Page 55 of Pick Yourself Up
Hearing Gray’s callsign made her smile. It always sounded like Claws, which was a lot more intimidating than Santa’s second name.
When they locked up the B&B, Boomer barked a hello to the group that waited for them down the farm road. Gray walked toward them and leaned down to kiss her, making her brother mumble about PDA in front of the family. Which just made Gray laugh and kiss her harder.
When they approached, Hemsworth bounded over to greet Boomer. The whole family vibe filled Amber and had her blinking back the rush of emotion.
Family. A growing one. One that might lure her remaining brothers to the property.
A family filled with new friends. New love.
Maybe the home she dreamed of wasn’t so far out of reach after all.
Chapter 15
Pick It Up
Gray woke to the morning sun streaming through the window. Last he’d checked, the temperatures should be perfect for picking apples. Not hot enough to drain the people, not cool enough to need mittens.
He kissed Amber awake and then made love to her in a shower that saved neither time nor water. But it was a hell of a shower.
Downstairs, they found Knox making pancakes. Amber grinned. “The pancake master in action. Are you making enough for us all?”
Annie grinned at his sister. “I am. Blueberries, apple slices, and all the maple syrup you can eat—payment in advance for your labor today.
Gray laughed. “I hear you’re the king of pancakes, so payment in full is accepted.”
The previous night, the six of them had checked out the machinery in the barn and had watched multiple videos online. They might not have ever picked apples en masse before, but the internet had given them enough knowledge that he figured they’d be at least halfway efficient.
After pancakes that were worthy of Annie’s title, they headed out. Thea decided on the best area to pick, and Knox drove the multi-bin truck out of the garage to lead the way.
Gray had never seen anything like this setup before. It was a regular truck, but it pulled a few trailers behind it. Large bins filled the trailer, thus the name. The bins would be filled with gently picked apples. When the bins were full, they’d bring them to the harvesting barn, where they’d separate the perfect apples from the rest.
Depending on the level of damage to the fruit, they’d separate the others into groups for cooking, baking, and cider. Still others would head to Thea’s compost, along with the scraps from the ones used for the other tasks.
No waste from this harvest, which was pretty cool.
Knox backed the truck down one of the orchard’s rows until Thea had him stop. Then he gestured at everyone to climb up the sides of the bin trailers. Whoever had designed this setup had been brilliant. Platforms edged the bins, holding the humans at the level to pick the apples and place them in the bins.
He held out his hand to help Amber up. They waited for everyone to find a spot on the platform. The height was perfect. They were eyeballing apples. The platforms could be raised or lowered to reach most of the apples without a lot of effort from the humans.
Beside him, Amber nearly bounced with joy. Below them, Boomer watched with his head tilted to the side, probably wondering what the humans were doing this time.
Gray grinned. “Okay, Annie. This is your gig. Any brilliant words to honor the occasion?”
Knox beamed and squeezed Thea’s hand. “No brilliance, just a lot of gratitude. Thanks to you all for believing in our vision for this farm. For believing we weren’t completely nuts and for joining us in making Jay’s vision a reality. We’ve got so much to do before it’s a fully functioning farm, but we’ve already come so far.”
His buddy’s eyes misted, but he didn’t hide the emotion. “Hopefully, by next harvest, we’ll have a better idea what we’re doing. We’ll have brought more people to live here with us, and we’ll have more plans in place. I think Fox and our parents would approve of our plan. In fact, I can easily imagine them cheering us on.”
Knox took a deep breath, then grinned. “Remember to be gentle both when you pick the apples and when you put them in the bin. Bruises are our enemy. Everyone, choose your first apple and we’ll pick the first ones in five, four, three, two, one.”
As one, they all plucked their first apples. As one, they lifted them high and cheered.
Eyes shining, Amber’s quiet voice reached them all. “To Fox, to Jay, to everyone who’s come before. And to the future.”
Everyone echoed her words, and then they turned to the task, although Gray squeezed Amber in a hug first.
Finding and reaching all the apples was a bit of a challenge and hard work. The fruit didn’t simply grow at the required height. Some were too close to the trunk to reach for now. They decided to leave those there for later and do the ones within easy reach.
As Thea said, they weren’t planning to harvest the entire orchard, so they might as well do it the easiest way this year.
