City Girl Pt. 09

"I could have tried." Her mother insisted, cutting her off.

"Mom," Sarah repeated, "relax. I managed to get ahold of my neighbor and he has a generator, so I'm over with him."

"Are you sure everything's ok?" Her mom asked again.

"Yes." She assured her. "Now that I think of it," she added, "I'm pretty sure he put antifreeze in the drains and drained the water lines too."

"Wow look at him go." Her mom replied, clearly a bit impressed. "I never would have thought of that."

"Me neither." Sarah admitted.

"Hey, is this the same neighbor you told us about at Thanksgiving?" Her mom asked, a bit of a teasing tone in her voice.

"Maybe..." Sarah replied sheepishly.

Her mom laughed. "Well, it sounds like he's taking pretty good care of you for the time being, so I'll leave you two to your own devices."

"Mom!"

Her mom laughed harder. "Hey there's nothing wrong with getting some action in a snowstorm."

"If only." Sarah muttered.

"What do you mean? Does he not like you?" Her mom asked.

"I'm not sure that he does, but I do know I hadn't even gotten a hug out of him until today." Sarah lamented.

"Hmm." Her mom replied contemplatively. "Well, he must care about you to some extent if he's letting you stay with him. Plus, even just a hug is a good sign. Especially if he's not one to be very touchy."

"I guess so..." Sarah admitted.

"Just take things as they come. He might be just as nervous as you are." Her mom advised.

Sarah couldn't help but smile at the thought of Chase being nervous to make a move. The man didn't seem to be afraid of much, and the idea that approaching her was too much for him did prod her ego a bit. That feeling did vanish though, as it was replaced by fear that maybe he wasn't making a move because he wanted to friendzone her.

"Sarah?" Her mom's voice reminded her that she was on the phone.

"Sorry, I was just thinking." She explained.

"Ok." Her mom replied with a chuckle. "Just stay safe and don't overthink things too much."

"Yeah, I will. Thanks mom." Sarah replied.

"No problem. Bye." Her mom replied.

"Bye mom." Sarah replied before she hung up the phone. She looked back at herself in mirror. It was just her and her thoughts. She remembered that, for some reason, she had decided to just throw her arms around Chase and that simple act was enough to get him to return the hug and even lay down with her.

She smiled in spite of herself. All this time she had been nervous to do anything, and yet that simple thing was enough to work. Better yet, even knowing that she was still not likely to make many moves on her own. But at least something had evidently gotten through to him.

She felt her nerves starting to act up again. She definitely wanted to go back out and snuggle up with him again, but she also still felt bad about hurting his shoulder and didn't want to hurt him again.

"Sarah," she thought to herself, "just throwing yourself at him had already worked once." She decided that if she went back out there and he was still laying down, she would lay down again. And not hurt him this time.

She left and headed back out to find Chase laying down and doing something on his phone.

"Who are you texting?" She asked.

He put his phone face down on his chest as looked up at her. "Hmm?" He asked.

"Who are you texting?" She asked again.

"Oh." He replied. "No one."

She just eyed him a bit and after a second or so he picked the blanket up off of him. "Do you want to lay back down?" He asked.

She was still curious about what he had been doing, and she had to admit to herself that she was jealous and afraid that he might be texting another girl. Regardless, she was the one in his house with him and she'd never seen any other vehicles pull into his driveway, not that she'd been looking though.

She proceeded to wordlessly lay back down on top of him and settle in before he proceeded to wrap the blanket around the two of them. As she rested her head on his chest, a rush of both relaxation and excitement coursed through her. She inexplicably felt incredibly safe, and yet nervous at the same time. The fact that he had just asked her to lay down had her excited, as did simply being that close to him. At the same time, thoughts of the raging blizzard outside seemed like a distant memory.

She closed her eyes and took a few moments to collect herself and then her primal brain kicked in again and made her want to remove the layers of fabric that were keeping their bodies apart.

