Page 41 of Apple of My Eye

It’s Friday and U-Pick officially kicks off tomorrow.

The Parkers and my parents are so busy planning they have hardly kept tabs on where we’ve been.

Which is lucky considering we can’t keep our hands off each other.

We’ve earned more gold stars than I can count.

Even though Nick and I declared a truce, I allow myself to ask one time how the Parkers are doing. The uncertainty is killing me.

‘Let’s just say I held up my end of the bargain,’ Nick says. He has my back pinned to the wooden fence that separates our property from the Parkers. ‘I thought we weren’t going to talk about that anymore,’ he murmurs into my neck, sending chills up my spine.

‘I know,’ I breathe. ‘I told myself I could ask one time though.’

‘Honestly.’ Nick pulls away from me, looking at me intently with his big brown eyes. ‘I don’t know what will happen. I did what I came here to do. The rest is in their hands.’

‘My dream is in their hands,’ I correct him.

He runs a hand up my forearm. ‘I know,’ he mutters. ‘I would never have accepted this job if I knew what succeeding meant to you.’

‘But you can’t just not succeed, for once?’

He shakes his head before he looks towards the Parkers’ home. ‘I can’t do that to them .?.?.’

‘I know,’ I say glumly. That’s one of the things I like so much about Nick, his devotion to the Parkers, his sense of loyalty. I kick at the dirt under my shoes.

‘Let’s enjoy the time we do have,’ he says, before hoisting me up to sit on the fence, the perfect angle for me to wrap my legs around him.

Fuck it , I think, before I do exactly that.

Evan: Lou, I’m coming to help U-Pick.

Me: What?

Shari: What??? I can’t leave the strawberry farm, I just got back!!

Me: Shari, relax. I don’t know what Evan is talking about.

Evan: I texted Hazel already *Sent with invisible ink*

Me: You did what?

Evan: I NEEDED some apple pie. Like STAT.

Evan: Plus I have nothing going on.

Evan: Also I was supposed to go away with Kevin this weekend. And before you say it, I know, Kevin and Evan would have never worked anyways, but he bailed. So .?.?. I’ll see you Saturday morning, Eloise!

Me: Oh I’m sorry about Kevin, Evan. LOL it’s hard to even type that out with a straight face. I would love to see you. Did Mom say anything about Linden?

Evan: Linden? No. She just said I could have the guest room.

Me: Weird. He always surprises us during early harvest.

Shari: Thank God. Honestly. If your hot brother would also be there I would have had to come. I MISS FABIO.

Me: Shari, I think you need to be grateful for your Lizzie McGuire moment for a little longer before coming on to my brother. Also, yuck. Also, you know he has a girlfriend.

Evan: Speaking of hot, how’s the hot intern?

Me: You’re making him sound like a glorified secretary.

Evan: Coming to his defense? Unlike you.

Shari: OMG WHAT IS GOING ON. Something *fish emoji*

Shari: My radar has been ON ever since my LMMM (Lizzie McGuire Movie Moment). I’m a new person when it comes to love.

Evan: Come to think of it, Lou hasn’t complained about him at all this week. For weeks it’s been Nick is ruining my life and Nick came to karaoke with Amie and Nick this and Nick that and Nick and the stupid pigs.

Shari: And this week .?.?. crickets.

Shari: I bet she finally caved. He is so hot.

Evan: DID YOU.

Me: Maybe? *Sent with invisible ink*

Evan: SCREAMS.

Shari: You two better call me when you’re together.

Evan: OMG ELOISE. YOU TEMPTRESS. THIS WEEK OF ALL WEEKS. THE WEEK BEFORE U-PICK. YOU SEDUCE?

Me: Can you stop texting in all caps. It is so hard to read.

Me: And no. Or at least, I didn’t mean to. It just .?.?. happened.

Evan: That’s what they all say.

Shari: Drool. He’s so dreamy.

Me: It’s not important. He’s leaving like the week after next anyways.

Shari: Acting like you don’t have the date written in sharpie in your calendar.

Evan: I can’t WAIT to debrief.

Me: Evan. No time to debrief. It will be crazy here! Be prepared to work.

Evan: As long as I’m paid in apple pie.

We’re going all out this year. We’ve never done anything like it before.

I’m not sure whether to staff Evan at the JJ meet and greet, the photo backdrops, or at the bake stand.

Although given his love for apple pie, I’m thinking the latter.

We’ve never invited visitors to meet JJ, but with his renewed strength I think he’s up for it and I know it’s time to see how he interacts with new people, the first step of many to potentially finding him a new home.

‘God, you’re sexy,’ Nick breathes into my neck, pulling me out of my train of thought just in time. I bury my nose into his hair and inhale the minty smell of his hair gel.

‘I don’t know what you’re doing to me, Nick Russo.’ I sigh.

He runs his hands through my hair and I squeal with happiness.

Suddenly his hands are everywhere. For the past three days we’ve alternated between exhaustion and overdrive—all hands, urgent, panting, sweaty and fast. We’ve spent every night together since the first night Nick slept over, but usually by the time we collapse in bed next to each other all we do is snuggle and sleep.

Nick wraps his arms around me or a leg on top of me and I feel luxuriously cozy under his muscular limbs.

Yesterday morning he came back over to our farm like he usually would, after he had breakfast with Betsy. We had just started taking soil samples, doing our best to act normal, when Dad asked if I could grab something from the basement storage room.

‘Sure,’ I said, ‘wanna come?’

Nick nodded and I saw the glint in his eye. I saw what was going to happen in that basement storage room a mile away.

It was damp and dusty, so unsexy that it was sexy. Nick lifted me on top of a work table before I could even question what was going on, his tongue in my mouth, my hands greedily pulling his T-shirt off.

He nibbled the top of my bum and pulled my pants down with his teeth, grazing my skin while he did it. I writhed with pleasure. ‘Nick,’ I warned, ‘ten minutes.’

‘Ten minutes, Scout’s honor,’ he said, pulling my pants down with his hands. He slid a finger between my thighs, his other hand reaching up my shirt and thumbing my nipple. My breath hitched in my chest. I whimpered.

‘You’re so wet for me already,’ he breathed into my ear, nibbling on the bottom of my earlobe. My toes curled. I arched my back up into him. Felt his hardness against my backside.

‘I’m not the only one who’s ready,’ I replied.

‘It’s not about me today.’ His thumb pressed on my clit right as he said it and I gasped.

He flipped me over again. ‘It’s about you,’ He said, before he kissed each of my nipples, flicking his tongue around them so expertly that I moaned.

He trailed kisses down my belly button until he reached his hand, his thumb never hesitating, still circling my clit with expert rhythm.

When his lips reached me, I felt like I could dissolve with pleasure. ‘Nick,’ I moaned, thrusting my fingers into his hair and pulling gently, guiding his tongue to exactly where I needed it. ‘Just like that.’

He obeyed, one hand palming my breast, the other working in tandem with his tongue. He swirled and licked and sucked in a perfect rhythm, building me closer and closer to the edge.

‘Keep going,’ I moaned, and he sucked harder, my vision clouding with stars as I completely let go.

He raised his head from between my legs and licked his lips.

‘You are,’ he said, with more sincerity than I’ve ever heard from him lips, ‘perfect.’

I felt like the heroine in my book. And it felt so good. It felt so good twice .