“You bought Sager Orchard. My family orchard,” Mr. Sager says. The dawning of where I had heard the name finally struck me.
“I had no idea. I’d been so worked up over getting things together I hadn’t looked into the details yet.”
“You’ve had the orchard for four months.” It had gone on the market once he had gotten out of the hospital and had the mental capacity to handle the sale. After all the legal wrangling, my family company acquired it, and it was given to me.
“I haven’t had it that long; the family company has. My father made the transactions before handing them over for me to run. He knew that Matthew and I were friends, so when theproperty became available in the area, Matthew mentioned it, and it was an investment for me.”
“Investment?” Autumn asks. I’m about to elaborate when Matthew returns to the table.
“Yes, Matthew, are you going to join us?”
“No, I’m taking my sister home. Will you excuse me? Sorry about this evening.” He looks directly at me and says, “And as for what we discussed, you’re making the right decision.”
“I thought so.” They all stare at us and then attempt to look busy. Our waitress approaches and we order drinks.
“So you’re the one building the massive property at the other end of the orchard,” Elle says.
“Yes, it should be done next month. I want it ready soon even though I’m not sure when I’ll be moving in. They told me I can stay in one of the smaller bedrooms right now, but it’s not finished.”
“We were supposed to be meeting to discuss the ideas you had and my methods,” Mr. Sager says.
“Yes, I wanted to pick your brain if you were feeling up to it, Mr. Sager. Although I don’t have experience in apple farming, I spent a great deal of time on my grandfather’s farm as a child and then my father raised me to run his company before I went off to the service.”
“Wow, you’ve done a lot in your years. How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight, almost twenty-nine.”
“Dang, you’re old,” Elle says. Autumn kicks her, but misses and hits my calf. I let out a little grunt, and she turned completely bright red.
“Oh gosh, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You were defending my honor. Your sister’s only pointing it out because I’m interested in you. I didn’t realize how young you were when I saw you this morning.” I give her an apologetic frown because I wish there wasn’t such a large age gap.
“So now you think I’m too young.”
“No, we’ll figure things out. I’ve already learned more about you in the past twelve hours than I’ve learned about people in months. Besides, once I make up my mind about something, I don’t change it.” I smile at her, unwilling to waver.
“You have no shame in flirting with my sister.”
“I’m not flirting, Ms. Noelle. I’m stating the obvious.”
I lean over the table, stare at Autumn, and say, “When I part those lips and taste the apple from this afternoon, you’ll know I’m flirting.”
Autumn gasps and then runs her tongue over her lips.
“Enough. I’d like to get my food before I’m forced to marry off my youngest at the table.”
“No force required, sir. It will happen one day soon.” I rap my knuckles on the table because it’s one thing I’m certain of. The pretty blush that stains Autumn’s face does me in and I want to leap across the table and kiss her.
My phone rang, interrupting our evening. I grumbled because now isn’t the time for business calls. My father probably has some sort of dilemma he needs me to handle. “I’ll be right back.” I stood up from the table and walked toward the hallway.
I answered it and it was my Uncle Nick. “What’s going on, Owen?”
“I’m on my way down there to help with the orchard. Pops wanted to ensure that you had things under control before the family came down for Christmas.”
“Are you serious?” I love my uncle. He was always there for me and maybe it’s because we were closer in age than my other family members. He’s only thirty-five and prefers to work on my grandfather’s ranch, but we always keep in touch.
“Yes.”