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I ain’t about to bore you with the details of my aunt’s teachin’ me. Cookin’, cleanin’, all the tedium of regular house life, but with half the electricity and creature comforts. What a snore!
The only upside to it all was that from the kitchen I got to look out on Bo workin’ at the fields. Those big, sun-kissed muscles of his strainin’ and bulgin’ as he worked and fixed the equipment.
When the time came that she finally took me out there and introduced me, I was breathless.
There he was, with his sun-bleached hair on display, a big smile on his broad, chiselled face, makin’ him look all the more handsome than ever!
“Howdy there ma’am,” he said to me, extendin’ that big ol’ hand of his, all calloused and hard from his labour.
Nope, right from the get-go he treated me like a woman and a lady. No condescendin’ nicknames, no cutesy put offs. I took his hand — or tried to, it looked pitiful dainty next to his! — and shook.
“Well hey yourself,” I said, though probably not with the same amount of charm and grace I’d hoped. I wasn’t from a farm, but I certainly wasn’t from no big city like New York and all their classy ways, so it didn’t come easy to me.
And I was just turned eighteen, so it wasn’t like I had a huge lot of experience neither, and never had I talked to a man like Bo. My knees were like jelly and my heart was thumpin’ so hard I thought I might faint.
Bo gave a gentle squeeze to my fingers and reached out, placing his other hand upon my wrist and forearm.
“It’s a real pleasure to be workin’ beside two such proud ladies,” he said in his deep, husky voice, which had a way of makin’ a ladies parts feel hot and stuffy.
“Oh, won’t be workin’ beside the two of us,” my aunt said with a gentle laugh. “I’ll still be stickin’ to the house mostly, doctor’s orders,” she lamented. “But you’ll show her how things are done, Bo.”
“Well that’s a shame, but the two of us will take care of things on your behalf,” Bo said to my aunt, barely lettin’ his sparklin’ blue eyes off of me for a second.
“Alright, I’ll leave ya both to it! Don’t work too hard!” she said, my aunt takin’ off and leavin’ the two of us together on my second day there. The only downside was that she waited until then to introduce us.
“Don’t worry,” he said to me, his hand still about mine as he smiled so handsomely. “I won’t ask ya ta do nothin’ too strenuous. I can tak
e care of everythin’ on my own anyhow, Miss Dixie.”
“I’m tougher than I look,” I protested, because I didn’t want him to think I was some pampered rich girl or nothing. I might never’ve worked a day in my life, but he didn’t know that.
I tucked a stray bit of hair behind my ear as I looked up at him, my lips pulled into a sly grin. “Just tell me what to do.”
He never laughed at me none or made fun, but he smiled and gave a nod of his head.
“Alright, miss Dixie. But don’t push yaself too hard, like yer aunt said. Take plenty of breaks, drink lotsa water,” he said as he led me on over to what I thought was the barn, but was really a workshop for the tractors and machinery. He took me around, tellin’ me all about the various machines and their uses, but I was havin’ a hard time focussin’. Walkin’ behind him gave an ample view of what a rock hard, shapely rear he had after all, and how’s a girl supposed to keep a clear head through that?
When finally he turned to me, havin’ clearly asked a question I was numb to, I muttered out a “What?” and he laughed.
“It’s a bit much to all take in,” he said. “Tell ya what… there was a lil’ project that yer aunt gave me, nothin’ urgent, but would be just perfect for you, I think. C’mon.”
He winked at me and led me out the back, to a lil’ patch of dirt he’d sectioned off with a fence.
“Yer aunt wants a lil’ herb garden here, nothin’ ya need tractors and the like for. How’d ya like ta plant some seeds?” he asked with a bright, white-toothed grin.
I almost giggled, but I swallowed it back and it sounded almost like a snort. My cheeks reddened and I felt humiliated, but he didn’t act like it was anything at all. He just kept smilin’ at me with that patient look of his as I nodded.
“Ya, sure, I can handle that,” I said, but then immediately felt a bit sad. He’d be out in front and I wouldn’t be able to stare and watch him work.
That’d make the job of planting even more tedious.
Should’ve been payin’ more attention after all.
“Alright, let me show you how it’s done,” he said, as he took up the satchel of seeds and got down into the dirt. And suddenly my reservations vanished, as I got to see him bend down and dig his finger into the soil and then plant another one, then mark each one with the correspondin’ herb marker.
“Now how about you come down here and try,” he said with a smile, reachin’ out to take my hand and gently tug me beside him.