She imagined being tangled up with him, passion running through both of them, driving their actions as they removed layers from each other until the two of them were intertwined with nothing to separate them. Her imagination ran wild thinking of exploring his body with her hands. She thought about what his body would feel like as she ran her hands over him.

Her fantasizing was interrupted again by the sound of Chase typing on his phone. She opened her eyes again and saw that he was holding his phone behind her head.

"What are you doing?" She asked, still having thoughts that maybe he was texting someone else.

"I'm crunching some numbers." Was his response.

She gave him a perplexed look. "What?" She asked.

"I'm still not entirely sure what I want to do with my land yet." He explained.

"So, what exactly are you trying to figure out?" She asked.

"Well, I've got ninety acres that isn't pastured right now, and I need to figure out what I want my crop rotation to be and how much feed I'll be able to make with that. Plus, I need to get half a clue how much feed I can store and how many cattle I can feed with that." He explained.

"How do you even figure all of that out?" She asked.

"Well, it's pretty far from an exact science, but there are pretty good estimates out there for a lot of this stuff and using those I can get half a clue of what I can expect to be working with." He said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well," Chase began, "crop yields inevitably vary from acre to acre and year to year because of about a million factors. But, data from that has been tracked for long enough that we can get a rough idea of what a given acre will do with a given inputs of fertilizer, seed, chemicals, those types of things. For instance, our BMR corn that we use for silage back home usually yields us about 18 tons to the acre the way we raise it. Now that number can change, but 18 is usually a pretty safe estimate."

"Huh, neat." Sarh replied, she never realized just how much actually went into something that seemed as simple as growing food.

"Yeah, well I know I want to feed some kind of hay because it'll be a little tougher feed for cows while they're not pregnant. I'll also probably make some of that into haylage for something a little more palatable. I might make some corn silage but I'm not sure if I'll have the silo space for that or how exactly I'm gonna get that volume low enough." He added.

Sarah remained silent trying to process everything she'd just heard. Most of which she didn't understand, but she wasn't even sure what questions she needed to ask. Luckily for her, Chase started thinking out loud as he typed on his phone.

"I mean if I do a corn, soybean, and wheat rotation while rotating hay fields every few years, that would give me 22.5 acres for each crop. But, if I put out two hay fields so I don't have to rotate them both at once, that gives 18 acres in a field and 36 acres of hay. And 36 acres of hay will give about 75 tons of dry matter, which means I should be good as long as I can fit at least one cutting in the silo. Since I'm feeding beef cattle, I'll probably stick with only making three cuttings of hay per year, it'll give the stand better longevity and be less work. The big silo I have out there is 16x60 so it should take at least 100 tons of dry matter if I don't let the haylage dry out too much, probably closer to 120 tons. Now I'm debating whether or not I should do corn silage in the other silo for the winter, the problem is, that silo is only 14x55 and I'm not sure how to get 18 acres of corn silage to fit into there. That silo will only really hold about 50 tons of dry matter and corn silage tends to yield about twice that off of 18 acres."

Sarah just laid there wide eyed, she was a little overwhelmed by how much knowledge he had just bombarded her with.

"Are you still awake down there?" He asked.

"Yeah." She replied, still lost but not wanting to bombard him with questions at the moment.

"Ok" He replied with a chuckle. "I thought maybe I'd put you to sleep."

She smiled, knowing that he could barely see her face. "Nope I'm still listening," she admitted, "just not understanding much."

"Understandable." Chase agreed. "I can keep my mouth shut if it bugs you."

"Don't worry about it. Talk away." She told him. For a while she laid there listening to him ramble on about topics she barely understood, ranging from animal nutrition to cover crops to soil health to different types of equipment and what they were used for.

