The wordsdistant fatherpopped into my head.Dammit.
“I’m sorry. I overstepped.”
Mira breathed heavily over the line. “It’s okay, don’t worry about it.”
“Your ad said distant father. I’m an idiot.”
She chuckled, and my heart skipped a beat. “No, you’re not. I don’t even know why I put that in the ad.”
“Maybe to let people know you don’t know jack shit about an apple orchard.”
Her loud laughter echoed down the line and a warmth spread through me from my head to my toes. I enjoyed hearing her laugh. I wanted to hear it more. “You’ve learned my secret. Don’t let anyone else in on it, okay?”
“I promise I won’t. I’ll show you some tricks. It’s not hard, but more a lot of work and dedication. Once you establish a routine, you’ll be golden. Maybe you could open for fall.”
Mira snickered. “Ha. I like your enthusiasm, but I highly doubt I’ll be openingever.I’m not reviving the orchard so I can make money. I hate looking at it so drab and dead. And I want to bake. A lot. With as many apples as I can.”
“Okay, I’m down for whatever. We can smart small. Maybe a row of trees this season?”
“Sounds doable. It’s possible I can handle two, maybe three.”
“A row is six.”
“Six?!” Mira nearly shouted. “I can barely take care of myself, let alone an army of trees.”
I smiled at her adorableness. “Okay, let’s do a half row. Don’t worry, you’ve got this.”
“That’s more manageable. It looks like they chopped some trees down.”
“After your father passed away, there was some talk in town that he owed a lot of back taxes. The town was going to seize the home, but then it was paid off by an anonymous donation, and your father got to keep the home.”
Mira paused. “Wow. So much I didn’t know. It never made sense why he didn’t want to have a relationship with me and I still don’t understand. I don’t think I ever will now that he’s gone.”
“From what I knew, George was a good man. Maybe he had his reasons?” I mused. “Though I don’t know how you could ignore a child of your own making. Yet so many do.”
Mira let out a short laugh, as if the topic had embarrassed her. “Sorry, our conversation sort of took a turn there.”
“It’s weird. I feel like I’ve been talking to an old friend.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
“I feel like that too. It’s a good sign we’ll work well together.”
“I hope so,” Mira said.
“We’ll figure out a plan for it all. I’m thinking a major re-haul with fresh soil, and I can plant some baby apple trees.”
“Can you come by tomorrow and walk through it with me? I’ll show you around and you’ll be free to start as soon as you want.”
“Sounds great.”
When I hung up the phone, my body buzzed with excitement in a way it hadn’t since my days in high school, my hormones firing off in different directions.
I didn’t have a clue who the woman was, but for some reason, I had a feeling she was going to wreck me.
In all the best ways.
I turnedmy truck onto the side road and parked in front of the large farmhouse. It sat on the top corner of a dead-end street off one of the main roads that ran through town. The house faced the main street, with a large wrap-around porch, and the orchard being the entire backyard. It ran to the end of the street, taking up the entire side of the road. The other side of the road hadn’t been cleared and consisted of woods until the next side street, where a couple of cabins sat. It was peaceful and scenic,with the mountain view in the background and no surrounding neighbors. I envied her. I’d love to live on this property.
A few minutes after I parked, a woman emerged from inside and stepped onto the porch. Her auburn hair shone in the early afternoon sunlight, wavy locks falling around her shoulders.
