Page 37 of Apple of My Eye
We sit next to each other on foldout chairs. ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you,’ I say between mouthfuls, ‘have you started your TikTok?’ I haven’t been able to bring myself to google it. If it’s going badly, that means it can’t help me in the future. But if his TikTok has taken off that means the Parkers may stave off their bankruptcy.
‘Wouldn’t you like to know,’ Nick says, a devious smile spreading across his face. ‘Nothing’s up yet, but I’m launching before this weekend.’ He walks me through an explanation of the algorithm, when it makes sense to pay for ads, how to maximize your reach, and how to determine your target audience. Eventually he clocks my expression. ‘You’re not the only one who knows things, Eloise. I’m gonna drive a crowd to the farmers’ market this weekend, you’ll see.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ I try to mumble playfully, but his plans have me feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of his TikTok blowing up in popularity. I wonder how quickly I can get the events permit. Maybe I need to email town hall to expedite it.
He whips out his phone and passes it across the table towards me. ‘That’s what I have so far,’ he explains, but right as he says it, a huge dollop of red sauce starts to slide off his fork. His eyes widen but his reflexes are too slow, and it splats in his lap.
I can’t help but laugh and he joins right in. ‘Goddammit,’ he says, with a twinkle in his eye, ‘you can’t take me anywhere.’
I push back from the table. ‘Follow me,’ I say, leading him towards the house.
As soon as the door shuts behind us, we’re enveloped in quiet. I can still hear the faint hum of the crowd outside, but the house is silent. ‘There’s stain remover in the laundry room,’ I say, knowing he’s still following me as I weave through the downstairs.
Even though we’ve spent a lot of time together, something about being alone in my house at night makes my heart beat faster. Nick steps into the laundry room right behind me, and when I turn around to find the stain remover we’re standing chest to chest, as close as we were that very first day on the farm, when the hose exploded everywhere and I thought, just for a second, that he might kiss me.
‘Eloise?’ he prompts gently.
‘It’s just back there,’ I say, managing to recover my voice. I point to a shelf behind Nick. Suddenly, I’m parched. My mouth is so dry that I lick my lips.
Nick glances at my mouth. When he looks back up at me, and our eyes meet, I feel my knees go weak. I’ve wanted to kiss him since I saw him in the general store. Even when he pissed me off. Especially because he pissed me off. Even though I’ve tried to ignore it, I’ve wanted to rip off his shirt every time he delicately handled an apple like it was made of glass. And even though I know it’s a terrible idea, even though I know he’s leavingandI haven’t been honest with him about the Parkers .?.?. Well, maybe that’s the silver lining of his leaving, right?
He leans in closer to me and I breathe in his familiar cinnamon smell. My thoughts dissipate like the softest cloud of morning fog. Ever so gently, he wraps a hand around my waist, reaching his palm to my lower back, and he tugs me closer to him. Heat builds beneath my belly. Instead of thoughts I just have desires.Him. Closer. More.
Our chests press together and I can feel his heartbeat. My nipples tighten. Nick’s eyes stray to my lips, hungry and dark.
‘Eloise,’ he whispers, almost breathless. ‘Can I—?’
I’m nodding before he can finish his sentence, the glass of wine having knocked down the last remains of the crumbling walls I had tried (and failed) to build to keep this from happening. It’s such a dumb idea. And yet I can’t help but tilt my hips forward, our bodies melding as his mouth crashes into mine. His lips are strong and sure, his tongue expertly claiming my mouth as our kiss deepens and my insides melt, my knees weak.Damn. My mind can’t form any coherent thoughts exceptDamn.
His mouth is hungry and before I know it, I’m panting as his lips press soft kisses down my throat. In an easy movement he grips my ass and hauls me on top of the laundry room counter. I wrap my legs around his waist and intertwine my fingers in his hair.Damn.A breathless moan escapes my mouth and he answers with a low grumble in his throat. He nips at my bottom lip and my hips arch forward, the increased contact letting me feel the size, the hardness of him. ‘God,’ I whisper in between kisses. I feel his smile against my collarbone, his lips as light as feathers as he kisses my throat. The washing machine rumbles next to me, shaking with the movement of a spin cycle andGodif Nick had placed me on top of that vibration I think I might have exploded already. I lean back, exposing my chest to him, feeling like my body is acting entirely on its own accord, when I hear it. I freeze.No. No. No.
