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“And the orchard?”
“Dad’s already been out far enough to see branches down. Mom made him come back until it was properly light.” Kate got to her feet and pulled the blanket around herself against the cold. “He says there’s a lot of fruit on the ground.”
“There will be.”
“Eileen’s fine too. Mom says she’s pretending she didn’t spend half the night awake listening to the wind.”
Wes stood. “I want to check Russet Hill before we go across.”
“Of course.”
He looked at Kate, expecting perhaps that she would stay inside while he made the first assessment. She was already on her way upstairs for her clothes.
Twenty minutes later, they stepped outside together. The air smelled washed clean. Cloud still covered most of the sky, but the rain had stopped, and the light was strengthening behind the mountains. Water ran from the gutters and dripped steadily from the trees. The orchard looked different. Not destroyed. Wes knew that almost immediately. But changed. Leaves covered the grass. Apples lay everywhere, bright against the wet ground, and several smaller branches had come down along the first row.
Wes walked slowly. Kate stayed beside him. He checked the packing barn first. The tarp they had fought with the night before was still secure.
Kate touched the strap. “We did that.”
“We did.”
She looked far too pleased by the fact. Wes smiled and kept walking.
Farther into the orchard, they found a larger limb down across one row, but the tree itself had not split. A young tree on the exposed edge had developed a noticeable lean, and Wes made a mental note to stake it properly once the ground had drained enough to work around it safely. There was more fruit down than he wanted. That hurt. Months of work lay scattered beneath the trees, some apples bruised beyond use, others likely salvageable if they were gathered quickly.
Kate crouched and picked one up. “This one looks all right.”
“It probably is.”
“So not everything on the ground is lost?”
“No. We’ll sort it.”
She put the apple carefully beside the trunk rather than tossing it away.
Wes looked along the row. Yesterday he would have been calculating labor already. Who could come. Which fruit needed moving first. Whether the ground would take the tractor. Those thoughts still came. They were just no longer the only things in his head.
Kate slipped her hand into his. “How bad?”
“I’ve had worse.”
Her fingers tightened around his.
They checked another two rows before Wes decided he had seen enough to know Russet Hill could wait an hour. The damage was work. A lot of work. It was not disaster.
When they reached the boundary with Bramblewood, his bear stirred with renewed interest. Penny.
Wes smiled. Yes. Penny.
They heard her before they saw her. “Mom!”
Penny came running from the direction of the farmhouse in boots and a coat that had been fastened incorrectly, one side higher than the other. Alan followed at a more sensible pace, carrying a mug. Kate let go of Wes’s hand and crouched just in time to catch her daughter.
Penny wrapped both arms around her neck. “You stayed at Wes’s house.”
“I did.”
“Grandma told me.”
