Page 23 of Cozy Girl Fall

It had been all hands on deck at the orchard lately to try to clear as much of the remaining harvest before the Halloween Orchard Fest. The annual bonfire was next week, and the festival would be upon them soon after.

Penny couldn’t deny how excited she was for her first Orchard Fest in ten years.

It was the perfect mix between cozy and spooky fun, with apple bobbing, an apple pie bake-off, apple carving, and so much more.

Ethan still hadn’t heard back from Nicky, and while there was a small part of Penny that had been holding out hope that he might be able to offer her an escape from Magnolia Springs, she found that she actually didn’t mind as much as she’d expected to.

Working with Ethan had been a lot more enjoyable since things between them had started feeling more comfortable, especially now that she knew Tasha wasn’t going to murder her for hanging out with her brother.

She liked the easy routine she’d settled into with Ethan on the days that they shared shifts.

He brought her a pumpkin spice latte in the morning and usually worked a couple rows away from her (at her request, because otherwise she’d found she had a tendency to get distracted by the sight of him between the trees).

Then, they’d take a short lunch break in town before getting back to the orchard to finish their shifts.

One Tuesday morning, they were lucky enough to have some sunshine and when Ethan wandered over to check on Penny from his section across the way, she was surprised to find a basket and blanket in his arms.

“What’s all this?”

He smiled and it was nearly as bright as the sunlight that arched overhead and filtered down through the leaves, making her squint. “Lunch.”

“O-kay,” she mused, accepting the hand he offered to help her down from the top of her stepladder.

His palm was warm in hers and the green of his open shirt brought out the flecks of gold in his eyes.

She was so entranced, she nearly misstepped and fell.

She would have done, anyway, if Ethan’s body hadn’t moved closer to her in that moment, pressing her back against the ladder in mid-descent.

Her arms automatically came around him, his head coming up just shy of her chest, and for a moment the orchard disappeared, the birdsong falling away, until there was only Ethan, his eyes on hers, his mouth tantalizingly close.

He smiled and she couldn’t have stopped her lips from responding even if she’d wanted to.

“This is so soft,” he murmured, tugging gently at the hem of her chenille navy sweater.

“Not so sure that this is practical though,” he added, running that same hand lower, over her short black skirt and down over the thick black tights she had on underneath.

She could feel the heat of his hand on her thigh even through the material.

“Oh?”

“Someone might walk past you on this ladder and get an eyeful,” he said, smirking, and she snorted, gently pushing him away to continue down the ladder and onto the grass.

“Ethan Blake, are you telling me you looked up my skirt?”

“Maybe,” he teased and then shook his head. “Neon green underwear is certainly a choice, Pen.”

She rolled her eyes, knowing full well that her panties were black and that Ethan was far too chivalrous to do anything as crude as peeking up her skirt. Not that she was sure she’d mind.

Her stomach chose that moment to growl and Ethan chuckled. “Let’s get you fed.”

He laid out the red checkered blanket a few paces away, underneath the shade of two apple trees that had already been cleared of fruit, and patted the space next to him as he sat down.

“OK—bear in mind that you never did follow up on showing me how to cook, so this is all very rudimentary. It’s hard to screw up sandwiches, but who knows.

We can’t all be Penny Larkin in the kitchen. ”

She giggled but accepted the sandwich bag he passed her. “What’s in it?”

“What do you think?”

PB&J. It had to be. She unwrapped it and took a bite, smiling at the taste that reminded her of childhood summer days at the springs and school field trips on the bus, sharing lunches.

Despite his lack of culinary skills, Ethan had been something of a mother hen, always the one to pack sandwiches and snacks for her and Tasha. PB&J was his signature.

“It’s good,” she mumbled around the bread and Ethan grinned, reaching over and brushing his thumb over her bottom lip, wiping away the raspberry jam, and then sucking the digit into his mouth.

“Delicious,” he said, smirking at the blush that heated her cheeks. “Apple slice?” He held out a small tub and she took a couple pieces, crunching through the sweetness happily as the wind rustled the leaves above their heads.

“Thank you for this,” she said when her mouth was free of food. “We should do this again in the summer, I’ll even bring orange Popsicles.” They were a staple of their childhood too, and Ethan grinned.

