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“If you grab that box, you can put all the bookmarks in it.” I reached for the box she indicated and did as she asked, making sure I didn’t just dump them in.

“That goes in the bin right there.” Bren managed to continue her task while directing me and we got everything packed away in her bins and on her rolling cart in no time. It was amazing how she’d made everything fit perfectly with no unused space. Efficient and compact. Not like my family, cramming everything into the van and hoping nothing broke. Granted, her items did tend to stack more easily, and she didn’t have to deal with any glass jars.

Bren did one last check and faced me.

“I could, um, help you?” She sounded so unsure. It was adorable.

“I’m good, thanks. Many hands, light work, and all that.” Many hands made more work sometimes, but we didn’t need Bren. There were plenty of us. She was all on her own.

“Okay, sure,” she said, passing the handle of her cart back and forth in her hands. “I’ll, um, see you next week, I guess?”

“Unless I see you sooner,” I said, and her eyes went wide, almost in fear. She really was fun to mess with.

“You never know where I might pop up, Bren. Or you could always come by the farm. We do tours and you’ll get a free sample of honey. You can even name a bee and get a little certificate saying that you’re an amateur beekeeper.”

Bren just stared at me as if I’d spoken in another language.

“Do you…do you think that’s something I’d be into?” she asked.

Absolutely not, which was why I’d said it. I adored watching her reactions.

“No? You don’t want to get your picture taken wearing a full beekeeping outfit? You’d look so cute.”

Bren wouldn’t look cute in it. She’d look hot as fuck, but I couldn’t tell her that. I also was never going to tell her I’d had several erotic dreams of her stripping out of the suit or wearing the hat with the veil down and nothing else. My mind came up with strange fantasies sometimes.

“I think I’ll pass,” she said, tapping one finger on the cart handle. She obviously wanted to go, but I didn’t want to let her. I wanted to beg her to go somewhere with me. Anywhere we could be alone, and I could sit and gorge myself on her face and her voice and her expressions.

“Fine. Your loss,” I said, pretending a nonchalance that I very much didn’t feel.

“Okay, uh, bye,” she said, her eyes flicking around as she started to back toward the door.

“Bye, Bren,” I said, giving her a goofy little wave that she didn’t return.

“Honey and Bren, sitting in a tree…” Ellie sang.

“Wow, are kids still saying that one?” I asked.

Ellie grinned up at me as I pulled the elastic out of her hair and redid her ponytail for her.

“I am. You’re gonna kiss her,” Ellie said, looking up at me and smiling, showing me the gaps where she had missing teeth that had yet to grow back in. My adorable little Jack-o-lantern. She didn’t believe in the tooth fairy anymore, but we still snuck little things under her pillow and took away the baby teeth which my mom kept in a little silver box, along with the rest of ours. I was torn between thinking it was sweet and creepy at the same time.

“Am I? When’s that going to happen?” I asked her.

“Soon,” she said, with all the confidence of one so young.

“Well, could you give me a heads up so I make sure my teeth are brushed beforehand?”

Ellie giggled and I kissed the top of her head. I didn’t have to lean down far. Someday, she would be taller than me and I was dreading that day already.

Eventually we got packedup and made our way back home. Bren hadn’t sent any messages to me and I had the feeling she was a little taken aback about me asking her to come to the farm. In a normal interaction with someone, it would have been a very natural thing to ask to move a friendship forward.

But Bren was different. She was clearly someone who hadn’t gotten a lot of practice being a friend. Or maybe she’d had friends and had bad experiences. I hated to think it was the second option. While it was true that she was a little prickly and hard to get to know, she was worth it, and that was the truth.

To break the ice a little, I went out and put on a full beekeeping outfit. We rarely wore the full suits anymore, since we were so comfortable with handling the bees and knowing their behavior.

I pulled the veil down and then asked Ellie to take a picture of me posing.

She demanded that we take multiple shots in different poses.