Page 40 of Harvest Moon

“Hungry?” he asked after a second, reaching in for the bagged lunches trapped against the basket’s side, the sandwiches no doubt a little smooshed by our apple haul.

By now, I was hot enough to take off my jacket and spread it out on the ground, on a spot without a bunch of softening apples trapped under it, so Alexis could sit.

“This is good,” he said, lifting Barbara’s sandwich as we ate side by side.

I grinned. “Yeah. Mrs. Barbara’s a real good cook. Always makes a little too much when she’s upset though. I think she worries about Ford.”

“The younger guy over at the farm?”

I nodded. “He lost his mate a while back. Their daughter too. Took it real hard.”

“That’s awful.”

“It is...” And it was the thing that’d convinced me I couldn’t just sit back and wait for things to be perfect forever.

“Lexis—” I reached out and touched his cheek. His skin was so smooth, like he never even had to shave, but his jaw was square, his cheekbone sharp. His face was masculine and beautiful. Pretty much perfect. “I didn’t mean to disappear on you.”

He scoffed, glancing away. “You went to school.”

“Yeah, and I’m—I’m not sorry I got an education. But I think maybe I did it the wrong way?” There was no chance I was explaining this right, but I wished I’d have taken him with me. I imagined phone calls I never made, because I bought my cell plan by the minute, or because I was busy, or because I thought he might not want to hear from me and I didn’t want to face down the idea that Lex might be every bit as pissed as me as my pa was for abandoning them.

I’d come up with hundreds of excuses to hide out, and I regretted every one that’d ever crossed my mind. All they’d done was take me further away from him than I had to be, and that was the opposite of what I really wanted.

He was staring ahead, and the pink glisten of his tongue ran quickly between his lips. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Ridge.”

I couldn’t tell if he wanted me there or not, but he wasn’t looking me in the eyes. He didn’t lean toward me. He was just sitting still, tense as a statue under my hand.

So I did the only thing I could think—I dropped that hand and stopped touching him. “All right,” I said. “Good. I don’t want to do a thing wrong by you, Lex.”

“Well, you haven’t. So, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Even though those were the words I wanted to hear, I wasn’t sure I believed them. His voice sounded strangely tight, and I didn’t think he really believed them either.

23

Alexis

By the time we made it back to the barn with our basket of apples, lunch eaten and silence fallen heavy between us, I was... well hell, confused didn’t even cover it.

Was this a date?

Ridge had never said so, even as relatively talkative as he’d been the last few times I’d spoken to him. But still, it felt like it was a date, sometimes. And the way Ridge looked at me once in a while, like I was the center of everything.

Was I seeing things?

Imagining them because I wanted them to be?

For a moment out there in the groves, over our sandwiches, I’d been convinced he was going to kiss me. I had so wanted him to, but I’d been scared to lean in again, put my heart on the line, only to be shoved back in place for misunderstanding everything. Again.

I sighed as we entered the barn, and next to me, he jolted. “Something wrong?”

I turned to look at him straight on, trying to think of a reasonable excuse for why I probably looked miserable, but halfway there my eyes caught on—“Oh my god, apple cider donuts.”

The heat rising off the fresh baked goods made them look like a mirage, but no, they were a hundred percent real. Golden brown with cracked tops and coated with cinnamon-sugar, they were... well, they were just the kind of thing I’d been trying to get Claudia to stop eating all the time.

But I could have one, right? Just not for every meal.

Maybe.

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