Page 68 of Apple of My Eye
‘Of course he’s nice to you,’ Eloise grumbles. ‘Wait until you hear what he says to me.’
As if on cue, Cal yells, ‘Eloise, those trees won’t pick themselves,’ and laughs so loudly I can’t help but laugh too.
‘Dad!’ She rolls her eyes and we get to work, picking the trees together one by one. I stay close to her, taking every chance I get for our shoulders to brush.
‘Julian and Isaac are visiting for U-Pick,’ I remind her. ‘They want to meet you.’
‘You told them about me?’ she asks. Her gaze is focused on the apple she’s just picked, but by the way her head is cocked towards mine I know she’s pleasantly surprised they know who she is.
‘Of course I did.’
‘Linden might be coming that weekend too. He usually surprises us, but he hasn’t visited this year. I keep wondering if this will be the first year he doesn’t come home at all .?.?.’
‘Would that upset you?’
Eloise sighs. ‘The million-dollar question.’
Birdsong floats through the air as I wait for her response. ‘The truth is,’ she says, ‘I’ve been trying to let go of some of my resentment towards him lately.’
‘You filled your resentment quota with me, huh?’
She chuckles. ‘You could say that .?.?. or you could say I’m growing tired of resenting people for moving .?.?.’ She pauses, turning to face me. ‘It’s an effort to dislike people when they’re not really doing anything wrong.’
My mouth feels dry. ‘Yeah,’ I croak out.If she knew about Scott’s Orchards .?.?.
Easily, we fall back into side-by-side rhythm, our conversation waxing and waning with the breeze. She tells me something about apple blossoms, how they used to be a symbol of love, and right after she says it she asks nonchalantly, ‘Will you put that in a TikTok?’
‘So you’ve seen them?’
‘Maybe.’
‘And?’
‘And .?.?. my words look better on a screen than I thought they would.’
‘Ah. About that—’
‘It’s OK,’ she interrupts me. ‘I was really annoyed at first,’ she admits, ‘but the videos are good.’
‘I knew I’d win you over.’
Eloise toys with her bottom lip. ‘Speaking of winning me over .?.?.’ She hesitates, before her eyes light up with an idea. ‘You’re leaving in, like, two weeks,’ she says.
‘Yeah,’ I acknowledge, even though the words make my heart sink.
‘So, what if we call it a truce until then?’
‘You? Eloise? The girl who told me I was threatening her entire future with my schemes, wants to declare a truce with me?’
Chapter Thirty-One
Eloise
Things I Would Usually NEVER Write Down, But I Can’t Seem to Focus on Anything Else
–Sliding a finger under the waistline of Nick’s jeans
–Nick’s breath in my ear
