Chapter 16: Hayloft

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Once the Machens, Reyna, and I finish our dinner, Ramona sings with her father while he washes the dishes as Toni begins to check on us

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Once the Machens, Reyna, and I finish our dinner, Ramona sings with her father while he washes the dishes as Toni begins to check on us.

"Who would like to go first?" Toni asks.

"Kit." Reyna answers just as I say, "Esmerelda."

"Ladies first." Toni kneels beside Reyna as the supersoldier takes a seat in the living room. "Where does it hurt, Esmerelda?"

"Nowhere." Reyna says politely. "I'm fine.

I furrow my brow. "Don't you have a flesh wound on your shoulder?"

Reyna gives me a threatening glare, which shrivels up my insides. "For the sake of Kit's concern, you may check my shoulder."

The supersoldier removes the right sleeve of her jacket, revealing a fully healed shoulder. Antonia inspects the shoulder and stretches it, testing for further muscle damage or tightness.

"Her shoulder's fine, Kit." Antonia verifies. "And what about you?"

When my gaping mouth doesn't close, Reyna answers for me with a smirk. "He has a flesh wound in his left thigh."

This time, Toni stretches my leg, circling it and bending it so I don't limp as much.

"I'm not even going to ask you two kids where you got such injuries." Antonia mutters under her breath as she finishes up with me. "Errol, Ramona, and I would love to give you a tour of our farm, Esmerelda, but we are quite tired and Ramona only knows 'yes', 'no', 'papa' and 'mama'. I'm sure with Kit's healing leg, he'd love to show you around."

"Only if Kit doesn't mind." Reyna says.

"I don't mind." I answer.

Antonia claps her hands together. "Wonderful! When you are done, you may sleep in our guest bedroom upstairs." She leans and whispers something to Reyna, who looks at me and smirks. What could Toni possibly be whispering about? If it's because I don't sleep in the guest bedroom-

"Kit?" Reyna asks. "You okay? You seem out of it."

I shake my head. "Nah, I'm fine. Come on, the sun's going down."

I open the back door for Reyna and she steps through, gasping at the sight of the field. The sun's golden rays cast its light, giving life to the crops. I show her Errol's prize-winning crops as she admires each in awe, touching the bark of an olive tree and running her hands through the grains of oat.

"So much life," she whispers, "so many colors."

I guided her to the last exhibit. "This is Errol's honeycrisp apple orchard. This orchard helped him win many apple pie and apple juice contests." I look at Reyna, but I don't think she's listening anymore. Instead, she stares at the sunlight streaming through the branches and the gleaming red apples waiting to fall from their respective place on the branch. Meanwhile, I take the time to really look at her. The sun illuminates her brown skin, accentuating her toned muscles and pale scars earned from battle. But her eyes, no matter how dark, sparkled brighter than the sun.

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