"… So I ended up having to walk backwards most of the way dangling the cow treat in front of her nose. I got a few laughs from some people, but the way I see it, I brightened someone's day a bit."

Claire giggled, imagining the farmer pulling along his stubborn cow. She realized it must have been quite trying on anyone's patience, but she had a hard time picturing someone like Pete getting flustered at all. "I would have liked to see that."

"Well, I gotta make the trip back tonight, so you can feel free to see me off. Hopefully she will be more eager to head home – I'd like to go to bed before it gets too late, you know?"

She gave Pete an emphatic nod. Claire had never placed much importance on going to bed early until she started running Mystic Acres. A physically demanding job required sleep not only for a fresh mind, but as a chance for her body to repair itself. When she didn't get enough sleep, her sore muscles let her know it. A smile crept across her face. "Oh, by the way, I don't have a full report on Mystic Acres for your reading pleasure, but I suppose I can give an oral report."

"Huh?" Pete removed his work gloves and let out a small laugh.

Of course he wouldn't have remembered that he wanted to hear all about her farm after they first met on Beach Day; perhaps he was trying to be polite at the time. "You said that you expected a report from me," she reminded him with a shy chuckle.

A flicker of recognition flashed across his large brown eyes and he let out a good-natured laugh. "Sorry about spacing out! You're right, I did ask for that!"

"It's okay!" she insisted, wringing her hands. The last thing she wanted to do was make him feel uncomfortable; their interactions had felt so natural up until now. "I know you have other things to think about, Mr. Swag," she said with an understanding nod.

Pete laughed so hard he snorted. "M-My last name is not Swag, Miss Dumont," he clutched his sides and caught his breath. "Hoooh… Sorry about that…" The young man cleared his throat and stood upright. "My name is Pete Hayson, but please, just call me Pete. No need to be so formal around me."

"But I thought…" Claire looked at him curiously. "So… does Swag have a special meaning?"

"Yeah, it means 'the goods'! All swag from Swag Farm come in a crate stamped with a great big S-W-A-G!" His cheeks flushed slightly as he kicked at the ground. He took off his hat and waved it at his warm face; it always embarrassed him to have to explain the name aloud. "Ah…" Pete lowered his voice. "You ever think you have a really good idea when you're a teenager and then realize once the papers are signed, you're stuck with it?"

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped a bit. "Oh."

"No real harm done, though, right?" he laughed it off, returning the cap to his head. "Besides, it's kinda grown on me."

"Well, Moolah did really well," Claire gave him a nod.

He seemed flattered that she had remembered his cow's name. He chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks, she's the best."

A smirk played at her lips. "I do have to say though… her name is a pretty weak pun."

Pete shrugged and gave her a smug look. "What else am I supposed to name my cash cow?"

Claire laughed a lot harder than she meant to; she had a feeling Pete and Cliff should get together sometime and share jokes.

"All this talk about cows is making me hungry for beef. I know Kai sells beef franks at his shack. Wanna get a corndog?"

She wasn't sure whether to be amused or horrified. "Uh, sure!" Claire grinned, deciding that the young man was quite humorous.

0o0o0o0

Claire had only seen Kai's Beach Shack this busy during Beach Day. There wasn't a line, but all of the tables were full and the proprietor was scurrying around behind the counter, wrapping up cobs of roasted corn with foil in one fluid motion.

"Heyo!" Pete called out when they approached the cash register. Claire was surprised at his air of familiarity around Mineral Town despite not being a resident. She felt a slight wave of jealousy for his ability to fit in so easily with those around him – it was something that did not come natural to her. She began to wonder, however, if she had improved a little bit with getting along with others. After all, she was able to connect to people on a much deeper level than she had been able to in the city. Perhaps she had changed more than she realized…

"Ah, business is crazy today!" Kai handed Claire her corndog, startling her out of her reverie. She accepted the food with a slight twinge of embarrassment; she hadn't even heard Pete place the order and she forgot to offer to pay for her own. "With the Cow Festival competitors, it's been nonstop! I'm raking in the cash, though, so I'm not about to complain." He flipped a few pieces of chicken on his grill as the two farmers stepped out of the queue and off to the side. "The inn's packed, though. Doug kicked us boarders out of our own room for the night and all of us have to bunk in his bedroom while he shares with Ann. I guess I'm not the only one that will be making a lot of money today. Even all of the cots and roll up beds are taken."

