Page 17
“I did. I missed being able to look at something at the end of the day and know what I’d done. I missed Bear Creek too.” A small smile touched his mouth. “Although there are days during harvest when I’d happily give every tree away to the first person who asked.”
Kate laughed, but her mind had already caught on the years he had spent away. Where had he lived, and what had he done instead? Had he ever planned to stay there? Had there been anyone he planned to stay for?
She frowned at the apple in her hands. She had known him for barely a day. She had no business wondering about the women in his life.
“What about you?” Wes asked. “Did you always know what you wanted to do?”
“Not exactly. I knew I wanted to do something creative, but that isn’t especially helpful when you’re trying to choose a career,” Kate said. “It was the problem-solving part of design I liked in the end. People usually know when a room doesn’t work for them, but they don’t always know why.”
“What do you look for?”
The question was simple, but it made her pause. Most people asked what kind of houses she worked on or whether she preferred modern or traditional interiors.
“How people actually live,” she said. “Not how they think they should live. Where they put things when they walk through the door. Which rooms they really use. Someone might tell me they need a formal dining room, but if the whole family eats at the kitchen table and the dining room is permanently covered in paperwork, there’s not much point pretending otherwise.”
Wes nodded. “So you make the house work for them instead of trying to make them work for the house.”
Kate looked at him. “Yes.” She smiled slowly. “That’s exactly it.” It surprised her that he understood so quickly. Some clients took whole meetings to get there, and a few never did. Wes had been listening for a couple of minutes in a barn, with a crew waiting on him outside, and he had heard what she meant.
“I like figuring out why something isn’t working,” she continued. “Sometimes people think they need a huge change when the real problem is much smaller. The client I spoke to this morning wanted to move a bathroom wall. It would have cost a fortune and made the bedroom worse, when what she actually needed was more storage outside the bathroom.”
“Did you convince her?”
“Eventually.”
“Then you had a productive morning before you came over here,” Wes said.
“I suppose I did.”
Someone called his name from outside. Wes turned his head toward the doorway before looking back at Kate. She had no idea how long they had been standing there.
“I should let you get back to work. I’ve already taken up more of your morning than I meant to.”
“If I needed to go, I would have.”
Kate believed him. She pushed herself away from the worktable. “I should get back too. I told myself I was taking a break, not disappearing for the morning.”
Wes walked with her across the yard. When they reached the track, he stopped and looked back toward the rows. “We’ll start picking that section soon. If you want to see what it looks like when the fruit is moving, come over.”
“I’d like that.”
“Your parents might find it useful too.”
Kate smiled. “I’ll tell them.” She was still pleased he had invited her first.
She started toward the boundary with the apple still in her hand. After several yards, curiosity got the better of her and she glanced back. Wes was watching her. Their eyes met, and he lifted one hand before someone called him back toward the tractor.
Kate continued toward her parents’ orchard. She had learned enough about harvest to understand a little more of what lay ahead for Alan and Janice.
But as she crossed back onto their land, it was Wes talking about leaving Bear Creek and choosing to come home that stayed in her thoughts. What would it be like to be that sure of where you belonged? Kate had a home, work she was good at, and Penny. She had never had to leave any of it to find out whether she wanted to come back. She looked down at the apple in her hand. She had forgotten to finish it.
CHAPTER 6
Wes
By midafternoon, Wes had dealt with the trailer hitch, checked the block they would pick next, and worked his way through most of the jobs waiting for him when he returned from town that morning. He had also thought about Kate more often than was particularly practical when work was so hectic.
Thinking about our mate is always a priority, his bear told him.
