The thought made her heart race even more than the fast pace did.
Was she really?
She couldn’t possibly be falling for him already.
She was being silly.
Trusting him was one thing. Falling for him was another entirely.
It was time to learn how to trust again. Thea and Dietrich had been good practice. Now she could start opening up to people at the manor.
If Caspian was first on the list, well, that was just how it was.
“I don’t suppose you like persimmons,” Caspian said out of the blue.
“Persimmons?” she asked, her nose wrinkling.
“You’ve never had a persimmon?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know what that is.”
He gasped. “You don’t have those in the city?”
“I’m afraid not,” she said with a wry grin. “I still don’t know what it is.”
Caspian sighed. “This is a tragedy. We must rectify this wrong.”
Sophia laughed as he took her hand and pulled her off the path toward a straggly tree a few yards away. Once they reached the tree, he squatted, searching the ground for something.
The ground was littered with squashed orange fruit, speckled with browns and blacks.
They looked disgusting.
“Here you go,” Caspian said, offering her the nastiest one she’d seen yet.
Sophia frowned. “You want me to eat that?”
He nodded his head with a grin. “I know it seems strange, but trust me, the ugliest looking persimmons are always the most delicious ones. There are seeds in there, so make sure you don’t eat them.”
“You go first,” she said, her nose wrinkling again. Would it really be tragic if she never ate one of these persimmon things?
Caspian plopped the fruit in his mouth and moaned in appreciation. “It’s so good,” he said after spitting out the seeds. “Can I get you one, please?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, but didn’t say anything, and he knelt down and found a few more of the fruit.
She did not want to try it.
He offered them to her, and she picked one up, staring at it suspiciously before the tip of her tongue poked out and touched an exposed portion of the fruit where the skin was broken.
It wasn’t instantly terrible.
She waited a moment, letting the taste sit on her tongue, before deciding she could attempt a small bite.
“I don’t suppose you’ve ever had anything like it before,” he said. “What do you think?”
“It tastes a little like…pumpkin?” she asked. “It’s not as good. But it’s not bad.”
“Persimmon is one of my favorite fall flavors,” he said.