Apparently one corndog meant three to Pete. She watched in amazement as he expertly accepted the wooden sticks between his fingers to keep from dropping his food. "Ah, Doug's… It's been a few years since I've even been there. How are things going?"

Kai bobbed his head to the reggae music playing in the background. "Good, good. Can't complain. Made a new friend, and looks like business is going well for Doug. They have more guests than ever. I've never seen this many for a festival."

Claire gave him a sympathetic smile. "It's going to be crowded with the three of you guys, huh? How will you determine who gets the bed?"

Kai shrugged. "Maybe I'll challenge them to another swimming contest."

"Or maybe all of you could squeeze in together," Pete joined in, taking a huge bite from one of his corndogs.

The cook laughed. "Highly doubtful. I think Gray would rather die than be caught sharing anything, let alone a bed. The guy values his personal space like you wouldn't believe."

Claire found that she was laughing along with the two men, her heart feeling light. They waved goodbye to him and headed outside with their snacks.

She immediately remembered her manners. "Thanks so much for the food!" She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten a corndog. "Again, you didn't have to do that, but I greatly appreciate it."

"No prob," Pete flashed her a grin as he twirled his first empty stick in his fingers and started on his second. "If you're up for it, I'd be happy to take a look at your farm."

She couldn't help but feel like some sort of judgment was awaiting her once they arrived there. Nonetheless, she nodded her head and they began to make their way there. Claire took a bite from her food. The cornbread batter was very crispy but still quite hot; she covered her mouth with the paper napkin to conceal the fact that she was chewing with her mouth open in an effort to cool down. She swallowed her hot food and let out an embarrassed chuckle. "A little hot, huh?"

"Ah, yeah." Pete exhaled deeply and Claire noticed with surprise that he had already eaten through half of his.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, and Pete quickly downed his remaining food while Claire slowly ate hers. He deposited his empty sticks as they passed a garbage can on the way to Mystic Acres. "So, we get the Mineral Gazette over in the Valley," Pete rubbed the back of his neck and gave her an uncharacteristically shy smile. "I read the article about your farm."

She vaguely remembered getting a photo taken with Mayor Thomas shortly after dealing him a swift blow to the head – the man even wore a bandage for the portrait. Her face flushed with embarrassment. "I never read the article," she admitted. In fact, when she had seen a copy of the paper in her mailbox, she had been so upset at the reminder of being swindled out of her money that the newspaper had gone straight to her trash can.

"Oh, it was just a short blurb," he nodded, his cheeks turning a bright pink. "They did a fine job. The photo looked nice."

"Uh, thanks…" She wasn't quite sure how to reply. After looking at his face, she wondered what things they could have possibly said. "I'm just glad that the overgrown weeds didn't make the front page. I hope they didn't make me sound like an idiot… CLUELESS CITY GIRL MAKES IMPULSE PURCHASE!" she pretended to read her fake headline in a mocking voice. Claire's eyes widened as she clamped her free hand over her mouth, startled at her tasteless joke. It was one thing to make comments like this when she was around Karen…

A small frown crossed Pete's lips, but he didn't have a judgmental look on his face. "Do you regret becoming a farmer?"

Claire looked at him honestly, the flush fading from her face. "I was scared at first… But, I don't regret any of it now. I know I've got a lot to learn and a long way to go. I'm… a farmer now." A bright smile found its way on her mouth.

His frown was replaced with a gleeful grin. "You're a what now? I didn't hear you." He playfully cupped a hand to his ear.

"I'm a farmer!" Claire yelled a little too loudly. Her exclamation scared a few birds out of the trees as they walked past, laughing together. That was what she was now, she realized with surprise. She wasn't digging in a patch of dirt to plant flowers; she wasn't nursing a few sickly herb plants on her windowsill… Claire was providing food for the people of Mineral Town and the surrounding area. She felt proud and powerful. The young woman grinned until her cheeks hurt.

"That's the spirit," Pete cheered her on as they entered the gates to her farm. He watched Claire carefully wipe her lips with her napkin and felt his face get warm. She really was even cuter than the photo in the newspaper…

They reached the farm and Pete's face dropped. "Oh, Claire…" His eyes scanned the fields and he looked back at her sympathetically. "What have you gotten yourself into, girl?" The slight twang in his voice sounded a bit exaggerated in his surprise. He let out a small laugh for good measure, but his initial shock wasn't lost on her.