‘Lou?’ I hear again. My eyes fly open.
‘Are you in here?’ Mom’s voice rings out through the house.
I jump down from the counter as Nick hastily re-tucks in his shirt, smoothing back his hair with a hand.
‘Here!’ I try to call out, but my voice comes out strangled. I clear my throat and try again. ‘In the laundry room, Mom! Nick spilled!’
‘Thanks for that,’ Nick whispers. I can still see a hint of blush dappled across his cheeks.
Nick seems to have recovered but I still can’t see straight when Mom steps in behind me and aggressively directs Nick to the stain remover, tsk-ing as she does so about how he’s let the stain sit for too long already. Nick catches my eye as I walk out the door and smiles so big it almost runs off his face.
I brace myself once I get into the hallway, resting a palm on the wall. My heart is thundering. On one hand, that was bad. I should not have done that, not when there’s so much at stake. But on the other hand .?.?. damn, that wasincredible.
Chapter Sixteen
Nick
I keep thinking about her before I sleep, the way she sounded when I kissed her neck, the way it felt to grab her ass and pull her closer to me, her legs wrapped around my waist, her hands in my hair. I can almost feel the dip in the small of her back when I leaned in to hug her goodnight. The night was quiet around us, moonlight shining down onto her wooden front porch, a rocking chair creaking in the wind. Everyone else had gone home and I had lingered, wanting more time with her, wanting her alone, but not sure how to get there. Her piercing gaze pinned me in place. A wisp of her hair was loose from her ponytail. She hates having hair in her face, so I tucked it behind her ear instinctively, my fingertips grazing the soft part of her temple. The incline of her chin towards my lips, expecting me to kiss her again. The way her eyelashes fluttered when I leaned in closer, so ready to press my lips to hers. I would have given anything for another moment out there alone. But then the porch door swung open, screaming on its hinges, Cal jolting us out of the moment.
I stumbled to head back, barely hearing her murmur when I left, ‘Look up on your way home. The stars here aren’t like they are in the city.’ If I’m not mistaken, her voice was as shaky as my hand had been when I smoothed her wayward curl down.
Either the lack of socialization out here is getting to me or not being able to get Eloise alone is driving me crazy. Because even though I’ve been sleeping well, I wake up with a headache. Maybe it’s because I finally bit the bullet and started a TikTok account for the Parkers late on Tuesday night, still buzzing with energy from kissing Eloise. My first few videos were pretty standard, an introduction to the farm, ‘meeting the grandparents,’ and what amounted to a little infomercial about their products. But then I posted a video introducing everyone to the pigs. I paid to promote it, deciding I wouldn’t even tell the Parkers about it. I could afford a $50 ad placement. It worked. The internetlovedit. We’re already at over five thousand followers, a number that I think I can keep driving up.
Eloise hasn’t followed the account yet. I’ve checked. But I’m not sure if she’s seen it. I thought she would be excited about the prospect of more folks visiting the farm, but she always seems uneasy when we talk about it. I’ve only seen her once since the big dinner and her dad was tending to apples a row over from us, so we only talked about two things—how the apples are doing, and how excited she is to see her friend Evan, who’s coming into town for the Fall Festival. Every time she mentions Evan I feel a tug in my chest. I can’t decide if I want to meet him or pretend he doesn’t exist. He seems to make Eloise really happy. I decide that, for now, I don’t need to like the guy. He’s coming in from Seattle and is probably some stuck-up city butthole. Not that I’m any better, but at least I’m out here in the fields every day.
‘The town really goes all out,’ Eloise explains after she reminds me again that Evan’s coming, her voice interrupting my descent into hypocrisy. We’re out in the orchard netting trees to protect them from pests. Cal is infuriatingly nearby again. Five minutes ago I tried to mouth to Eloise, ‘Can we go somewhere to talk,’ but she said ‘What?’ so loudly that I saw Cal’s hat move out of my peripheral vision.
