Page 32 of Cozy Girl Fall

They returned to the orchard to find things still in full swing, and if anyone had noticed their brief absence or Penny’s now-bare legs, they didn’t say anything.

Tasha waved them over to her spot by the table laden with pies, where small pieces had been stuck onto cocktail sticks for sampling and voting. Penny hurried over, not wanting to miss out. The selection was decent, with ten pies to choose from.

“Do you have a favorite?” Penny mumbled around her fifth skewer.

“I—”

“Of course she does,” Penny’s mom said before Tasha could answer. “It’s number seven, right?”

Tasha glanced at Penny and then at Angie. “I haven’t tasted that one yet. They’ve all been great so far though.”

Penny had to admit that it was a good answer.

Knowing her mom, she might have just been testing Tasha.

The pies were all anonymous, to help make things fair, but Penny was pretty sure she hadn’t tasted her mom’s pie yet, so when she got to number seven she braced herself before nodding.

Angie hadn’t been double-bluffing Tasha after all.

Angie watched them eagerly until Penny’s dad came over and gently steered her away, murmuring about intimidating the voters.

Small pieces of paper were left next to a large box with a slit cut in the top for the votes to enter and Penny scrawled the number seven on it before dropping it inside.

She wasn’t even voting for her mom just because she was her mom, though.

Penny genuinely thought Angie’s pie was the best there.

The crust had been flaky and crisp and the filling tasted like fall, if it were a pie filling.

“Earth to Penny,” Tasha teased and Penny blinked, a little disconcerted at the sight of the twins peering at her with identical looks of amusement on their faces. “She was totally thinking about pie.”

“Yep, that’s definitely her pie face,” Ethan said, nodding.

Penny rolled her eyes. “Ha. Ha. I do not have a pie face.” A familiar figure in the crowd of passersby caught her eye and she decided to change the subject before they could argue with her. “Is that your mom?”

Ethan turned and waved. “Yep. Hey,” he said a moment later, kissing his mom on the cheek after she hugged Tasha and, to Penny’s surprise, hugged her as well. “Where’s Dad?”

Terri glanced at Penny and away. “Oh, he, um, didn’t feel like it tonight.”

“That’s a shame,” Penny said, and she meant it. Surely Keith wasn’t avoiding her? She didn’t want to be the source of any tension in Ethan’s family, but if Keith needed some time before he could accept that she and Ethan were a package deal then that was OK. At least, she hoped it would be.

Ethan frowned, having caught on to what his mom wasn’t saying, and Penny took his hand in hers, squeezing slightly to show that it was OK. Ethan muttered something she didn’t hear and Penny smiled at Terri.

“Have you had any of the apple cider yet? Come on, I’ll show you to the stall.”

Penny led the way through the grove of trees and only screamed once when a kid jumped out at her from behind a tree dressed up as a zombie. Of course, Ethan and Tasha had thought it was hilarious but Terri had been genuinely sympathetic as she patted Penny on the shoulder.

They grabbed some ciders and wandered through the trees, stopping at a row of stalls that some local vendors had set-up to sell jewelry, cakes, and, strangely, cheese.

Tasha had seemed inclined to try her luck for another candy apple.

Penny personally thought the threat of a sugar crash was a little too high, and was about to warn her friend, but before she could, Terri had leveled a disapproving stare at her daughter.

Unsurprisingly, Tasha had quickly left the idea of another sugary treat in the dust.

By the time they’d finished a full circuit, a voice over a megaphone called that voting for the pie competition would be closing in five minutes.

“OK,” Penny said, glancing between the Blakes, “if you haven’t voted yet then you probably should.

Or my mom might have a meltdown.” They shared a look but nodded.

“Then, while they’re tallying …” Her lips curled into a mischievous grin as she wiggled her brows at Tasha and Ethan. “Care to try and beat my record?”

Tasha groaned. “Really? I don’t want to get my hair wet.”

“A likely story.” Penny grinned. “Ethan?”

“You’re on.”

Her laugh sounded appropriately witchy as she clapped her hands together. “Excellent.”

The line for apple bobbing wasn’t too long and was mostly kids, seeing as most of the teen girls didn’t want to ruin their hair or make-up in the water and the guys were more interested in the girls than apple bobbing. Then there was Penny and Ethan.

They stepped up and Penny smiled at Colton, who had agreed to come and help out.

He placed a fresh bucket each in front of her and Ethan and then filled it with floating apples as they lowered themselves to the ground, the grass cold against her knees.

