Dreaming August (26 page)

“Sorry,” she shook herself out of memory. Benny was no longer sitting on the cot but wrapping her baby into the folds and twists of her sling. “I didn’t hear what you just said.”

“Your headache okay?”

“My—oh, yes.” Savannah touched her head. “It’s fine.”

“I was just saying that I’d better get this little biscuit to her grandma and grandpa’s so I can get ready for my big date. It might take a little while to squeeze myself into the dress I bought. Svelte, I have never been. What was I thinking, buying something so tight?”

“Big date?”

Benny leaned in and kissed Savannah’s cheek. “You really are still tired,” she said. “It’s Dan and my anniversary, remember? You were my maid of honor.”

“Oh…oh! Benny, I’m so sorry.” Savannah hugged her tight. “Happy Anniversary, sugar. May this be the first of many happy years to come.”

“If the rest are only a quarter as happy, I’ll count myself lucky. Thanks, Savvy.”

Savannah walked Benny outside. It still surprised her to see her friend climb into the hybrid car Dan surprised her with on her birthday, rather than onto the scooter she had always ridden. Strapping the baby into her car-seat, Benny said, “We leave for Bar Harbor tomorrow. You sure you have enough help while I’m gone?”

“Don’t start that again.” Savannah laughed. “There is almost nothing to do but watch the vegetables grow. Besides, I have enough kids available to fetch and carry for me if I need. Go. Have fun camping. I’m green with envy. Bar Harbor is one of my favorite places on the planet.”

“Thanks for the recommendation.” Benny tossed the baby wrap into the car and opened her arms to Savannah. “I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.”

“Bring me back some seashells.”

Waving her friend away until her car was a red speck in the sunshine, Savannah’s mind raced with all there actually was to do on the farm despite her assurances to the contrary. Watering and staking, feeding, weeding, pest-detecting and eradicating. There were secondary crops to start and seedlings to tend. And the lambs…the spring lambs were nearly ready to go, whether to slaughter or to sale. Picking which ones would go where was a task she hated, and one she wouldn’t foist onto someone else, not even the brothers Gallegos, for whom such a task wasn’t so heartrending.

Savannah Callowell would dive headlong into all these tasks that were better than being idle this time of year, better than having to be with anyone she loved. The high school students who changed by the year were all she could handle.

Turning to head back to her office, the lists and the planning and the ordering of her present filled her thoughts to capacity. Savannah watched her feet instead of the sky now black and roiling and rumbling thunder, just as she predicted.