Page 14 of Hand Picked
“No, no, let me fix it. Everything’s fine. Here, blow.” He held the soggy napkins to my nose.
“No way.” I whacked him in the stomach. “I am not going to blow you, ever.” I mentally replayed my words and felt my face get hotter when I hadn’t thought that was possible. “Just please go away, Webb.”
Leave me to my humiliation.
“Y’okay over there?” the bartender yelled.
Webb waved him off. “Yeah, Van, we’re good. We’re excellent. Luke’s just… upset about the game.”
After a shocked beat, the bartender moaned, “Ah, shit. Luke’s a Montreal fan?”
Someone behind Webb cheered. “Hell, yeah! You might be a flatlander, but I knew I liked the look of you, Willams! Olé!”
I pulled the cuffs of my sweater down over my hands, pressed them to my damp eyes, and wished the world would start making sense.
“I’m sorry,” Webb said, sounding sincere. “I scared you, didn’t I? I wasn’t trying to bully you. I would never actually hurt you. I’m not… I was just…” He nodded at the seat across from me. “Can I sit down and explain?”
“Now you want to sit?” I sniffed. “The time to ask that was probably before you attacked my face with paper products.” But after a beat, I relented. “Fine. Suit yourself.”
He slid into the booth. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I may be a bit more inebriated than I thought. I’m not thinking… straight.” He grimaced, then added darkly, “Atall.”
“My mother always says drinking just makes you more inclined to do things you secretly want to do when you’re sober,” I said primly. Then cautiously, I asked, “Is this about what happened last fall? With Aiden and your wife… I mean,ex-wife?”
“No. I… I know that wasn’t… intentional,” he admitted, not quite meeting my eyes. “This is about the bullshit I heard from your lawyer tonight. He showed me the papers about your claim on my land.” His gaze swung back to me. “I love that land. I love that orchard in particular. And I know that’s no excuse for…” I waved a hand. “For being threatening. I know a man my size should be more careful. So I’m sorry for that. But I’m not giving up my orchard.”
I hadn’t felt physically threatened by him at all, despite him being twice as big as I was. In fact, my only thoughts about his size were… erm… really, disconcertingly positive ones.
Fortunately, I managed not to blurtthatout.
“Wait, when did you hear from Stephen?” My brain felt like a clogged filter, struggling to process. “What claim? Why would I want your orchard?”
“For money? For revenge? Why does anyone do anything? Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“But I don’t! I haven’t spoken to Stephen Fox in weeks. He never calls, he never writes, he just…bills.”
Webb stared at me for a long, long moment. His jaw worked side to side. His eyes flared. Then dropped his head and raked both hands through his dark hair.
“Jesus fuck,” he groaned succinctly. “You’re telling the truth, aren’t you?”
I nodded.
So while I kept my mouth occupied with my Rusty Spike, Webb told me what he could remember about papers and wills and hedgerows, spongy moths and Friendship Agreements, and centuries of apple tithes based on the size of his “fruitful harvests.” By the end, I was horrified.
“I wouldneverwant your tithed apples,” I assured him. “And you can have the orchard, if it turns out it’s mine. I’ll sell it to you for a dollar. Heck, you can have some of my land, too. Help yourself.” I swept out an arm magnanimously.
“Fuck that. I don’t needpity,” Webb grumbled. “I’m just saying, you don’t steal another man’s legacy—”
“So. Let me understand.” I dried my eyes with one hand and held up the other for silence. “You don’t want my lawyer to claim the land for me.”
“Hell no. It’s my family’s land. Always has been.”
“M’kay. So you want me to ask Stephen to stop investigating?”
He hesitated. “No. You need a title so you can sell or whatever. I’m not asking you for any favors.”
“Right. So if he finishes investigating and it turns out itismy land… you don’t want me to give it to you for free either.”
“No,” he repeated for a third time. Then he hesitated again. “Wait. You’re making it sound weird and unreasonable.”
