Page 24 of Apple of My Eye

‘To the Fall Festival!’ Evan announces excitedly. We clink glasses.

‘Evan,’ Mom says as we lower our glasses, ‘when will Eloise introduce you to our new neighbor?’

‘He’s not exactly a neighbor,’ I grumble.

Evan perks up. ‘Nick?’

Mom’s face splits into a grin.

‘Guys,’ I protest. I feel my cheeks reddening. ‘I’m sure Evan will meet Nick tomorrow.’

Mom ignores me. ‘You know they’ve been spending a lot of time together,’ she says to Evan. ‘Right, Cal?’ She nudges Dad, who has been staring off into the distance, clearly not listening.

‘Mhmm,’ he grunts.

She leans in closer to Evan like she’s about to tell him a secret. ‘You know he comes over every morning.’

‘He just needs to learn more about farming for his capstone thing. Can we change the subject?’

‘He seems to be doing an awful lot of work for it,’ Mom says. She turns to Evan. ‘Did Lou tell you how handsome he is?’

‘No!’ Evan exclaims. ‘Tell me someone has a picture.’

Mom pulls out her phone and starts typing, furrowing her brow at the screen.

‘Mom,’ I wail, ‘can we not? Dad, help me out here.’

Dad grunts non-committally again, exactly zero help.

Meanwhile Evan is practically sliding off his seat leaning closer to Mom.

‘Got it!’ she says triumphantly. She pulls up a grainy photo of Nick clearly taken off the Stanford webpage.

Despite the poor quality Nick looks like himself, which is to say, very cute.

‘Lou!’ Evan gasps loudly. ‘You did not say he was that cute.’

I can feel my face redden at the thought of how cute Nick is, and how not-cute Nick feels . I squirm. ‘When is dinner?’ I ask Mom, pointedly changing the subject.

‘Where has Nick been this week?’ Mom asks, ignoring my question. ‘I haven’t seen him around the past couple of days.’

‘He’s been working, Mom.’

‘Working on helping the Parkers?’ Evan supplies. But he emphasizes ‘the Parkers’ too heavily. Mom whips her head towards him. I glare.

‘So, you knew about this plan too?’ She shakes her head. ‘I don’t like scheming to steal from neighbors.’

‘It is not stealing, Mom. They’re going to go under.’

‘Does Nick know you feel this way?’

‘We’ve already talked about this,’ I grumble through clenched teeth.

‘Now that you say that,’ Dad jumps in, ‘Nick did come by yesterday.’

‘He did?’ Mom and I ask together.

‘Yeah. He was asking me how to fix the potholes in the Parkers’ driveway. Says Betsy keeps complaining about how they jostle her around so much she spills her coffee if she tries to leave the house in the morning.’

My heart swells. I shake my head to clear away any positive thoughts of Nick. I’ve already given Amie the green light. And it’s not even like Amie is the problem. The Nick ship has already sailed for San Francisco.

‘So, he’s an angel?’ Evan volunteers.

I’ve had enough of this conversation. Thankfully I know exactly what to do to change the subject.

‘Mom, what time do we have to leave?’ I ask.

‘I don’t want to forget to set my alarm.

’ Mom hates waking up her children, she claims it makes them lazy and grumpy.

Forgetting to set an alarm is not an option and is something she will always try to avoid.

‘Oh,’ she says, immediately pulling out her phone, ‘let’s do .?.?. five thirty?’

‘Works for me,’ I pretend to toggle my alarm—it was already on. ‘And what time do we need to finish setting up? That way Evan knows when to get there.’

Like clockwork, Mom launches into plans for the day.

Evan narrows his eyes at me. I smirk back at him as Mom outlines into our detailed schedule, starting with all she expects from booth setup and when she’s slated to drop off her pie.

All of the stalls that frequent the farmers’ market have a dedicated street during the Fall Festival.

Despite the harvest not coming in full yet, it is usually our second busiest day of the year behind the opening of U-Pick in late September.

I tried to explain that to Nick, how big of a deal it was, but I’m not sure if he understands.

He kept harping about his TikTok, how it would drive more people to come visit, but he didn’t seem to realize how many people already turn out at the festival.

I don’t know why he thinks a couple videos will make such a big difference.

Evan flops on my bed after dinner, tossing a paperweight apple I’ve had since I was little in one hand. He recites Mom’s plan. ‘So, tomorrow we do the farmers’ market stall in the morning, then we shower and go to the carnival?’ He smiles at me, pure glee on his face. ‘I love a carnival.’

I laugh. ‘You’ve only told me that ten times,’ I say, reaching over to give his arm a squeeze. ‘Thank you, seriously, for being here. I’m sorry we have to work. At least you don’t have to wake up super early tomorrow, I’ll get everything set up alone. You can come later with Dad.’

‘Alone?’ Evan asks, a devilish grin widening across his face. ‘Or maybe with .?.?. Nick?’

I narrow my eyes at him. ‘No,’ I correct him, ‘Nick will be setting up the Parkers’. And my mom will be there.’

Evan flips onto his stomach. ‘What is going on with Nick?’

‘Nothing.’

He raises his eyebrows at me.

‘Seriously. Nothing. Amie, a girl I went to high school with, she’s asking him out.’ I busy myself tidying up the clothes strewn about my room.

‘Mhmm, and how do you know that?’

‘She asked me.’

‘Wait, so you’re telling me nothing is going on, but someone asked you if they could ask Nick out? That doesn’t track.’

‘I said yes.’ I shrug my shoulders. ‘She can do whatever she wants.’

‘Have you told Nick about his admirer?’

‘No.’

‘Hmm.’

‘He’ll find out when she asks him.’

‘Yeah.’ Evan tosses the paperweight apple into the air and it lands in his hand with a thud. ‘Have you told him that you wanted to buy the Parkers’ land?’

‘No,’ I admit. I turn away, pretending to focus on putting my clothes in a drawer.

‘OK, so you aren’t going to go out with him because some random wants to date him or because you’ve purposely kept something pretty big from him?’

‘He’s also moving, Evan. You’ll see when you meet him, he’s just .?.?. he’s .?.?. he’s not my type.’

Evan snorts. ‘I don’t think someone I was lying to would be my type either, but OK.’

‘I’m not lying!’

‘You’re not being honest.’

‘I don’t have to tell him.’

‘Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,’ Evan cautions, abruptly halting his game of toss. His voice softens. ‘Your life can be bigger than this farm, you know.’ And with that, he gives me a loving hug and goes to bed, leaving me tossing and turning all night long.