“I’m about to leave!” I hollered back, checking my coat pocket for the keys. “Look, Vance, Pa gets busy and can be absentminded. I appreciate you bringing Boss home. From now on, just let me know where y’all will be and I’ll see to him getting picked up.”

“It was no trouble driving him home.” Casually tucking his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, Vance lowered his head slightly and looked at me through a thick fringe of lashes, intensifying the green of his irises. “I can tomorrow, too.”

Knowing nothing good could come from ogling the guy, I started toward the truck. “Just let me know from now on, please, instead of my father. I’ll pick him up.”

Vance seemed reluctant but finally took the hint and headed toward his car. “Okay. The movie should be over by eight. See ya then.” Eyes squinted, he gave the farmhouse and then me a slow perusal before closing his door.

Shaking off the flustered feeling that gave me, I loaded up and swung by the new barn on the way out. I put the truck in park and leaned toward the windshield to get a better look at the structure. It was at least twice as big as the old barn with a deeper overhang that would make days of filling it with tobacco much easier.

Pa’s truck wasn’t there, but I beeped the horn anyway. A moment later, Jinx came around the corner from the far side of the barn with a tool belt barely hanging on to his skinny waist.

I cranked the window down and angled out to holler, “Have you seen Pa?”

Jinx dusted his hands off and retrieved a crumpled pouch of Levi Garrett from his back pocket. As he walked closer, he loaded a good-size chaw of the tobacco into his mouth, working it until his hollow cheek poked out like a chipmunk. “He left about an hour ago. Needed to grab some supplies from the hardware store and then pick up Boss.”

“Okay. The barn sure is looking nice.”

Jinx puckered his lips and sent a long brown stream of spit to the ground. “It’s gettin’ there.”

Knowing that was all the conversation he’d care to share, I reeled the window up and reversed into the driveway and drove off.