Page 131 of Forever By Morning

In Front of My Face

I needed a good long ride.

On Storm.

Not with her. And certainly notonher.

Though my body tightened at the mere thought of Helena under me, never mind the sharp pang of guilt that throbbed in the center of my back like a thorn I couldn’t reach.

The look on her face when I’d accused her of slumming it had wrecked me. I’d been so out of line I still didn’t know what the hell my problem was.

Or I didn’t want to, more accurately.

Seeing her scramble back from being seen by that society bride who had been an absolute terror all day had been the last straw on an already shit day.

Between Justin’s very correct assessment that I was fucking up because I had too many balls in the air, my chaotic feelings for Helena, and the changes I needed to make at the orchard, I was running on empty. Those concerns were warring with my need to keep everything locked down and under my control.

The orchard had been my sole focus for so long, I didn’t know how to balance it with a relationship.

And therewasno actual relationship. I’d just met this woman a few days ago. It made zero sense that she was shaking up my entire life already.

And she was leaving in a few short days.

Hell, I’dpushedher away.

I wrapped my hands around the axe and swung it against the collapsed tree that was barely more than a pile of kindling. I should be using the mulcher to tear it apart, but I needed to beat on something and the poor diseased tree was bearing the brunt of it.

I’d found three more trees that were in just as dire straits as the three Justin had mentioned earlier. They were some of the oldest trees in the orchard. The one I was destroying had been among the ones I’d planted when I’d first starting learning the ropes from my dad.

When he’d taught me about caring for the seedlings and making sure they took root.

My dad had always been more farmer than businessman. Even in retirement, he worried more about his gardens and bees than he did about actually relaxing. He’d never been happier since I took over.

My arms sung as I took another wack at the rotted roots. The tree had already been in rough shape and had probably been missed in all the preparation we’d been doing for the pears.

I sat down on the stump and pulled out my phone to call Mike.

“What’s up, Boss?”

“I need a team to go through the Paulas. I’ve got four trees with rot and I don’t want it to spread. I think it’s centralized to just this copse, but I think we should do a fungal treatment to make sure everything is safe.”

“Want them out there today?”

I glanced out at the skyline. The sun was quickly sinking, telling me I’d been out there longer than I’d thought. “First thing tomorrow is good. I don’t want someone missing something with the floodlights.”

“Will do.”

“Anything else come up lately that I’ve missed?”

Mike cleared his throat. “We’ve been stretched pretty thin with the off-season crew. Think we could bring in some of our regular guys early this season?”

“If you think we need it, I’ll sign off on it.”

Mike’s sigh of relief made me feel even more like a dick. That he was hesitant to ask meant we definitely needed to have a conversation. Evidently, I was fucking up on every level lately—personal and otherwise.

“Why don’t we have a meeting after this rot thing is cleared up? Harvest is coming fast, and I think we’ll be changing up a few things this year.”

“Yeah?” Mike’s voice was hesitant. “I have a few ideas I wanted to talk to you about.”

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