After a length of time, she had no clue how long it had been exactly, the two of them laid there in silence while Sarah tried to make sense of everything she had just heard. For the most part all she could remember is that Chase wasn't sure how he'd get 18 acres of corn to fit into his silo, he was planning to split 90 acres into five 18 acre fields. She learned that a cover crops can be used to protect soil among other things, and that Chase was trying to pinpoint exactly which cover crops he was going to use. She also had learned that a forage harvester was used to chop up the whole plant for silage instead of just harvesting the grain off of it, which is what a combine does. She also learned that a cow's stomach has four parts and that cattle can actually digest cellulose which is why they can eat grass and other animals like humans can't.

After a few more minutes of lying there, Chase finally broke the silence. "Sarah," he said, "you seem comfortable so I hate to make you get up, but I need to use the bathroom."

"Aww." She said in a fake pouty voice. She smiled up at him to get his reaction and caught him rolling his eyes. "It's fine I probably should get up and move around a little anyways." She admitted.

Chase chuckled in response. "Thanks." He said. She proceeded to get off of him, making sure she didn't put weight on his shoulder this time. Chase got up after her and disappeared towards the bathroom. At that point, she decided to check her phone and found out that it was already 11:30. That realization instantly made her aware of the fact that she was a little hungry. She decided to wait until Chase returned from the bathroom to ask about that.

In the meantime, she took a few moments to stretch a bit and to think about exactly what she wanted to eat for lunch. Not that she had any clue what Chase had around for her to work with. Maybe all he had around was frozen food or stuff for the microwave. Part of her wanted to actually cook something for him as a thank you for letting her stay with him.

Just about then, Chase returned from his visit to the bathroom. "I don't know about you," he said as she turned to face him, "but I'm ready for lunch."

She smiled in response, "I was just thinking that. I didn't realize it was already 11:30."

"Yeah, me too." He agreed. "I'm probably just gonna make a PB&J and get an apple or something. Feel free to explore the pantry and see what you want."

"Is it alright if I cook something?" She asked, a bit sheepish.

Chase stood there looking at her as if he was trying to process what she'd just told him. A smile slowly spread across his face before he responded. "Depends," he said, "do I get some?"

She looked at the cheeky grin that was now on his face and couldn't keep herself from giggling. "Well since you were nice enough to let me stay here..." she began, "I suppose I can make you some." A cheeky smile of her own appeared on her face.

"Well, be my guest then." He responded, gesturing towards his kitchen. "Besides," he added as she was about to turn around, "if the rest of your cooking is as good as that pie you gave me after Thanksgiving, it's probably better than anything I've ever made."

Sarah felt herself blush at the compliment. It was nice to get a compliment on her cooking from someone other than her mom. She really did enjoy cooking, but she missed having someone besides herself to cook for. She also internally smirked at herself. She had fallen hard enough for this guy that she was excited to cook for him. Regardless, she wasn't going to get to make anything if she didn't get started.

"Anything in the pantry or in the fridge is fair game." He told her, answering the question she was about to ask. She nodded and immediately started looking to see what she could find. She managed to find everything she needed to make spaghetti, something semi-easy for her to make. She did want to find a vegetable of some kind to make with it. Unfortunately, she wasn't having much luck and only managed to find some frozen broccoli.

"Hmm." She thought.

"What do you need?" Chase asked, apparently she had been thinking out loud.

"I was gonna make a vegetable, but I don't really want to make broccoli." She answered, still half thinking out loud.

"I've got canned green beans downstairs," Chase responded, "will those work?"

Sarah's mind immediately jumped to taking those canned beans and melting a little bit of butter adding a bit of salt and pepper with some lemon juice. "Yeah that'll work." She replied.

"Alright." Chase said as he got up and made his way through the kitchen and downstairs. Sarah continued gathering everything she needed to cook everything. She grabbed a pot for the spaghetti and a smaller one for the sauce and meatballs. She figured she would just microwave the beans in a bowl. After she had started the sauce, Chase returned to the kitchen with the green beans, except Sarah was a bit surprised at what she saw. She had always seen canned green beans in a can, and yet Chase had brought up two glass jars.

"What?" He asked, noticing her looking at the jars he was holding.

