Page 16 of Heartland

On the other hand, I could always use more cash. And I need to get Griffin off my back. We used to get along better. But since I moved to Burlington, he won’t shut up about how much work the dairy takes.

Fridays, though. I let everybody down eventually. It’s probably just Kaitlyn’s turn.

I lift my coffee mug and drain it. “Interesting idea, Chass. Handmade candies are expensive. Like Leah’s cheeses, right? The retail price would be pretty high. And with all the gourmet crap our families are selling already, it wouldn’t be hard to get it into shops.”

“Exactly.” She grabs a folder out of her backpack, but hesitates before handing it over. “Don’t laugh, but I wrote it all up for my Economics of Small Businesses class.”

“I’m not going to laugh,” I insist as she hands me the folder. In fact, I’m damned impressed when I flip it open and scan the numbers.

“Sugar is really cheap,” Chastity says. “That’s the second ingredient in caramel.”

“See?” I have to chuckle. “You don’t hate math, as long as we’re making candy.”

“I don’t hate numbers at all,” she argues. “I hatevariables.”

“Obviously. Because this is really thorough.” I scan her ingredients list, and the prices beside them. She’s right. Other than the goat’s milk, everything is dirt cheap. “Wow. Okay. So when do you want to try this? It’s already October. We’d have to hustle if we want to sell them for the holidays.”

A big smile breaks across Chastity’s face. “Well, tomorrow is Friday. I could buy sugar and vanilla before Spanish class. We could make a test batch tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow.” I close the folder and hand it back to her. “All right. Why not? We’d have to leave right after classes. You can ride home with me, but you’ll have to stay until Sunday afternoon when I’m ready to drive back.”

“That’s fine with me,” she says quickly.

“Okay, it’s a deal. Fun project, Chass. I hope this works.”

“It will,” she says, looking pleased with herself. Chastity’s eyes really sparkle when she’s happy. “I mean—this will be my first batch of caramel ever. But I have a good feeling.”

“What if it won’t firm up?” I have to ask. “What if we make a whole vat of milky goo?”

“Then we’ll freeze it and call it ice cream?”

“Guess what? I thought about making goat’s milk ice cream. But you need big commercial freezers and those cost a lot more than a twenty-five pound bag of sugar.”

“Then we better get it right on the caramels.” She zips her backpack.

“Cool. I better run.” I get up and drop a kiss on the top of her head. Her hair smells like lemons. “See you tomorrow. Pick you up at four?”

“I’ll be ready,” she says.

I carry my tray off to the dishwashing window. And as I glance her way on my way out of the room, she makes an awkward motion with her hand.

Strangely enough, it looks like a fist pump.

Six

Freshman Composition

Section 4

Title: Hungrily

Author: Chastity Campbell

I grewup on a cattle ranch. But I wasn’t allowed to eat a steak until I was a nineteen-year-old runaway, and two thousand miles from that place.

Honestly, that’s really all you need to know to understand my story. But you wanted two pages, so I’ll give you the ugly details.

Where I grew up women worked in the kitchen and the men never set foot in there. When dinner was over, my stepfather got up and left the table without a backward glance at his dirty plate.