Colton got a good deal out of it, as her parents let him take the used apples back to the stables for the horses.

“Are you ready?” he asked, the deep wrinkles in his face thrown into relief by the twinkly lights. “On your marks … Get set … Go!”

Penny didn’t hesitate, just got right in there and immediately closed her mouth around one apple, spitting it out and over the side into the container before diving back in for another and another.

It was a shame this wasn’t a skill she could actually do anything with, but Penny had always been absurdly good at apple bobbing.

“And, time!”

Penny and Ethan both surfaced, gasping and soaking wet. Ethan’s hair was sticking up in odd tufts but his smile was big and bright as he flicked water at her, making her squeal.

Colton looked into each of the containers and grinned when he saw Penny’s. “Winner! Congrats, Penny. Here’s your prize.” He handed her a piece of paper and she pumped the air with her fist as she read it.

“Free pie!” she told Ethan triumphantly. “Oh, and how many apples, Colton?”

“Not quite your record, you’re getting slow, girl. But fifteen isn’t half bad.”

“And Ethan?”

Colton’s lips twitched as he looked between them. “Six.”

“Well, that’s a new record for you,” she said, grinning at Ethan and darting away when he shook his wet hair at her like a dog. “Come on, let’s go claim my pie and find Tasha and your mom.”

To nobody’s surprise, Angie’s pie had been voted the winner and Penny was particularly delighted because, as the high scorer for apple bobbing, that meant she got to eat it.

“Maybe I’ll share it with you,” she said coyly to Ethan as she waved her prize pie under his nose. “If you’re nice, that is,” she added with a wink.

Ethan smiled indulgently down at her, leaning in as he murmured “I can be very nice, Penny Larkin. Especially for pie,” loud enough so that only Penny could hear.

“A man after my own heart, Ethan Blake,” she responded jokingly, trying to stop her body from betraying the bolt of heat that his words had sent running through her.

After sharing some funnel cake with Tasha and Ethan and a few more warm ciders with their parents, Penny felt she was more than ready to get warm, and dry, and maybe eat her pie in bed. They congratulated Angie one last time and said goodbye to the others before making their way to the car.

Penny drove them both to Ethan’s, since he’d apparently come with Tasha, and was feeling more relaxed than she had in days—and she knew it was only partially due to the relief that the festival was over for now. It was good fun, but exhausting.

The rest was definitely a result of their activity in Colton’s barn.

It wasn’t a long drive, and the silence was comfortable until Ethan suddenly fell still and looked at her with wide eyes. “Um, Penny?”

“Yeah?”

“We might need to make a stop.”

She glanced over at him, surprised. “OK. Where?”

“The drugstore. We didn’t use a condom.”

She relaxed, re-focusing on the road as she took the turn that led away from the town and toward Ethan’s place. “I have an IUD, we should be fine.” His breath of relief made her laugh. “Sorry, I should have told you before.”

“No, no, it’s OK. I’m more relieved for you than anything else, I’ve heard Plan B can be unpleasant.”

She didn’t know herself, but she appreciated his concern nonetheless.

They pulled up outside of his house and Ethan jogged around to the driver’s side to open her door before she could step out. “What a gentleman,” she said, smiling.

“Just wait,” he said, voice full of promise that made her body perk up. He noticed and laughed. “You’re insatiable.”

“Don’t leave me to fend for myself for too long next time,” she groused and his eyes darkened.

“Noted.” Then he reached down and swung her up into his arms, bridal style as he opened the front door with one hand and for some reason it was the hottest thing she’d ever experienced. “How does a bath sound?”

“Like heaven.”

The water was hot enough that steam rolled off her skin as she relaxed back against Ethan’s soapy chest. It turned out that his bath was big enough for two, a fact she planned to capitalize on frequently.

“I’m worried,” she said softly, hating to ruin the moment but needing him to soothe the edges in her mind. “You told me I had till Christmas—”

“Penny,” his murmur was exasperated and she looked up at him with her head on his shoulder. “I was exaggerating. You haven’t actually been counting the days have you?”

“Well, I thought I had to make a decision before—”

“Are you happy?” His tone was calm and the gentle stroking of his hand against her stomach didn’t falter when she nodded. “Do you want to be with me?”

She swallowed but nodded again. “Yes,” she said hoarsely and his lips curved up.

“Then that’s all I need to know. Whether we stay here or we go elsewhere, we can work that out later. As long as we’re together.”

“But you have your life here, your family. Your work.”