Page 27 of Chasing Infinity

“I promise that you’re not. Just get on.”

Parks mumbles under her breath but does as I ask her, hopping onto my back and wrapping her legs around my waist. She secures her ankles together at my middle ensuring she doesn’t fall. I shiver when her hands circle my shoulders. Her fingers trail across my muscles, triggering every last one of my nerve endings. Her legs grip the sides of my waist tightly as I stand up to my full height. Her body is rigid on my back, trying to hold on. I snake my hands around the backs of her thighs to give her a little more support.

“Ready to get the good ones now?”

Addison squeaks in response when I step close to a tree and lift her up a little by her thighs. My fingers press into the supple muscle of her leg as her torso stretches against my back so she can reach for a few apples.

“Just a little closer,” she mutters.

I oblige her, stepping further into the tree, ignoring the dull sounds of apples hitting the grass beneath us. The branches scratch up my arms a little bit as she collects the fruit from this tree, but I don’t say anything. They’ll heal.

“Okay, I think I got them all from this tree.”

“Onto the next one then?” I ask, and she agrees. We continue this way until Addison’s plastic bag bursts full of perfect apples to make into pies. I admit I’m intrigued by the prospect of a freshly made apple pie.

Her hand taps my shoulder, and I look back at her. “Can I help you?”

She giggles and leans forward a little on my back, her chin resting against my shoulder. Her cheek is right next to mine, and I can feel her warm breath on my face when she says, “I think I’ve got enough. You can let me down now.”

A sly grin pulls on my lips, and I shake my head. “What if I don’t want to?”

“Noah!”

“Parks!” I shout back at her, still grinning as I walk towards where the tractor loads to take us back to the central part of the farm. “I kind of like you up there. I can actually keep an eye on you this way.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“I learned it from you, sweetheart.”

Addison stiffens on my back slightly and then laughs nervously but doesn’t press the issue any further. She behaves like a good passenger until we get to the tractor when I finally let her down. I crouch into a squat, feeling the burn from the extra weight in my thighs. Addison slides off of my back in a delicious way that has my heart stuttering and a tightness forming low in my gut.

Once she’s on the ground again, Parks brushes her hands on her jeans and then runs her fingers through her hair—nervous movements accentuated by the light pink blush that is forming on her freckled cheeks. Her hands grip tightly to the handles of the apple bag, holding it right in front of her body. She doesn’t meet my eyes fully, glancing away every time she looks at me.

“Do you want me to hold that for you?” I ask, stepping closer to her. Now that she’s further away from me, I immediately want to rectify that. The magnetic pull that I’ve always felt around her is in full force, urging me toward her.

Parks takes a step back as I come closer to her, her hazel eyes flashing with an unspoken warning for me to keep my distance. I stop in my tracks, waiting. “I think I can handle it until we get to the car, thank you.”

“Okay,” I concede, taking a step back and giving her the space she’s indicating she needs right now.

When the tractor comes, we load up our apples and make the trek back from the orchard. Addison seems lost in her thoughts as we pay for the fruit and head back to the car.

She stays quiet the whole drive to the diner, and I’m starting to worry she’s feeling embarrassed or mad at me about the entire piggyback ride thing. I put the car into park right in front of the diner and sigh. Shifting my hips towards her, I reach for her hand on her lap and thread my fingers through hers. She startles and turns her head to look at me, eyes wide with apprehension.

“Hey,” I say on a breath. “Is everything okay?”

“Please don’t, Noah.”

“Just let me—”

“No.” She pulls her hand out of mine and rubs at her forehead with her fingers. “I think we need to talk about some things. You’ve been living in my house, and we’ve been doing fine, but I think we need to straighten a few things out. Set some boundaries so lines don’t get blurred.”

“Is this just because I let you ride on my back so you could get the good apples off the tree? If you think that was a form of foreplay, then Eli really needs to step up his game,” I grit through my teeth. Wincing to myself when it comes out a little harsher than I intended.

“That was uncalled for,” she says back, now looking at me, her lips pulled thin.

I deflate and lean back against the window. “Sorry.”

“Noah, I need you to be honest with me. Do you think you can do that?”

---