𝐈𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝

Chapter Thirty-Six: Potatoes and Carrots

"You've got to be kidding me," Raine huffed and fell back into the dirt of the garden.

"The carrots are supposed to go in that row," Bianca said. I followed her finger to the row in front of me and Sam. "Potatoes are in this one."

"So, you're telling me for the past fifteen minutes I've been planting carrots in the potato row?" Raine asked and sat back defeatedly in the dirt. I could feel my mouth pulling into a grin.

"Yeah," Bianca said, attempting to hide an obvious sense of amusement.

Raine groaned and pulled herself out of the dirt to start undoing all of the planting she had done. I snickered but when Raine shot me a glare I turned back to plant the carrots next to Sam, who I noticed was playing in the dirt more than actually planting.

We were on our second hour of work since lunch and to say Raine didn't like gardening was an understatement. Sam and I had made a system where Sam would dig the small holes for the sprouts and I would put them in and cover it up. We were moving fairly quickly compared to Bianca and Raine, who had hit several setbacks, Raine's carrot-potato mix up being the latest one. Dylan, Charlie, Thomas, and Jack were chopping wood a few feet away from us which looked exhausting, especially considering it was early September in Arizona.

"Holy hell," I heard Bianca mutter from across the row of potatoes. I turned my head up to see what Bianca was looking at. I followed the girl's gaze to where Dylan was wiping the sweat off of his face with the bottom of his shirt, exposing most of his torso, his ridiculously toned torso. I snickered and looked back at Bianca who seemed to have forgotten about planting the carrots and was having an especially hard time looking away from Dylan. My eyes widened with amusement as Bianca practically drooled over the sight in front of us.

"Just take it off!" I hollered so that Dylan could hear me. Bianca smacked my arm a couple of times as we both laughed. I looked up to see Dylan turning around. He shook his head and laughed when he saw me grinning from ear to ear and Bianca trying to hide her embarrassment.

"Did you crack into Thomas's secret stash?" Dylan called back with a grin which made me laugh even more.

"She's definitely not sober," Bianca shouted.

"Oh come on!" I whined and turned to whack her shoulder but she quickly scurried away. We went back to planting carrots and potatoes, grumbling all the while. I noticed that Raine had managed to start planting the correct vegetable in the correct designated area, which made everyone happy because it meant less work.

"He keeps doing it!" Bianca whisper-yelled. I looked over to where Dylan was wiping his face again, this time lifting it higher so that more of his stomach was exposed.

"Seriously?!" I raised my arms up. Dylan turned around, pretending to be shocked and confused but I just rolled my eyes.

"Hey Thomas, get in there!" Raine yelled. I started laughing when I saw Thomas open his arms, giving Raine a look that basically said really? After a few more moments of laughter, I turned back to the potatoes, digging, then placing, then watering, then doing it all over again. I hated gardening but it was nice to be in a monotonous rhythm, especially with all the uncertainty I felt about my brother. It was the small things.

Dylan's POV

I turned back around to face the wood I was chopping with Jack.

Dammit. Why did she have to make it so hard? She had to make me laugh. She had to make me smile. She had to make me feel happy. She had to make me like her even more. Why couldn't she just hate me? That would make this so much easier. If she hated me then I wouldn't have to worry about her at all. I could just let her go-