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“I don’t know enough yet to say that.” Kate turned toward her mother. “You need someone to check the structure properly, especially that dropped corner, the roof and the foundation. If those are sound, then you start thinking about everything else. But I wouldn’t write it off just because it looks neglected.”
Penny, who had been allowed as far as the doorway with Alan holding her hand, looked up at Kate. “Can it be my house?”
“Not until we know the floor isn’t going to drop you into the ground.”
Penny thought about that and moved a little closer to her grandfather.
Wes checked the stairs next. The lower treads held under his weight, but he did not want everyone following him until they had been inspected properly.
“I’m going up far enough to see whether there’s been much water coming through the roof. Stay down here for now.”
Kate looked toward the stairs. “Be careful. Some of those boards have probably been sitting untouched for years.”
“I will.”
The room beneath the roof was low on one side, with a dormer window overlooking the orchard. Dust lay thick over the floor, but there were no obvious signs of major leaks. Through the dirty glass Wes could make out the upper rows of trees and, farther away, the roof of his own packing barn.
Eileen called up from below. “That window was my favorite thing about the place. We could see the first part of the orchard from there when we woke up.”
Wes came back down slowly. “It’s dry up there, at least from what I can see. I still wouldn’t let anyone use the stairs until they’ve been checked.”
Kate had moved toward the rear window. “There’s too much growth against the back wall to see what condition it’s in. If Mom and Dad want to know whether this is worth pursuing, I’d like to come back with my notebook and tape measure and get a better sense of what we actually have.”
“I can clear enough of the brush for you to see the outside properly,” Wes said. “Not now. I really do have apples waiting for me, but I can get to it when the crew is done.”
“Only if you have time,” Kate said. “This cabin has survived this long. It can wait until your harvest is finished for the day.”
Wes met her gaze. She understood his work well enough now not to treat his availability as endless because he had offered to help. He liked that.
They did not stay much longer. There was little point moving through the cabin until someone had looked at it properly, and Penny was already trying to plan where Fox would sleep despite repeated reminders that nobody had given her the building.
Alan locked the door again before they started back.
By the time they reached the main track, Wes could hear machinery from his orchard. The sound brought every job he had temporarily ignored rushing back into his head.
“I need to go.”
Kate had fallen slightly behind the others with him. “I suspected you might.”
Wes looked toward the boundary, then back at her. What had last night meant to her? Maybe he would never know unless he asked, but with her parents and Eileen only a short distance ahead, this was not the moment for that conversation.
Kate saved him from having to decide. “I’m glad you came over this morning,” she said.
The words were quiet and uncomplicated.
Wes looked at her for a moment. “So am I.”
Kate touched his arm before catching up with the others.
Wes watched her go, then turned toward his own orchard.
He still had apples to pick.
But he was no longer wondering whether Kate wished she had never kissed him.
CHAPTER 11
Kate