"I've never seen canned beans like that." She replied.

"You've never seen canned beans in a mason jar?" He responded, a bit of surprise evident in his voice.

"Nope." Sarah admitted.

"Oh you'd better believe you're gonna learn how to do that this summer." He told her, cracking a smile. "My grandma loves canning things. Hell, she made me bring these when I moved out here."

Sarah smiled in response before returning to what she was doing. Chase set the jars on the counter and returned to the living room where she could see that he was doing something on his phone and scribbling something down.

Before long, she had the meatballs and spaghetti both on and was ready to start the beans. She walked over to the jars of beans and grabbed a bowl to microwave them in. As she looked at them, she realized that they didn't open like a normal jar, the lids were too thin to even have threads. She looked at it for a bit trying to figure out what she was looking at.

"You really haven't seen one of those before, have you?" Chase asked, having somehow made it into the kitchen without her noticing.

After recovering from the scare he accidentally gave her, she shook her head in response.

"Here." He said, holding out his hand. She gave him the jar she was holding and he took it and pulled the lid off. "These lids are kept on by the air pressure around them and they aren't reusable if used that way so there's no real need to be gentle. If you have to bend it to get it off it's really not the end of the word." He gave her the opened jar and threw away the lid. She emptied the jar into a bowl and put it in the sink. Then, she grabbed the other jar and tried to pull the lid off. She couldn't pull it straight of so she tried to "peel" it off. That worked and she had to admit she was prouder of herself than she probably should have been considering she had just opened a jar. Regardless, she emptied the second jar into the bowl and put the jar in the sink and the lid in the trash. She then took the bowl of beans and put them in the microwave and started warming them up.

As she turned away from the microwave, she caught a look at Chase standing in the dining room watching her. She felt herself get a little flustered, which wasn't helped when he smiled gently and shook his head a bit. "What?" She asked, both her nerves and her defensiveness were obvious in her tone.

Chase's smile widened. "I just find it interesting to watch you. I can cook simple things or follow a recipe, but you're multitasking way better than I can when I try to cook."

Sarah felt herself blush again. "God my nerves are getting the best of me," she thought to herself, "and I'm stuck here the rest of the day at least." She smiled sheepishly and returned to the task at hand. At least she was doing something she enjoyed. Plus it would give her time to think about how she was going to handle her own impulses for the rest of the day.

The rest of her meal preparation went off without a hitch and before long she'd managed to get everything cooked and ready to serve. She turned to ask Chase where his plates were, only find that he was two steps ahead of her and had gotten everything out that they'd need. "What do you want to drink?" He asked, heading for the fridge.

"I'll just get some water." She replied.

"Alright." Was his response. He grabbed a gallon of milk and poured himself a glass and also grabbed her some ice. As he did that, she served them both plates and moved them to the table.

"I really should thank you." Chase said as he sat down to eat. "You know you didn't have to do this right?"

"You're welcome. I think I owed you something for coming to get me this morning. Besides, I asked you if I could cook something for you anyway." She responded.

"You don't owe me anything," he countered, "I wasn't about to let you freeze over there. That house probably needs checked for a draft or needs new insulation if it got that cold that fast."

Sarah looked at him and thought about what he'd just said. "I'll have to talk to my grandma about that." She said.

"Probably a good idea." Chase told her. "Bad insulation costs you money on your heating bill."

Sarah nodded in agreement before returning her attention to eating. She had done a pretty good job with everything and the two of them both sat mostly quietly, barring a bit of small talk.

"Well, that was pretty good." Chase told her once they'd finished eating.

"Thanks." Sarah replied, smiling at the compliment. She started putting the dishes in the sink while Chase put away the leftovers.

"I'll deal with the dishes later." He told her as he added the empty cookware to the sink.

Sarah nodded in agreement and returned to the living room and sat down, wondering exactly what she was going to do for the rest of the day stuck with her crush. "Hopefully he doesn't end up hating me after this." She thought to herself.