“Oh? You’re planning to stick around till next summer, huh?”

She blushed again and stuttered as she tried to correct the slip. “Well, I—”

He laughed. “It’s OK, Penny. We can have orange Popsicles wherever we end up next summer, even if it’s not here.”

She reached for his hand and squeezed gently. “OK.”

“Now, can I interest you in a slice of pie?”

Her eyes widened and made grabby hands at him. “I could kiss you right now.”

“I’d let you.”

She laughed and tried to look anywhere but at Ethan’s mouth. “I was talking to the pie.”

“Ouch.” He grinned at her as he passed over a paper plate and fork and she couldn’t be sure that she wasn’t drooling.

The first bite made her eyes widen and Ethan nodded, looking smug.

“Angie’s finest.” Her mom had made pie for Ethan?

Life was so unfair. Though, at least he was sweet enough to share it.

“And don’t give me that look. She only gave me the pie because I mentioned taking you on a picnic. ”

That made her feel a little bit better. The breeze flipped up the corner of the blanket and Ethan moved closer, his thigh pressing against hers as she offered him a forkful of pie, feeding it directly into his mouth while she giggled. She wasn’t sure she’d ever had a more perfect afternoon.

After one particularly long and grueling shift at the orchard a week later, Penny wanted nothing more than to have a long soak in the bath and then to sleep for a million years.

So when her phone rang with an unfamiliar number as she was about to exit her car back at her parents’, she nearly didn’t answer.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

She sucked in a sharp breath of surprise. “Ethan. Hey.”

“Are you busy right now?”

Bath and relaxing evening long forgotten, she shook her head. “No. Why?”

“Want to catch a movie?”

That was the last thing she’d been expecting him to say. “A movie?”

“Yeah, they’re like photographs but they move and tell a story.” There was a smile in his voice when she snorted. “Meet me in town?”

“Sure. Oh, and Ethan?”

“Yes?”

“Where did you get my number?”

“Tasha.”

Penny’s eyes pricked and she smiled. “OK. See you in a few.”

The only movie theater in town also doubled up as a bowling alley on its far side, with three screens for movies and a large confectionery counter dedicated to popcorn, candy, and slushies on the back wall as you walked in.

She wasn’t sure she could remember the last time she’d been in there, but the smell of popcorn took her back to being sixteen and coming to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie with Tasha and Ethan—though Tasha had moved seats half-way through because Penny and Ethan had spent most of their time occupied by their mouths rather than watching the screen.

She was the first to arrive and, after pacing anxiously by the popcorn counter, she decided to distract herself by scanning the posters in the lobby in the hopes of finding something good to watch.

Their options were the new Reese Witherspoon movie—an all-women ensemble heist—a cheesy-looking horror flick about puppets, or a re-screening of The Notebook as part of a promotion they were running called “Old but Gold”.

Ethan wasn’t one for horror, and she couldn’t take crying in public to The Notebook .

But she’d wait for Ethan to arrive before grabbing tickets, in case he’d suddenly become a horror-buff in the time they’d been apart.

Instead, she headed to the popcorn counter and ordered two large buckets with extra butter and two mixed-flavor slushies and then waited for the order while internally spiraling.

After ten years, she was on a date with Ethan.

That, in and of itself, was nerve-wracking enough.

But now she was worrying that maybe he didn’t like popcorn and mixed slushies any more.

Maybe he was a nachos or corn-dog guy. She had to admit to herself, she didn’t know much about Ethan the man —after all, it had been ten years!

Maybe this was a poor choice for their first actual date.

It wasn’t like they could chat during the movie so she could get to re-know him.

Or worse, what if he didn’t think this was a date?

Maybe they were just two friends who kind of liked each other and had a lot of history, watching a movie.

But movies were a common date, weren’t they?

It had been so long since she’d been on one that Penny wasn’t sure if she was overthinking, underthinking, or, hell, even thinking at all.

Her nose wrinkled and she was thrown out of her panic spiral by the food and drinks being placed on the counter.

“I grabbed us some tickets for the heist chick flick. Hope that’s OK?”

She jumped and glanced over her shoulder to find Ethan waiting. “Hey. Yeah, that’s great.”