Caroline
We're in the car now headed out into the beautiful Georgia day. The past two days here have definitely been my favorite of the summer. The lush green trees everywhere you look, the clear blue sky, the cute little farmhouses. Seattle is so cold and rainy, so gloomy. The buildings, the traffic, everything running a million miles a minute. Everything here is bright and calm, slow-paced, just perfect country life.
About 25 minutes later we're pulling up to a peanut farm in a small town called Leesburg. We get out of the car and we're greeted by a tall white-haired man named Tommy Bryan. Just like everyone else I've met here in Georgia he's got that slow southern drawl.
"Mr. Boyer", he says as he shakes my dad's hand.
My dad gestures towards me, "Mr. Bryan, this is my daughter Caroline."
"Ma'am", he says taking my hand and removing his hat. "Would y'all like ta step inside and we'll get started?"
"Of course, lead the way."
Mr. Bryan walks us into a small office, we sit and he starts piling files onto the desk in front of us. They immediately start talking business. Peanut production numbers, fertilizer costs, equipment repair schedules, employee benefits, payroll. After a while I'm getting restless, I start tapping my pen repeatedly against the desk. My dad looks over at me clearly annoyed and says, "Caroline, why don't you go take a walk around? Get some fresh air."
He doesn't have to ask me twice, I'm up out of my chair stumbling my way out the door. Still not believing how beautiful it is here and wondering how great it must be to grow up in a place like this I start walking around the property. I turn the corner and come up on a huge plot of land. I hear the loud roar of an engine that makes me jump. Looking over I see a man steering a tractor pulling a plow thru the dirt.
He's got on faded Levi's, a dirty white t-shirt, brown mudcaked boots and a black baseball cap turned backwards. He looks up and catches me staring, my face flushes bright red. I turn around too fast and trip over my own foot. I fall forward, landing on my knees. Cursing my two left feet I reach up to grab the fence and find a hand. I look up and the man on the tractor is standing in front of me.
I grab his hand and immediately feel my stomach flutter, my knees shake threatening to bring me down again and my heart beats so loudly I'm convinced he'll be able to hear it.
"Are you alright?" He asks, pulling me up so I'm standing right in front of him.
I step back, letting his hand go. "I'm ok. Unfortunately falling is something I'm pretty used to. Coordination is not really my thing." I say completely mortified that he's witnessed my clumsiness. I look up at him and he's smiling. Not just any smile though. The kind of smile that makes you forget to breathe.
Extending his hand to me again he says, "I'm Luke."
I take his hand, "My name is Caroline."
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Luke
Out the door and in the passenger seat of dad's pickup, driving down these same two-lane roads I've driven my whole life. I will never get tired of this gorgeous Georgia land. Nashville may be the dream, Lord knows that's where my head's been the past few years but Leesburg will forever be my heart.
We pull up to the farm, hop out of the truck and get the day going. Gasing up the tractors, cleaning the equipment, running the irrigation system. It's a full day right from the start.
By midmorning I'm sitting on the tractor making my way thru this plot of land, humming a melody, the lyrics start coming...
"....I oughta be worried about the rain.
The last hundred rows could've
been a little straighter."
I look back and chuckle, well damn at least I'm writing real life.
"Guess I'll be hittin' them again later
I could turn this red dirt all day..."
I'm doing my last row on the tractor when I see her, coming around the corner looking so out of place I can't help but smile. She's tall with long blonde hair, a nice little figure, a flawless pale complexion and the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen. She's wearing tight black jeans and a fitted grey sweater. Our eyes meet and her face turns the brightest shade of red. She turns away tripping on her own foot and hits the ground.
I cut the engine, jump off the tractor and rush over to her, holding my hand out. She looks up and the second she grabs my hand I feel my stomach jump into my throat making me take a sharp breath in, my heart beating so loud it's all I hear. I pull her up to her feet in front of me asking if she's alright.
She let's go of my hand, takes a stumbling step back and looking down dusting her pants off says something about her coordination. I look down at her smiling. She looks up at me not saying a word, I look into her sapphire blue eyes and forget to breathe.
"I'm Luke." Putting my hand out to her again.
She takes my hand, "My name is Caroline."
YOU ARE READING
Georgia
Random"...and the one thing I loved about him the most was that he is everything I never knew I wanted."
