- 14 -

                                    

                                          
Jo chews on her lip anxiously as she pulls up to her childhood home. "Hey baby." Lucy says as she watches her second born make her way up the porch steps. "What brings you home?" 
                          
"Just missed y'all." She answers, sitting next to her on the porch swing. "Haven't been home in a while." 
                          
"I'm sorry we didn't make it to your graduation. We couldn't get the time off." 
                          
"It's no worries, Mama." She sighs heavily. "Where's Lip and Daddy?" 
                          
"Lip is workin' out on Stemaly's farm and your daddy is at the shop." 
                          
"You ever hear from Sean?" Jo asks as she stands. 
                          
"Through Lip." She shrugs back. "Why?" 
                          
"I just need to, uh, talk to him." 
                          
"He's probably down on the farm." 
                          
Jo nods and heads into the house to clean herself up before going to see her ex boyfriend. 
                          
   
                          
Her red dress swishes around her thighs as she makes her way through the fields to the skid loader. She fixes her white, wide brimmed hat as she steps through piles of dirt. 
                          
Josephine appears next to the latched door of the machine and waves at her ex. 
                          
Sean gets out of the skid loader and gives her a look. "What're you doin' here?"
                          
"Is it a crime to stop by and say hey?"
                          
"After your boyfriend beat the shit outta me, yeah, it is." 
                          
"Sean..." Jo says, her hands resting on his dirty, sweaty cut off t-shirt. "I'm sorry that happened to you." Her hands slide to the sides of his face. Sean's dirty ones rest on her hips, his bottom lip tucked between his teeth as he looks her over. 
                          
She hums. "What time're you done workin'?" 
                          
"Prolly six." He shrugs. "Why?" 
                          
"We should do a bonfire." 
                          
"Sure. I'll stop by later." He nods, using his arm to wipe off his forehead. "You look good, Jo." 
                          
She looks him over, her eyes on his dirty, tattooed biceps. "You do too."
                          
   
                          
Sean decided to swing by Jo's for the bonfire. She's invited a few friends they grew up with to help keep her mind off Riley but his incessant phone calls and texts keep him front and center. 
                          
"Hey!" Jo says, hopping out of her lawn chair when she sees Sean in his blue jeans and a t-shirt that's tight across his chest and arms, a thirty rack in his hand. 
                          
"Hey." He nods back, dropping the beer on the picnic table. 
                          
He sits in the chair next to her and pops the tab on a Busch Light. "You gotta catch up to me, Sean Deere. I've got three in me already." 
                          
He laughs as he takes a few gulps from the can in his hand. 
                          
At this moment in time, it's just Sean and Jo. She's left her phone inside on her bed to take a break from Riley reaching out to her. 
                          
She laughs at something he says, her head starting to feel heavy from the alcohol in her belly.  
                          
Jo shutters as the temperature drops, pulling her hands into her sweatshirt sleeves. Sean holds an arm out as an invitation for her to sit on his lap and she does. 
                          
She curls up in his embrace, her head on his shoulder as he rests a hand on her hip, his other arm around her tightly. 
                          
"Why're you home?"