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His bear immediately paid attention as Wes answered, “I did. You?”

Kate glanced at him before looking ahead again. “Eventually.”

Perhaps she was thinking about us too, his bear said hopefully.

The inside of Wes’s truck came back to him with uncomfortable clarity. Kate sitting close beside him. The moment when he had thought she wanted him to kiss her and had stopped himself anyway. With Kate walking so close beside him now, thinking about it was not especially helpful, so he concentrated on carrying the ladder.

Eileen’s tree stood beyond the main rows, broader and less orderly than those around it. Its trunk was thick, the branches spreading in several directions where years of pruning had shaped rather than tamed it. Eileen stopped when they reached it and rested one hand against the trunk.

Penny tipped her head back. “Is this the one?”

“Yes.” Eileen looked up through the branches. “This is it.”

Wes lowered the ladder and tested an apple on one of the lower limbs. It came away easily. He took out his pocketknife, cut through the fruit and checked the flesh and seeds before handing one half to Eileen and keeping the other.

Eileen took a bite and went quiet. Wes watched her look up into the tree.

“Yes,” she said at last. “That’s right.”

“Can I try?” Penny asked.

Wes crouched, cut a slice from his half and held it out to her. Penny took one bite and immediately pulled a face. “It’s sour.”

Eileen smiled. “I told you. They’re better in pie.”

“I like pie,” Penny said.

“You certainly do,” Janice replied.

“I’ll give you the recipe I always used,” Eileen said. “They need more sugar than some varieties, but they hold together well.”

“I’d like that.” Janice looked from Eileen to the tree. “It seems a shame for things like that to disappear just because the orchard changed hands.”

Something in Eileen’s expression softened. “Then I’ll write it down for you.”

Eileen finished her apple and turned back to the tree. “Right. We came to pick apples.”

She and Janice started on the lower branches while Wes set up the taller ladder and made sure it was steady. Alan handed him the picking bag, and Wes slung it over his shoulder before climbing.

Kate moved an empty basket near the foot of the ladder. “What do you need me to do?”

“Keep an eye on the baskets for now. I’ll bring the apples down when the bag gets heavy.”

“I think I can manage that.”

“I thought you might.”

Wes climbed several rungs and began picking. The fruit came away easily, and before long the familiar weight started to build against his hip. Kate moved the empty baskets closer as he worked, talking to Eileen and Janice between glances up at him.

His bear was paying far more attention to Kate than to the apples. I like this.

You’ve been picking apples your whole life.

Not with her, his bear said. Wes could not argue with that.

When the bag was nearly full, he climbed down and emptied it carefully into the basket Kate was holding steady. She looked down at the apples with satisfaction. “There. I contributed.”

“You held a basket,” Wes said. “An important harvest skill.”