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Kate nodded, accepting the answer. Wes liked that too. She was not asking because she wanted reassurance. She was trying to understand what tomorrow might look like.
Alan drank more coffee before saying, “I can start earlier. The crew won’t mind if I give them enough notice.”
“Start earlier, yes. Don’t start cutting corners because you’re trying to make up time.”
“I know.”
“I mean it. If the wind picks up, ladders come down before anybody starts arguing about one more tree.”
Alan gave him a long look. “You do realize I’m older than you.”
“That doesn’t make gravity respect you more.”
Kate smiled. Alan tried not to.
Then Janice called from the open kitchen window, “He’s right.”
Alan turned. “Were you listening?”
“I don’t have to listen. I know what you’re like.”
Kate laughed, and Wes watched the small family exchange settle naturally around them. There was no tension in it. Janice was not treating Alan as incapable. She knew the man she had been married to for decades and knew when “one more thing” was likely to become three. Alan lifted his mug toward the window in surrender. Janice disappeared again.
Kate’s shoulder was still against Wes’s. He let his hand drop beside hers. Her little finger hooked around his. The gesture was hidden between them, easy enough that nobody else needed to notice. Wes looked down at her. Kate was watching her father, but the faint curve of her mouth told him she knew what she had done.
His bear stretched lazily inside him. I like this.
Wes did too. He let their fingers stay linked.
Alan finished his coffee and looked toward the sorting area. “I want to make one pass through the lower block before it gets dark.”
Kate glanced at him. “Walking. Looking. No ladders.”
Alan pointed at her. “You’re as bad as your mother.”
“I learned from the best.”
This time the affection underneath the words was so clear that Alan only smiled. “I’ll be back before dinner.”
Kate watched him walk away.
Wes waited until Alan was out of easy hearing distance before he looked down at their joined hands. “Between you and your mother, Alan doesn’t stand a chance of sneaking in one more row.”
Kate smiled. “He’s spent my whole life telling me I get my stubbornness from him. He can hardly complain when I use it against him.”
“That sounds fair.”
“He probably won’t think so.”
Wes laughed, and Kate leaned more comfortably against him. For a moment they stood without speaking. The orchard was quieter now than it had been all day. Somewhere beyond the shed a crate shifted as it settled, and a breeze moved through the trees with the dry whisper of leaves rubbing together.
Kate looked toward the ridge. “The clouds are thicker.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you worried now?”
Wes thought about the question before answering. “A little.”
