right outside my tractor's cabin.
“Whoa, didn’t know you could drive such a monster.” Micah gives the harvester a thorough once-over before he looks up at me.
“Oh, c’mon, it’s not a monster.” I snort as I push open the door.
Micah hesitates, and I reach across to the dashboard to turn off the engine. With the golden light making his skin glow and drawing gorgeous shadows along his sculpted muscles, Micah looks even hotter than usual. He has his Badgers cap pulled deep into his face, so that I can only see his eyes glinting out from under the shield.
“Kinda hot,” he says, arms stretching out to hold on to the sides of the cabin, left and right from me.
“Y—huh?” I cut myself off from agreeing with him when the weather was probably not at all what he meant. Predictably, heat rises into my cheeks. As if the air weren’t warm and sticky enough already!
“I could show you if you want?” I offer, rubbing my palms against the loose shorts I’m wearing. Despite barely leaving the cabin, I’ve gotten some smears of dirt and engine grease on my arms and bare legs.
“Are you sure?” he asks, but already sets one foot on the lowest step leading up to the machine.
“Yeah, c’mon!” I repeat, pulling myself out of the driver’s seat with the help of the overhead handholds.
Micah climbs up another two steps, his hands curled around the top edge of the cabin as he leans forward and into the small space. “Really?”
Now that he’s so close, I can see his flushed cheeks, though I’m not sure if that’s my wishful thinking or because he got a little too much sun today. No matter, his eyes are shining with excitement, and I simply cannot resist seizing this moment. Once we’re back at the farm, there’ll be a million other things that need doing, but right now there’s only Micah, this tractor, and an open field.
“Of course!” I pat the backrest of the seat, shifting my weight to get out of the way so Micah can sit down. Once he’s settled, I reach over his shoulder to turn the key again. The engine rumbles to life, and the shaking restarts.
“Okay, so you have the gears on your right, those pedals are forward and backward,” I explain, reaching down to nudge Micah’s hand and knee.
He nods, then the tractor jumps as he shifts his feet. I snicker and push down on his leg, pulling the gear back into neutral.
“Easy.” I squeeze my other arm under Micah’s to point to his left side. “There’s the clutch and another shift there.That’swhere you basically shift up the output of the engine, depending on the machines you’re pulling.”
We’ll only be going a couple of yards, and the stretch of grassy pathway ahead of us is free and open, nothing to worry about, but still, I hover close.
Micah curls his fingers around the different shifts as I talk him through how to work the tractor. He nearly kills the engine ashe hits the pedal too hard, making the machine jump forward again.
I bump my chin against his shoulder, both of us laughing.
On his next attempt, Micah manages to get the tractor moving smoothly along the cherry trees, and I smack one hand against the roof of the tractor to cheer for him.
“That’s so cool!” Micah’s eyes are gleaming. He takes us a few more rows down, then gently stops the vehicle. It ambles for a moment before Micah turns the key. Quiet falls over us, only interrupted by the ticking of the cooling engine.
“When did you learn to drive this?”
“Dad taught all of us as soon as we were big enough to reach the pedals,” I explain, carefully standing up again. My back hurts after sitting all day. Sweat trickles down my neck from being so close to Micah in the cramped space.
Totally worth it, though.
Especially when Micah tips his head back to look at me. Unbidden, my eyes trail down the tendons of his neck as they stretch.
