Ten minutes later, Jenny was climbing into his Jeep, looking like she thought it might be a killer ride at the county fair.

“Do you drive in from the farm every day?”

Ben took a breath. An easy question. “No, I live in an apartment over the drugstore. It’s close, and most days I ride my bike to work. I help my father farm on weekends and do research during the winter in a greenhouse we built out of a little barn. Chemicals used on crops have always fascinated me.”

“Oh.” She seemed to be waiting for him to say something interesting.

He’d already looked her up in the faculty directory so there was no need to ask where she lived, but he decided it would be polite to talk.

She answered simply, “I live near the river in one of the little cabins that used to be fishing shacks before the town grew out that way years ago. It’s quiet but way too few streetlights. I’m a city girl. I like to see in the night.”

“Oh,” he echoed her.

They drove out of town toward the farm-to-market road. She wiggled in her seat, played with one curl of her hair, and watched the houses become fewer and farther between. “This isn’t a date, is it?” she asked.

“Do you want it to be?”

“No. Definitely not. I haven’t had a date in years. When we finish dinner, you will bring me back to my car? Right?”

“Of course. I’ll have to pass by the campus to get home, so it’s right on my way.”

He slowed, and they drove along a field that looked like a dying vineyard. She asked questions and he tried to answer them. It didn’t take long for Benjamin to realize she knew a great deal more about growing grapes than he did. Finally, they had something in common to talk about.

Benjamin was surprised when she wanted to get out and walk the rows. He had his passions, just like everyone else, but his were tied to the earth, and few of his colleagues wanted to hear details. Town folks didn’t understand the importance of weather or rain, and most farmers weren’t interested in growing grapes.

As they walked into the farmhouse where he’d grown up, they were both talking as if trying to get a few points about grapes in before they had to postpone the conversation.

At the door, he paused, smiling down at her. She stopped in midsentence and grinned. “I like it when you smile, Doctor.”

There was no time for him to respond, but he did let his hand brush her back as he ushered her into the house.

Ben introduced Jenny to his father and two couples almost as old. The neighbors. To his surprise, the biology teacher joined the old folks’ gang. By the time they sat down to dinner, he was the outsider.