Page 30 of Apple of My Eye

Chapter Twenty-Three

Eloise

The Best Things About Fall on a Farm

– London fog lattes

– Seeing your breath in the morning

– The sun (and the roosters) rising a little later

– Golden turmeric chai lattes (in my opinion, this should be a year-round thing, but the coffee shop has always branded them as ‘their alternative to pumpkin spice’)

– Cardigans

– Home-made sticky toffee pudding cake

Every three years the Fall Festival coincides with a drop of about five degrees in the daily temperature, everyone starts to wear flannel, even the people that insist on wearing shorts in the winter, and Carnation truly comes alive.

There are yellow mums blooming in front door pots and garlands of dried orange daisies hanging from inside windows.

Rocking chairs are draped with thick blankets on front porches and chunky knit sweaters are unearthed from the back of the cabinet.

Every year Mom spends a whole day pulling out our fall wardrobes, which are home to an embarrassing amount of red sweaters and plaid scarves and way too many Anderson Farm- emblazoned beanies.

But when she does the closet switch, she also makes spritz cookies shaped like pumpkins and the smell takes over the whole house, filling us all up with the cozy fall joy.

This year the cookies smell just as good, but everything else feels a little less joyous.

It’s been six days since I last talked to Nick.

We have three weeks left before U-Pick season officially kicks off at the end of September.

Which means about a month until Nick leaves.

I convince myself the contraction in my gut when I think about him leaving is because I dread having to be around him until then, not because I don’t want him to leave.

I take refuge in the field to distract myself, putting in a longer day of work than I have in ages, especially for a Saturday.

I survey every single line of the orchard for misshapen apples—it’s critical they’re all removed so the trees can direct all their energy to growing the apples we can sell.

I lose track of time and end up rushing back in towards the house, hoping to squeeze in a hand or two of gin rummy before dinner.

The sun is almost completely set when I head home, the fields rolling endlessly into a dark haze of twilight.

‘Eloise?’ I hear a familiar voice ring out.

I freeze. I’m right at the part of the path where it splits, one direction heading towards the Parkers’.

I know that voice. I look around but I can’t make out anything in my rapidly darkening surroundings.

It’s dark enough that he may not have seen me, but eventually the outside lights will click on, the ones that stay on for thirty minutes to help guide workers out of the field when it’s dark.

If I can hide before the lights turn on, then maybe I can avoid him.

I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. I duck behind a tree.

I wait a minute, then two, before I decide the coast is clear. Nick doesn’t call out for me again. I stand up and start striding towards the house when the lights blaze on, bathing the whole field in fluorescent white light.

Nick is standing on the opposite hillside. A black-haired woman stands at his side. My stomach drops right as he waves hello.

‘Hi,’ he says, his voice friendly but his gait hesitant, not the usual sloping, confident walk that I’m used to. ‘I wasn’t sure if that was you.’

‘Hi.’ I muster up enough decency to wave, approaching them slowly. I’m opening my mouth to apologize to them, to tell them that I’m so sorry but I need to head inside for dinner, but Nick speaks before I can get a word out.

‘This is Anna,’ he says with a sweeping gesture as a cheery-faced woman steps forward. ‘She won our “Day on the Farm” competition. I was just showing her what it looks like at night.’

‘Over two thousand people applied,’ Anna gushes.

‘That’s great,’ I say dumbly. My mind wanders, wondering how on earth this woman manages to look so good under fluorescent lighting.

I am all too aware of how I look after a day of hard work—my face flushed, dried sweat around my temple, frizzing hair and dirt caked under my fingernails.

I never used to care about this around Nick , I realize with a sinking feeling.

He used to make me feel sexy no matter what.

The fact that I worked hard was sexy, my untamable hair was sexy, sweat was sexy.

I make the mistake of glancing at her manicured nails, which are perfectly square and pale pink.

She seems nice enough, launching into chatter about how good her day has been and how excited she is for Mrs. Parker’s cooking after the lunch they had.

I reach to a nearby tree and pluck an apple. ‘Have you tried one from Andersons’ farm yet?’ I ask her. ‘They’re the best.’

Nick narrows his eyes at me. ‘I wouldn’t say that,’ he counters. But Anna is already happily reaching out to take the apple. ‘Mmm,’ she says, as she takes a satisfyingly crunchy bite, ‘this is amazing.’

‘You have to be careful at the Parker farm,’ I confide in a faux whisper, ‘there are some rotten apples over there.’

