Page 74 of For Butter or Worse
“I’d feel like I just woke up, and you’re suggesting a road trip?” Her mouth opened in a very displeased kind of way, like the wordsroadandtriptasted bad on her tongue.
“What if I told you there were freshly baked donuts involved?” He tapped the side of his mug.
She took a beat to answer, her eyes narrowing at him. “Give me fifteen minutes.”
She threw off the quilt and stood up, sipping from her coffee as she walked toward the bathroom.
“And bring a coat,” he called out. “It’s going to be chilly.”
She stopped and turned to look at him with a curious expression. “Where are we going, exactly?”
The drive out to Oak Glen took a little over an hour. They wove through a scenic loop of apple farms and fruit orchards. When they arrived, it felt more like a cozy town than a stretch of road, with plenty of restaurants and local stores serving up seasonal treats like cocoa and peppermint fudge.
But Leo remembered Oak Glen as the place he and his brother went every autumn for apple picking when they were kids. He hadn’t been back since high school, but he’d always wanted to return when he had a family of his own. Nina wasn’t family, but he’d still felt the urge to bring her.
When they parked at the apple farm, the fall foliage was rampant, with trees covered in bright red and orange leaves dotting the hillside in front of them.
“I’m still waking up,” Nina said as they walked toward the gated entry. “But does that sign say ‘hot cider and donuts’?”
There was a hand-printed sign resting against the frame of the gate that listed the entry fee for the orchard, the price of hot cider and the cost of a bag of donuts.
“Indeed it does.” He smirked.
She raised her hand, as if volunteering. “Well, I hope you brought cash because I’m going to need one of each.”
He grabbed paper cups of hot apple cider and a bag of freshly baked donuts covered in powdered sugar. Nina stood at the opening of the orchard, with rows of apple trees to the left, and chestnut trees to the right. Her wild hair blew in the wind, and when she turned to grab a cup of cider, a few wisps landed in front of her eyes. He used his free hand to brush them back behind her ear.
She looked down and her face flushed, the way it had when they’d first kissed on the hike. His mouth twitched just remembering the cinnamon taste of her.
She pulled out her phone. “Are you willing to take a photo without hair and makeup being here?”
He grabbed the phone from her and positioned it for a selfie of the two of them. “Just promise me you’ll use a flattering filter.” He took a few shots before she pocketed it.
“I’ve never been apple picking,” she said, looking back up. “Growing up in Ojai, we picked tangerines.”
“Picking something orange in the fall seems festive to me,” he said.
They started to walk through the maze of the orchard. She reached for his hand, and he wrapped his fingers around hers. The gesture was so effortless that he didn’t stop to wonder what it could mean. He just let their fingers find and hold each other.
“We came here every year as kids,” he said. “But they run out of the baking apples right away, so you just end up bringing home twenty pounds of normal apples. Can you imagine?”
“No, I can’t imagine being forced to eat a regular apple, knowing that it could’ve been baked into a pie.” She took a bite from the donut, powdered sugar dusting her chin. “What a terrible childhood.”
“Exactly.” He brushed the sugar off her chin with his thumb. “My parents were monsters.”
They stopped in front of a tree that was mostly bare except for a few gloriously ripe red apples at the very top. She took a sip from the cider and tilted her head back to look up at the whole of it. He admired the length of her neck as she did.
“If you brought me here to pick apples, I think we’re a bit too late,” she said.
She squinted, but he could still spot the amber flecks in her eyes and his words caught in his throat. She was looking at him, and he looked back, and he knew that something had truly shifted between them. But he wasn’t sure how or if he should put that thought into words, so he continued, “I know your menu is seasonal. I thought a new environment might spark some ideas for you.”
“Ah, so youdocare about my snobby, pretentious menu?” Her mouth quirked up.
“After tasting the food last night, I care very deeply, yes.” He was already holding her hand, but he wanted to be closer. He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He leaned down and buried his nose against her neck, taking in the sweet scent of her. Then he said into her ear, “Maybe something new will come to you.”
It took a moment, but her feet shifted, her shoulders loosened and she eventually relaxed against him. They stood there, taking in the rolling hills covered in apple trees. He breathed in and out, feeling more at ease than he could remember. He was always so tense from work, but being here with Nina made him feel like he could finally stop his anxious thoughts from spinning.
She exhaled a long and satisfied breath, then turned to face him.
