Page 11 of Fruit and Flash

Shaking my head at the wayward thought, I don’t want to get hard right before the man himself arrives. Shadow starts barking and I step outside to see a white car entering the gate I left open for Kai.

He’s in a more sensible hybrid vehicle from the looks of it, and it eases over the bumpy dirt and gravel driveway much better than the flashy electric car he had as a rental in April would have.

Pointing to the spot of dirt beside my truck, Kai parks and hops out to pet Shadow on the head. He’s got his ever-present phone in his hand as he rounds the car to stand in front of me with a grin. “Hi, Farmboy.”

“Hey, Hawai’i,” I respond as my face heats, remembering how we called each other by the nicknames at the bar. “Is this a thing, now?”

“It’s so a thing,” Kai insists with a laugh. “I can see it now, hashtag Farmboy Hayes.”

Rolling my eyes, I gesture for him to follow me. “You wanted to see places to film, so let me show you around.”

“It’s cool to meet the famous Shadow,” Kai follows along with his shorter legs, my dog walking beside him with adoring eyes. Yeah, buddy, I get it. “Guess I only saw your kitchen last time.”

Choking on air, I almost trip over my own feet at the memory of him in my old kitchen. I got hard every time I walked into theroom for a week after he left town. “I’m showing you around the property today.”

“”Fire,” Kai responds with a nod and I look around in a panic. A fire would be just my luck. His laugh has me turning back. “Oh, shit. Sorry! I meant, like, cool.”

My heart rate slows as I realize he was using some Gen Z slang my millennial ass doesn’t get. Though I think it has more to do with living in the middle of nowhere. I don’t get half of what they say on TV shows now.

“I feel like there’s a law about saying fire when there isn’t one,” I grumble and continue towards the opposite side of the driveway. “The chicken coop is across from the house so I can keep an eye on the hens.”

“Doesn’t the rooster do that?” Kai asks with genuine curiosity as he takes a picture of the dozen or so hens pecking at the ground in the open area beside the faded yellow coop. “And why is the fence so high around it?”

“I try not to have roosters, and the fence is to keep predators out.”

“Don’t like cocks?” Kai asks and I’m spluttering again. He’s grinning like he knew exactly what he was doing as Shadow sits beside him to receive more head pats.

Shaking my head, I hide my own smile at his antics by smoothing my mustache. “Roosters crow at the ass crack of dawn and fertilize the eggs. I don’t want either of those when I already wake up at sunrise.”

“Damn, I only got up that early for surfing.”

Leading Kai past the raised planting beds and towards the greenhouse, and find myself asking, “Do you miss it? Surfing and Hawai’i?”

“Yes and no,” Kai bobbles his head and takes a picture of the greenhouse, which is half-shaded by an apple tree I need to prune back. “My older brothers are more into surfing than me,but I miss my siblings sometimes. And even though Hawai’i is a tourist destination, I don’t miss feeling trapped.”

Gesturing to the side of my property that isn’t lined by trees, I point to the open fields leading to the foothills. “We’ve still got lots of wide open spaces in California.”

An expression passes over his face I can’t quite read. Maybe awe at the view and something else akin to sadness, and I realize he didn’t mean trapped by being on an island. I know the kind of trapped you can feel from family expectations.

“Let me show you the barn,” I offer to break the mood. “I’ve got some cute animals.”

Kai grins again and I like that he lets things roll off his back so easily. “Lead the way, Farmboy.”

Right as I walk into the big open doors, I hear Opie braying from outside. What I don’t hear is the sound of pigs and goats in my barn. I planned for Kai to come right before feeding time so they’d be eager, so they should be making a ruckus to be fed.

The creak of a hinge has me stopping short, Kai running into my back. “Hey, what’s with the traffic jam?”

“The goats’ pin is open,” I explain, rushing to check the next pin where two pigs should be shuffling through the hay and snorting at me. “Dammit. Pigs too.”

“And that’s bad?” Kai asks warily, his hand gripping my sleeve like my farm animals will attack. Shadow seems to sense his unease and presses against Kai’s leg.

“The main gate is open,” I explain, hurrying to grab a scoop of pig feed in the empty coffee container I use to measure it. “The goats will wander and the pigs are escape artists.”

Not waiting for Kai to ask more questions, I run out the back of the barn, shaking the can with the sound I use to tempt them. With my luck, they’ve gotten into the rest of the berries and I’ll have none left to sell. At least they can't climb trees.

“Pinky, Brain,” I call the pigs, named for their dynamic more than how they look. Though Pinky is sort of pink with black spots, Brain is the, well, brains of the operation. This isn’t the first time they got loose. “Slim, Jim?”

Of course, I had to give Leon the day off because Kai was coming over. Now I have no one to help me round my wandering animals up.