Claire's heart sunk as she looked out at her plots of corn and tomatoes. "I-Is it that bad?"

He put a warm hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound that way! It's just… wow…" Pete wandered into her fields and looked at the rows and rows of plants heavy with ripe tomatoes. "Have you considered hiring help for harvesting your crops?"

She wasn't about to admit she didn't exactly have the funds to pay someone to work on her property. Not only that, but this was her farm – it was her responsibility to make sure all of the work got done. She had spent much of the past couple of cool evenings working well into the night to gather ripe tomatoes, but they were growing faster than she could harvest them. The dread in the pit of her stomach continued to grow. The first crop of corn had already been harvested, but according to Popuri, corn had a peak season coming up very soon. Seeing her stalks heavily loaded, Claire knew that they would be ready any day now and she hadn't really given much thought to what she was going to do when it really needed to be harvested.

Claire considered asking Pete what he did. From the sound of it, his property was larger than hers and he was producing much more. Her eyes moved to the young man and he was staring out at her crops in awe, slightly shaking his head. Her gaze shifted to the soil as her face burned in shame. He was simply too polite to say what Won had told her yesterday – she had screwed up badly.

"There's no shame in asking for help," his voice was gentle as he turned back around, stuffing his hands into his overall pockets. He paused, carefully choosing his words. "You should… ask Carter about some extra sets of hands for around your farm. He would be able to find someone for you."

It was likely the priest would attempt to round up some volunteers. Claire bit her lip. She couldn't think of anyone around town that had any free time, and once again, she didn't have the spare money to pay anyone – all of her savings were being hoarded for getting a kitchen installed in her house. As a matter of fact, she planned on having the renovations done shortly after fall started. With cooler weather coming, the necessity for her to have a place to prepare food in comfort was becoming more and more urgent. "Uh, sure… I'll keep that in mind," she tried to sound more enthusiastic than she really was.

He could see that she was disheartened a bit. "Hey, it's okay." He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You can't expect to get everything right on the first try…" He snuck a glance at the young woman and could see that her eyes were very shiny and she was blinking rapidly. "Hey, Claire."

She refused to look up at him. She would not cry in front of him. Claire battled with the lump in her throat, her face blazing with embarrassment. She tried to think of something to say to diffuse the awkwardness she had created, but her vocal cords refused to cooperate. Why was socializing with others suddenly so difficult again? What had caused the change?

"No one is a pro when they start out," Pete continued, rubbing her shoulder. "Heck, I planted my first batch of seeds so deep that they decomposed in the ground. I hardly had any produce that first spring." He let out a laugh at the memory. "But, hey, you move on and you learn." He continued to massage her shoulder and Claire let out a small sigh, comforted by his words and his touch. "So, maybe next season you stagger your crops and don't plant so many. Better to have too much than not enough, right?"

Claire relaxed, her shoulders turning to jelly as her head rolled forward with a nod. Pete gave her a grin. She was the kind of woman that was beautiful without realizing it, and she didn't have to put any effort forth for it. Her shoulders were incredibly tight – she had knots from the hard work she did on her farm. There was something very sweet and endearing about her, but she was also tough. He looked out at her fields. So she went overboard – he couldn't say that she wasn't a hard worker and had ambitions. Perhaps she was just the kind of woman he had been looking for.

"I didn't have much when I first moved here," Claire confessed. As her eyes traveled to her small farmhouse, she realized that she still didn't own many things. If she were still living in the city, she would have seen herself as poor. Claire's stomach turned as she wondered what her parents would think about her meager savings and her tiny, shabby house that could be mistaken for a shed. "The house had basic furnishings, but it came with not much more than the clothes on my back. It's so different here than in the city. You start to think about what's really important, you know?"

Pete removed his hands from her and was watching her curiously. He took off his cap and tossed it back and forth between his hands before speaking. "What caused you to make such a drastic change in your life, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I needed out," Claire admitted with a sad smile. It didn't hurt quite as much to say now that she had been thinking more openly about it after discussing it with Cliff. "I needed change. I felt like everyone was making decisions about my life but me. I was alive, but not really living…" Her face flushed at her final line, embarrassed she had said something that could be interpreted as corny.

Pete didn't immediately reply, and her face felt warmer. She wrung her hands and looked down at them, unsure of what to say.

