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Levi lifted an eyebrow and pinned her with a steely look. “You keep tossing around compliments like that, and the snacks and meals might just disappear.”
“Not that,” Grace said, pretending to look repentant. “Don’t take away my Ding Dongs and milkshakes!”
Levi laughed. “Okay. But only if you come sit a little closer instead of hanging out all the way over there.”
Grace gladly moved close to him, breathing in his scent, resting in the comfort of his welcoming presence.
Fifteen minutes later, when he pulled into a drive-in movie, she couldn’t resist clapping her hands in excited anticipation. “I haven’t been to a drive-in for ages.”
“Do you mind that it’s a Bruce Lee movie?”
Grace shook her head. “I don’t care what’s playing. It’s the experience that matters. Can we get popcorn? And a box of Whoppers?”
Levi grinned indulgently. “Whatever you want, Miss American Pie.”
Grace frowned. “Is that going to be a thing now? You calling me that?”
“Maybe. Is that going to be a problem?”
“Maybe.” She shrugged and started to scoot away from him, but he wrapped his hand around her waist and drew her close enough he could press a kiss to her neck, just below her ear. She giggled and squirmed, enjoying every second of his affection and attention.
It wasn’t until they were parked and Levi had retrieved popcorn, candy, and two bottles of Dr Pepper from the concession stand that she noticed he watched her observantly. “Do you not like nicknames?”
“I don’t mind them at all, Levi. I was just joking around earlier.”
“I know, but I don’t want to call you anything you don’t like.”
She didn’t think he needed to know he could have called her “Hey, you,” or “Mudface” and just hearing his voice would have sparked the same reaction she experienced every time he saidGracein that deep, rumbling voice she’d come to love.
“I’ll let you know if you call me something I don’t like,” she said, then popped a Whopper in her mouth.
Grace paid far more attention to Levi than to the movie, but she enjoyed the evening immensely. The entire day had been wonderful, one she’d long remember.
When Levi finally drove her home and walked her inside, he gave her one knee-weakening kiss in front of the apartment door, squeezed her hand in his, kissed her cheek, and left.
Grace opened the apartment door and walked inside on wobbly legs, wondering how life could get any sweeter than it was at that very moment in time.
Leviwalkedalongthealuminum sprinkler pipe in the potato field, checking to make sure the nozzles on each sprinkler head were clear and the pipes were connected. They’d irrigated the same way for as long as he could remember, using irrigation siphon tubes that carried water from the ditch down the furrows of soil.
When he returned home from Vietnam, he’d started studying new inventions and options for watering their crops. After much discussion, he’d talked his father into letting him purchase enough sprinkler pipe to test out a forty-acre field of potatoes. Levi anticipated the yield would noticeably increase due to having adequate water irrigate every plant instead of just those nearer the ditch or at the bottom of the field, where water sometimes tended to pool.
He bent down and pulled a kochia weed, carrying it with him. Gibson & Son Farms was known for their weed-free, well-tended fields, and Levi did all he could to maintain that. Anyone working on the farm knew to get a weed up by its roots instead of just breaking off the top. A cement-walled burn pit where they burned the weeds as well as trash was part of their efforts to keep invasive plants from spreading.
When Levi made it back to the top of the field, his left arm was loaded with weeds. He piled them into a bucket he’d strapped to the back of his Honda dirt bike. A scabbard attached to the side held a shovel, and a little toolbox was welded onto the back beneath the seat. He had everything he needed for making simple repairs in the field, or hauling out weeds, as the case was this morning.
Levi turned on the water to the sprinkler line, then watched to make sure each nozzle was spraying properly before he got on the bike, kick-started it, and moved on to the next field. It had been a challenge for him to learn to work the hand clutch on the bike with just his thumb and index finger on his left hand, but he’d managed. Now, he felt like those two digits were twice as strong as any of the fingers on his right hand.
Stubbornly, he refused to stop doing things he’d always done before the injury just because he was missing three fingers and a good portion of his hand. If there was a way for him to figure out how to make something work, he did.
He set the water in three more fields, checked on the cattle, fed the horses, and then headed to his parents’ house for breakfast. Since he was doing more and more farm work, his mother insisted on feeding him breakfast and dinner. Most of the time, Levi went to his house and made a sandwich for lunch, needing an hour of quiet to settle himself before he returned to work.
Since meeting Grace almost two months ago, Levi felt as though his life had shifted yet again, except this time, it was in a better, more joyful direction. Honestly, since he’d met Grace, he’d been happier than he’d ever felt, even before he’d gone off to war.
Levi had been in love before, been engaged and then brokenhearted, but what he’d felt for Laurie seemed so insignificant compared to his growing feelings for Grace.
The moment he’d met Grace, she’d unsettled him, and it wasn’t just about his fear of appearing weak in front of her. Part of what had left him so rattled was Grace. She was beautiful, of that there was no question. But she was also confident. Strong. Smart. Sweet. Funny. Interesting. Caring. Generous. And kind. She was so kind, and that was one of the things he loved most about her.
Levi wasn’t sure of the exact moment he’d fallen in love with Grace. It might have been when she’d threatened him with the thermometer that first day in Dr. O’Brien’s office, but he loved her with his whole heart. Loved her in a way that felt like it went down to the depths of his wounded soul.