Nick forces out a laugh. ‘Very funny, Eloise.’ His forced smile wavers, the corners of his mouth pulling down slightly. ‘I guess we can let you get home.’

I stare at Nick a beat too long, wondering how we got from the laundry room to here, this feeling of insurmountable distance when there’s only a few feet between us.

Anna protests, gently swatting at Nick’s arm. ‘I’d love to talk to a female farmer. I haven’t seen one all day!’ she exclaims. ‘Well, unless you need to get home?’

I notice with a little flare of satisfaction the way Nick steps back from Anna ever so slightly, putting distance between them.

‘Oh, that’s all right, you’re not keeping me,’ I reply, warming up to her as my jealousy subsides. ‘How long are you in town?’

‘Just until tomorrow. Then I head back to Seattle.’

‘You live there?’ It seems like Anna and Nick are more familiar than having met this morning, but that’s the thing about Nick—he can really put people at ease. I wouldn’t put it past him if he did in fact only meet Anna hours ago and he’s already bewitched her.

‘I actually live in San Francisco, but I’m doing my capstone project in Seattle.’

Oh. ‘Capstone? So you go to school with Nick?’

There’s a flash of confusion across Anna’s features, like she’s surprised Nick hadn’t filled me in on that, but she brushes past it, confirming pleasantly that she does go to school with Nick.

‘How are you liking your capstone?’ I ask her.

‘It’s great. But compared to this, it’s pretty boring. Not all of us are saving the world like Nick here.’

I raise my eyebrows at Nick, who at least has the decency to look sheepish. ‘I never said that. Anna, why don’t you tell Eloise what happened with the pigs today.’

Anna leans forward like she’s confiding a great secret to me and explains, through cackles of laughter, that when Nick brought her to meet the pigs Daisy got so possessive she headbutted Anna’s shins and Anna fell into the slop of the pigsty.

She gestures to her outfit, which now that I take a better look at, is definitely Mrs. Parker’s clothes.

I can’t help but laugh at her own ability to laugh at herself, and I catch Nick’s expression relaxing just a bit.

‘I was just showing her how fast the stars come out,’ Nick explains, ‘we didn’t mean to bother you.’

‘Why don’t we walk you home?’ Anna says happily.

‘Your house is just over this way, right? That way you can get to dinner and tell me what it’s like being one of the only women out here.

That’s something I’m working on this summer actually, the impact the #MeToo movement has had on women in male workspaces. ’

‘That’s so cool that you’re doing that. I wish I had more to say, but I’ve done this all my life, so I don’t notice it too much, that I’m the only woman out here .?.?. that’s not a very helpful answer is it?’

Anna smiles warmly. ‘It’s a data point that you don’t notice, so it’s for sure helpful! Does your mom farm too?’

‘She used to. She threw her back out a while ago and had to stop doing heavy labor. I think she really misses it.’

‘And will you do this as your career?’

‘Probably,’ I say, ‘I’m born and raised here. It feels like I should take up the mantle. Enough about me, I’d love to hear more about your internship, Anna. It sounds so interesting!’

‘You should be in a lab, not out here,’ Nick interjects before Anna can answer.

‘Excuse me?’ I say. ‘Where I work is not your decision to make. Especially not when you clearly should be behind a computer screen.’

‘Yeah, jeez, Nick,’ Anna says. ‘Men,’ she whispers conspiratorially in my direction.

‘Eloise did more than you today I’ll bet.

’ Nick’s glare is lost on her because she continues to babble on about how great of a farmer I am and how cool it is to see a young woman doing this kind of work.

I stand there smirking happily. Take that, Nick Russo .

I’m warming up to Anna, I decide. Although she has questionable taste in acquaintances.

‘Unfortunately, this is about the only thing I’m good at,’ I say to Anna, thinking about how terrible I am at filming TikToks—I can’t seem to make it past what my own voice sounds like being played back. Not that I’ll get into that with Anna in front of Nick.

I turn to Nick. ‘I like her,’ I say, ‘let’s not send her home tomorrow.’

Nick runs a hand through his thick hair and murmurs something I don’t quite catch, but sounds suspiciously like Why did I think introducing you two was a good idea ?

‘Nick says you’re in some sort of rivalry,’ Anna says. Nick shoots her another glare, this times she catches it and blushes. ‘Whoops,’ she murmurs, ‘was I not supposed to say?’

‘A rivalry? That’s what we’re calling it?’

I stare at Nick for a beat too long before turning to Anna. ‘The problem with Nick,’ I say, loud enough for him to hear, ‘is that he never understands when he should be taking things more seriously.’