Page 27 of Apple of My Eye
‘Thank God. I’m starving.’ She stands up, wiping her hands on the front of her jeans. She wipes her forehead with the bottom of her shirt and I catch a glimpse of the smooth skin of her belly. I can see her abs.Damn.
‘What?’ she asks, self-consciously pulling her shirt back down across her stomach. But her gaze lingers on my face for a second longer than it has to, and I swear she can feel it too, the magnetic energy pulling us closer to each other.
‘Nothing.’
She gives me a suspicious look. ‘I still don’t understand why you need all this information. Not to mention, you’re kind of helping out the wrong farm.’
I raise an eyebrow. ‘Look, I am not obligated to give the Parkers anything but the plan, which you already know. You think that what is going to save the Parkers is an extra farmhand? What’s going to really help them is marketing. Plus, Mr. P. wasn’t exactly loving my questions.’
‘So what is this grand marketing plan of yours? We could certainly use an improvement on that front.’
‘TikTok.’
She bursts out laughing, startling a nearby swallow from a tree, before she claps her hand over her mouth. ‘You’re serious?’
I nod, meeting her gaze. People underestimate social media all the time. ‘Yep. All I need to do is capitalize on the buying local trends and capture momentum.’
‘Mhmm,’ Eloise says, but there’s a glint in her eye. I can’t tell whether she’s happy or upset. I felt like that a lot with her today, like Ireallywant to know what she’s thinking, but I have absolutely no idea.
‘It’ll work,’ I say with as much confidence as I can muster. ‘I just need some content to start posting. You’ll see.’
‘You know nature isn’t like social media. You can’t hack the algorithm here.’ She spreads one arm out in a wide, sweeping gesture. ‘It’s wild.’
‘You can manifest good outcomes with optimism,’ I counter.
Her lips press together in a tight line. ‘I think the struggling farmers out here would beg to differ.’ She pauses, gesturing towards her house. ‘I should probably go grab lunch, do you—?’
‘I’ll eat at the Parkers’,’ I cut in, not wanting to overstep. ‘Thanks for letting me tag along this morning.’ I step back to let her pass and as I do I step on a line of sprinklers, tripping over it and dislodging it in the process. Water erupts from the broken sprinkler line, spraying everywhere. Eloise shrieks and I scream too, both of us lunging for, and missing, the sprinkler head. The pressure of the water casts the hose around chaotically, soaking Eloise and I every couple of seconds as it thrashes around. By the time she’s able to grab it, we’re both dripping wet, dust streaking in rivulets down our faces.
I glance up at Eloise, panting, worried she’ll be angry. She seems to care so much about keeping things at the farm in line. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I pant out. When she looks up and sees my wide-eyed gaze, she frowns. Then, before I can even clock it, she’s whipped out the hose and is pointing it at me, completely soaking me head to toe, and cackling manically as she does it.
I shriek like a little kid as the water blasts through my hair and I lunge at her, our arms entangling as we each try to gain control of the hose. Suddenly our faces are so close I can see droplets clinging to her eyelashes. I wipe a drop of water off her cheek, my thumb stroking her constellation of freckles. We both still. Her face is upturned towards me, and I feel her hips give into mine. I tilt my face towards her, my gaze lingering on her Cupid’s bow, her perfect, upturned lips.
‘LOU!’ I hear Cal’s yell cut across the fields. ‘Your mom’s making fried green tomatoes! You better hurry or I’ll eat them all!’
We break apart, breathing heavy, and Eloise lets the hose drop to her side, not meeting my gaze. ‘I guess I better get this reattached,’ she says, bending down and reconnecting the hose.
I feel like I’ve lost her, without her looking at me it’s like the sun’s been hidden behind clouds. ‘Hey, how do you feel about me coming by tomorrow? I promise I won’t mess up the sprinklers system again.’
Eloise looks up at me with a glint in her eye. She smiles softly. ‘I guess that’d be OK,’ she says. ‘Our water fight was hands down the best part of my morning .?.?.’ She pauses. ‘But before you go thinking you got a gold star, remember it was either our water fight or hand-thinning.’
And with that, she heads towards her house, leaving me staring at her retreating figure. Even with the sun beating down on her shoulders, she carries herself with her head held high, shoulders square. She fits in perfectly with her surroundings, the heat of the bright blue sky contrasting with her black shirt. Her blonde hair gleaming in the sun. I like late summer here, the way the lush green seems to dry out just a bit, everything parched in the sun, suspended in a state of waiting for fall to really kick in, for the promise of cooler weather and longer nights. The Parkers keep saying fall is just around the corner, but it’s so hot today I can’t see how they’ll be right.
Like magic, I’ve forgotten all about my back pain and my sore shoulders. I’m filled with so much energy it’s like I haven’t worked at all. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.
Chapter Thirteen
Eloise
What I Would Do if I Could Do Anything*
–Work in an agricultural research lab
–Hang out with Lily in New York City
–Backpack across Asia (Linden swears it changed his life)
–Run the Anderson Family Apple Farm Operation
