Page 56 of Pick Yourself Up
Whatever apples fell to the ground would be gathered for compost or left to decompose in place. Either way, they’d add their value back to the farm.
The process was more emotional than Gray had expected. He’d always loved working with a team. While he also enjoyed solo ventures, teamwork appealed to him.
Like the teams he’d worked with in the army, this one made him happy. Having the woman he loved working alongside him added to that.
He could feel his mamma’s approval of the task, the people, and the teamwork.
The family.
Amber’s hip bumped him as she reached for an apple in front of him. “Thinking of your mom?”
He nodded, pleased she knew him so well. “I am. She’d love this. And she’d decide that while you should continue to be proud of your Abenaki heritage, she’d want to make you all honorary Italians.”
Amber laughed. “We’d be honored.”
Yeah, he was definitely in love.
Three days later, Amber figured none of them wanted to see another apple ever again.
Muscles she hadn’t even known existed ached. Her fingers required frequent stretches to function. And her feet yearned to soak in tubs of warm water all the time.
But they were picking more apples, anyway.
One more day for now.
They’d fallen into a routine. Rising early and picking for hours each day. Then they brought the apples to the harvesting barn and sorted them. Cleaned them and stored them in appropriate places.
The question was, how much should they pick? Were they wasting their time if they continued, or could they find a use for the apples somehow?
They were going to hammer out some of those ideas over another breakfast meeting. With Knox’s apple pancakes, of course.
Jolie took a bite and grinned. “At least they’re really good apples.”
They all laughed, and Knox took the lead. “Okay. We’ve got a bunch of apples collected and roughly a billion more we could pick. We need to decide if we need to pick more and what we’re going to do with the ones we’ve already picked.”
When no one chimed in, Amber spoke. “We could set up a stand at the top of the road if we want. Or call Fiona from Phail Foods to see if she would let us sell some from inside her store. But those options take us away from the picking and collecting. How much does the storage room in the back of the barn hold?”
Ford shrugged. “A lot more than what we’ve collected so far. The barn is huge. Even the pressurized storage area could hold triple what we’ve done.”
Silence answered that.
Gray looked at Thea. “Do you know if Jay had any connections with locals? Did he sell any here or in Phail?”
Thea shrugged. “I didn’t go with him, but he did both of those things. He didn’t set up a roadside stand, but I think he sold them out of the barn when people drove in.”
Gray nodded. “There’s not a lot of drive-by traffic, so that makes sense. We can ask Fiona how he dealt with that. She probably knows. We could even put out a stand and have people drop cash into a box on the honor system. If I’m working in the gardens, I can stop and sell people stuff if they drive in. I don’t imagine there will be droves of them.”
Amber nodded. “I can help you. I’ll either be in the inn or the garden.”
He squeezed her hand. “Okay, but I don’t want you selling to strangers on your own.”
A shudder ran through her at the thought. Boomer would be a huge help, but the thought made her nervous. “Thanks, I’m not quite ready for that yet.”
As if sensing the conversation, Boomer rose from his bed in the corner and approached to put his head in her lap. His presence settled her enough to shove away the nerves.
She was probably being ridiculous, anyway. It had been months since The Sidderlight incident. No one probably even remembered her. There was no reason to track her down and bother her.
Gray’s arm came around her shoulders, and he rubbed his thumb over her sweatshirt. The action always made her feel safe. Loved.
