22 caliber PPQ I had picked up. Mentally, I moved her up to being my preferred partner when we finally went ashore.That trip came sooner than I had ex...ected with the noon plot of the storm. It had turned further northeast and picked up another knot of speed. It was now far enough from its previous track that I considered turning north."Straight for New Orleans?" Samantha asked as I laid out the options. Changing course now would bring us a little north of our current track but we'd continue. "I'm just a little grumpy in the morning." That's like saying the Great Wall of China is just a little fence" Brian said with a straight face. "Or the Atlantic is a little pond." What is?" asked his mom as she walked in on them."Heather said she's just a little grumpy in the morning" Brian told her."Aw yes, and he's probably like his father, up and at them at the crack of dawn, working hard and he probably brings you your coffee with a smile and a cheerful good morning" his mother said to. He should not have let Rayne get so far under his skin. He was usually smarter than that, but PJ had been right when he said he thought Xavier had fallen a lot deeper and harder than he had intended. Xavier had told himself all this time, over and over, that it was temporary, not to get too comfortable, don’t expect too much, hell, don’t expect anything at all! All the while his head was staying smart though, his heart was betraying him like a total motherfucker. He’d never met anyone he felt. As soon as they could, all of them, in turn, left to go back East to college. The last I heard was that they had earned degrees and married and were never coming back. It was no great loss to me as we never shared any common interests or loves.I settled into my new role as manager of the farm. My father put me in charge after my last brother had left. I felt like a huge hole in my life had been filled. This is what I was meant to do. My father shared his knowledge of the farm business as I grew.