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I let her ramble on about them because it was obvious how much she was enjoying it. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard my mom actually speak about something with such love and reverence. Almost an hour went by before she stopped. I nudged her along with questions about a few plants, but I really didn’t need to do much. She was totally uncorked and oh boy, was her wine free flowing.
Finally, it was a little beep from her watch—Apple watch, to be exact. Dear God, what had happened to my mother since I’d been gone? She’d been wearing the same Timex since we’d been kids. “Oh, Zoe. I’m sorry, I have to put together a plant food mix before work. That was my reminder.”
“Sure, Mom. That’s fine. Thanks for letting me know a little bit about your babies.”
“I guess they are, aren’t they?”
I tipped my head, taking a mental picture of my mom here in her element. “Would you mind if I did some sketches in here one day?”
“No. Oh, honey, that would be lovely. Would you be sure to show me?”
After I picked up my jaw off the floor, I stuttered out my agreement. In high school, my parents had been supportive of my art, but after that, they’d been at a loss for my particular style. They understood the still life stuff before I’d found my niche. After that? Not so much.
I heard my brother moving about in the bathroom. “I’m going to hitch a ride in with Hayes to see Aunt Laverne.”
“All right. I really don’t want you to put your aunt out.”
“I won’t. I promise.” I quickly pressed a kiss to her soft cheek. “I’ll catch you later, Mom.”
I caught Hayes in the hallway. “Hey, can you drop me at the storefront?”
“You’ve got five minutes,” he said as he headed for the kitchen.
I rushed into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. My hair was a lost cause, so I jammed it under a ball cap and threaded my braid through the hole in the back. As sweet as my brother had been last night, he was in full-on work mode and I barely managed to catch him on the porch.
“Leaving without me?”
He grinned down at me. “Serves you right. I had both Mom and Dad read me the riot act for letting you sleep on the couch.”
I waved him off. “Yeah, yeah.” I stepped up into his ancient Jeep Wrangler. He didn’t even wait for me to belt in before he was backing down the gravel drive. “So, what happened with Cheryl? I thought she was the one.”
He gave me some side-eye, but didn’t answer. Instead, he took a long sip from his travel mug.
“Where’s mine?”
“Did you make one?”
“Cruel. You know how I like it.”
“How do I know if you changed with your big city ways?”
I laughed. “More like crunchy ways where I was. It was hard to find a decent cup of coffee without paying an arm and two legs.”
“Your idea to go to California.”
I grabbed onto the frame of his Jeep as he took one of the side roads through the orchard to cut time off the drive in. Trucks were out in full force. If the sun was up, people were working in the orchard. Harvest was still a ways away, but there were a million other details to worry about before the apples were fully ready.
The dense shadows and heavy scent of berries and apples made my eyes sting. So different from the sea-drenched air of Venice. Home. The day’s heat hadn’t dented the canopy of trees yet. A few fallen apples lay broken open by the extreme heat of the last week.
I got text updates from my parents weekly and knew they’d been worried about drought already. It had been a dry spring and summer wasn’t being much better. Today seemed to be one more in a string of hot days. Crunchy leaves fluttered in our wake and the ripe sweetness of crushed apples hung in the air.
The humidity was already sticking to me. I should have changed out of my jeans into shorts before heading out. Hayes turned up the old song on the classic rock channel he listened to when my other brothers weren’t around.
The youngest of my brothers, and the biggest fan of the seventies I’ve ever known. “No Sugar Tonight” blared through the orchard and I stood to grip the roll bar.
“Zoe, sit the fuck down.”
I whipped off my cap and tossed it at him. “Faster.”
