A Risk Worth Taking Read Online Free PDF

up if you know what I mean. Now, two
consenting adults is one thing. But hurt her, and I’ll have to break your
balls.”
    “I’m
not going to hurt anybody, Case. I’ve barely spoken to the chick. And didn’t
you say she just broke up with her boyfriend? Who says she’d even be
interested?”
    “Uh-huh.”
He straightened and walked to the door.
    “What
kind of answer is that?” I called, frowning.
    “The
kind where the answer is so obvious, you don’t need my confirmation,” he said
as he left.
    I
didn’t want to admit I’d been fishing for whatever reason Summer had for that
spooked look in her eye. If not now, he’d come out with it soon enough. I shook
my head and went back to massaging dirt.
    When
I’d finished, I sat back and let the fans cool me off. There were other
projects, other seeds to be planted, but I needed a break. The heat in the
greenhouse was necessary, but it was hotter than hell in a heat wave out here.
    My
watch beeped, announcing the hour. I went to the small water cooler I’d set up
and held a cup underneath as I depressed the button. Nothing happened. I
twisted the lid and looked inside. Bone dry, like my throat. Damn.
    If
I hurried, I could make the trek back to the small rental house I shared with
Casey and refill it there. I had to pull a shift in the lower field this
morning. Part of my work-study agreement with Dean. I’ll scratch your back, you
scratch mine. I didn’t mind. But I needed hydration.
    The
main house was closer. Mazie made a killer lemonade and it was best not to
chance being late. Or at least that’s what I told myself as I brushed my hands
off before donning my shirt. If I also happened to catch a glimpse of Summer’s
legs in those shorts she was wearing today, that was merely a bonus. A perk of
the job. She might as well be a tall glass of water herself.
     
     
     
     

 

     

Chapter Four
     
    Summer
     
    “Don’t cry over the past, it’s
gone. Don’t stress over the future, it hasn’t arrived. Live in the present, and
make it beautiful.” -Unknown
     
     
    The big
tractor, affectionately called Goose, was making that god-awful choking sound
again. At my dad’s request, I went in search of Casey, the master of all things
mechanical. I checked the main greenhouse first since that was the hub of
activity around here. Morning roll call, evening progress reports, and gossip
at the water cooler over an extended lunch break—all of these happened in the
main greenhouse.
    As
soon as I stepped inside, the air changed. More specifically, it died. It was
slightly cooler here than outside, although you wouldn’t know it without a
thermometer through the stuffiness. Dean Stafford didn’t believe in changing
the seasons underneath his plastic. Year round, the greenhouses stayed a balmy
seventy degrees. But it was stale and heavy, like the air gathered close around
you and stuck there for the duration of your time inside the filmy walls. It
almost matched the asphyxiating humidity that made up Virginia summers. Almost.
    I
was surprised to find the room empty upon first glance. It so rarely was, but
then, this week had proven unseasonably hot and Dad tended to let the guys go
early on days like this. I turned to go and stopped when something clanged in
the back. I walked toward the sound and spotted Casey on the far side of a
large stack of tomato cages. He muttered to himself, alternating between
reading from a clipboard and throwing metal cages around. What had been a neat
stack when I’d walked through earlier this week was now an overturned mess.
    “What
happened here?” I asked.
    Casey
looked up and scowled. “Squirrels.”
    I
lifted a brow. “Squirrels? In the greenhouse?”
    “That’s
what I said, isn’t it?”
    I
suppressed a smile. The lines in his forehead knotted together in neat little
rows when he was mad. I knew from experience, smiling would be very bad right
now. “How’d they get in?”
    Casey
gestured somewhere behind him