Page 28

A few minutes later, Kate brought Penny to the foot of the ladder with her basket.

Penny held the basket up toward him. “I need the ones from the top. For the pie.”

“You heard her,” Kate said.

“Then I’d better pick faster.” Wes came down a rung and set an apple in it. “How many does a pie take?”

“Lots,” Penny said.

Kate met his eyes over Penny’s head, and he could see her trying not to laugh.

He filled the basket as far as Penny could carry it, and she took it around the tree to show Janice and Eileen, talking the whole way.

“You’ve made a friend,” Kate said.

“I hope so.”

Wes held her gaze for a moment longer than necessary before reaching back into the branches. Around him, Penny was talking, Alan was carrying baskets, and Janice and Eileen were comparing apples on the far side of the tree. Kate stood below him waiting for the next basket to fill.

For the first time, he didn’t feel as though he was simply helping the family next door.

He was part of the morning.

CHAPTER 9

Kate

“Kate, that plate was clean the first time.”

Kate looked down at the plate in her hands. Soap bubbles covered most of the surface, although she had no memory of putting it back into the water.

Behind her, Penny giggled. “You washed it three times,” she announced.

“Thank you, Penny.” Kate rinsed the plate and set it firmly in the drainer before she could wash it again.

Alan was sitting at the kitchen table beside his granddaughter, surrounded by sheets of paper, crayons and a collection of red and yellow leaves Penny had gathered from beneath the trees. They had started with leaf rubbings half an hour ago. Penny had since decided the shapes needed faces, arms and legs, and her grandfather had entered into the project with far more concentration than Kate thought it deserved. One of the maple leaves now appeared to be wearing a hat.

Alan put down the brown crayon he was holding and looked at Kate. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’ve been restless all afternoon.”

“I have not.”

Her father raised his eyebrows.

Kate leaned back against the sink. He was right. She had answered emails, helped clear away the coffee cups and muffin plates after Eileen left, made a phone call, started another email and then abandoned it halfway through because she had caught herself looking through the kitchen window again. Toward Wes’s orchard. She had been doing that a lot.

“I think I’ve been inside too long,” she said finally. “Maybe I need some fresh air.”

“Then go and get some.” Alan turned the sheet of paper around when Penny complained that she could not reach the green crayon. “Your mom and I have Penny. You don’t have to spend every minute of your visit sitting here with us.”

“I know.”

“Do you?”

Kate smiled despite herself. “Yes, Dad.”