Page 31 of Apple of My Eye

Chapter Twenty-Four

Nick

WEEK SIX

Something’s not right. I tried to tell Betsy but she waved me off, instead directing the conversation towards Eloise, which is a sure shot at making me clam up.

I swear I saw a flashlight around the equipment barn when I was working last night.

I looked out my window and saw a flicker, next thing I knew it was gone.

I rushed downstairs to see if Betsy and Joe were both home—they were, Joe was reading the paper and Betsy was knitting.

I almost stopped to take a picture of them, content of the two of them together does really well.

They are both relationship and lifestyle goals apparently.

I’ve even managed to put some up of Betsy talking through her outfits, ‘These boots are from .?.?. well .?.?. I think my own mother,’ she says, as she sticks her foot out in a an extremely worn and muddy boot.

‘These jeans are from the Gap. And my shirt—’ she turns around trying to check the tag ‘—well, it’s just cute isn’t it?

’ she asks the camera. The shirt reads ‘Don’t Go Bacon my Heart,’ with a picture of Buttercup.

As soon as I realized Joe and Betsy were both inside, I rushed to the window. ‘I think I saw someone out back,’ I told Joe, who grunted at the newspaper non-committally.

‘I’m sure it was just a firefly,’ Betsy said cheerily, not taking her eyes off the knitting.

‘Have more of Hazel’s cookies.’ Hazel’s been dropping off pies and goodies all week, part of some fall thing she said they do at their house every year where she makes all their favorite recipes to usher in a new season.

I dragged myself away from the windowsill.

‘OK,’ I said, helping myself to a few. I looked out the window every minute or so until my plate was completely clean. Nothing.

But this morning a strange truck drove by the farm at breakfast and turned into the Anderson farm. Nobody has a reason to be on these back roads unless they live here, so if a new car arrives it’s odd. I try and dismiss it, maybe Eloise’s older brother Linden has come home?

But by the time I’m heading to help Joe with harvesting a hand-pick only row of specialty apples, a varietal he grafted himself, I’ve seen two more trucks drive by. Both of them turned into the Andersons’ driveway. They’re delivering something .?.?. but what?

It’s been three days since I ran into Eloise with Anna.

I don’t know why I thought someone from the city could make Eloise jealous.

She warmed up to Anna right away, as friendly and genuine as ever.

The entire time they talked I missed Eloise so badly I could feel my desire to hold her close buzzing underneath my skin.

I’ve tried not to think about her, but I haven’t succeeded.

Everything reminds me of her. Each apple I see, every tree branch swaying in the morning breeze, the smell of the apple blossoms and the low chatter of the other workers in the field, even the hum of machinery can remind me of her, dredging up something she’s told me before about why she likes John Deere tractors better than Kubota.

Anna could tell something was up, zeroing in on Eloise right after they met and asking me a zillion questions about her, pestering me about what the rivalry really was because ‘it’s clear there’s something there, Nick.

’ Thankfully Anna also talked my ear off about a new guy she was seeing, someone she met in Seattle.

Although my mamma would be disappointed, I was elated.

One less complication on my plate. Plus, I love having Anna as a friend.

She’s friendly and ambitious and smart as a whip.

The next morning when as Anna was leaving she said, ‘You must think she’s cute right, I mean she’s beautiful ,’ while staring wistfully in the Andersons’ direction.

I knew what she was doing, luring me into admitting how breathtaking I thought Eloise was, and I still couldn’t avoid it.

I nodded. Anna punched her fist in the air.

‘I knew it!’ she cried triumphantly. Since she left I have gotten no less than five texts from her asking if I’ve made up with Eloise yet.

What Anna doesn’t know is her texts are somehow making me angrier and sadder at the same time.

They send me into a spiral where I start thinking about how Eloise’s bright blue eyes narrow just so when she knows I still don’t understand something even though it’s the second time she’s explained it.

I miss how she angles her head towards me when a piece of hair has come loose from her braid, knowing I’ll tuck it behind her ear.

I miss the way she smells like sweet grass and the way her laugh rings out over the fields if I’ve said something funny.

I keep fighting off the desire to text her to tell her about what Betsy cooked for dinner or how many times Joe said ‘in my day,’ which as of this morning, is already three today alone.

But thinking of her also makes my blood boil in frustration.

The only thing I hate more than her being mad at me is the fact that she has no reason to be angry.

I don’t understand when ‘business is business’ stopped applying.

When did our stupid rivalry turn into something so much more serious?

When the fourth truck of the day rumbles past, I stop wondering if she’s up to something and start wondering what she’s up to—I wouldn’t put it past her to do something to make sure I don’t succeed.

All I need to do is make sure I outsmart her.

My Instagram account is gaining more followers by the day.

The best part is that I’m starting to love the pigs as much as the internet does.

Maisy breaks into grunts as soon as she sees me, Princess Peach squeals just once, but loud enough to make the nearby chickens squawk, Buttercup even pulls herself up to her hooves to amble by and say hello, and Daisy, the most stubborn of them all, has started to accept me as one of her caretakers.

The pigs aren’t my only good news—Scott’s Orchards, a large farm in the neighboring county that’s owned by an even bigger conglomerate, is looking for ways to diversify.

I reached out to them to see what they think about investing in the Parkers’ farm and they said they want to come down for a meeting.

I haven’t told Joe and Betsy yet, I don’t want to get their hopes up, but an investment from a bigger farm and an opening to sell down the road is a big deal.

It’s the only silver lining to not talking to Eloise. I know she’ll disapprove.

She’ll have to do more than get some random deliveries sent to her farm to derail me now.

Smiling, I head into the field. Time to put in a good day’s work.