"Well… I think that's very brave and shows that you have a strong will." He gave her a friendly grin. "I think… you're, ah, I mean, I think that's amazing." Color began to creep up his face but he laughed it off.

"You're very kind." A warm smile adorned her face and he chuckled a little too loudly in response, returning his cap to his head and accidentally putting it on properly with the bill facing forward. He quickly flipped it around.

"You should come to the Valley sometime. I can show you my farm and take you around to see the sights. Not that it's a huge city or anything – mostly farm country really… But we could stop at Ruby's for dinner and get drinks afterward."

Claire vaguely wondered if he was asking her on a date, but she shrugged it off. Pete was just a friendly person, and the people out here in the country were much chummier than those in the city. "Sure, sounds fun. I'm always eager to hear more farming tips from a pro."

Pete laughed heartily. "You make me sound more impressive than I really am. Besides, I don't want you to only see me as a farming resource. I want you to see us as equals – as friends."

She gave him a warm smile and her heart leapt at the fact that he was genuinely interested in her as a human being. Again, she was reminded how different life was out here. "Alright. I'm glad to be your friend!"

He ruffled her blonde hair, a huge smile spreading across his mouth. "That's more like it!" They walked across her farm and he spied a basket sitting in the grass. "Hey, whatcha got in here?"

Claire followed Pete to the container near her shipping bin. It was stuffed with bundles of herbs and burdock roots. Her face lit up as she opened the folded note tucked into the top parcel. "Ah, today's goods! Or should I say swag?"

The young man gave her an amused grin as she read the note to herself.

Burdock x 8

Mint x 12

Wild Blueberries – 3 packs

The inn's crowded with festival guests, and Doug's making us guys all bunk in his room tonight while he stays with Ann. There's only one twin bed in this room. You think I should suggest a fishing contest and the losers have to sleep on the floor? That bed looks a lot more comfortable than what we have upstairs.

Yours,
Cliff

She let out a delighted laugh. "Oh, I let my friend ship stuff in my bin. Looks like he was busy today."

Pete eyed up the bundles curiously. The distinctive knotting on the packages looked so familiar… "You keep a percentage for yourself?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, come on! You're as bad as Karen," she teased, giving him a playful shove. Her eyes flicked back to the note.

Pete couldn't help but notice that her gaze had lingered toward the bottom of the paper and a shy smile played at her lips as her cheeks blossomed with color. She wrapped a lock of hair around her finger as she read. "He write you something unseemly?" he asked with a smirk.

Claire shook her head, getting hair in her mouth. The way he had signed the note threw her off guard and her heart was hammering in her chest. I'm yours, Claire. She could almost hear his folksy whisper echo in her head, and her heart leapt into her throat. She swiftly attempted to shake it off as she folded the piece of paper back up and stuffed it into her pocket. "Yours" was a common way to close a letter, and it was no implication that it meant anything other than a friendly gesture. Still, he had never signed it that way before… Claire's face burned as she patted her pocket. "It was just a list of things he had shipped and a silly little note."

Pete gave her a civil nod, his smile dropping a bit. He had seen the eyes she made at that slip of paper, and he was familiar with her expressions as she read. It had been too good to be true, he realized. Whether she was genuinely aware of it or not, her heart already belonged to someone else. "Hey, why don't you give me a basic tour of your fields and I can give you some pointers for next season?"

Claire felt a wave of relief. "I'd really like that." As she led the way out to her tomato plants, she decided that she would apologize to Rick and Popuri for her behavior earlier. She wanted to be more like Pete – a ray of sunlight in everyone's day. She had a feeling that his presence was a source of happiness for people in Forget-Me-Not Valley and she wanted to be the same for those living in Mineral Town.

She was a farmer, after all, and her job was to take care of them. A well of pride rose in her heart.

0o0o0o0

Author's Note: Wow, seriously, thank you all for all of the feedback for the last chapter. I'm going through a few personal things right now and seeing all the support for this story really brings a smile to my face. I'm so glad y'all enjoyed the cameo parade. This chapter was originally going to be included in with it, but I felt like it was already getting pretty long as it was. I feel like all too often, Harvest Moon fanfic writers seem to forget that the farmer characters are, well, farmers. I want Claire's identity as a farmer to be a theme throughout the entire story. I also was craving some interaction between a couple of the farmer characters. Hope you enjoy!

P.S. My husband has a file in HMDS and named it Swag Farm as a joke, hence the silly name for Pete's farm.