“Do you know what I’ve thought a lot about while I was gone?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Tell me.”
“That apple pie your grandmother used to make. God, that thing was so good. My mouth waters just thinking about it. She never would share the recipe.”
Willa turned and walked backward as she looked at me, a wide smile on her face. “I have the secret family recipe, you know.”
I lifted my brows. “Do you now?”
“I do!” she said with a chuckle. “If you ask nicely, I might make it for you.”
As she went to turn back around, she tripped over a stick that had fallen from one of the trees. I reached out and grabbed her, pulling her to me before she fell. Her body pressed against mine and she gasped, either from the jolt of our bodies hitting, or from the contact and obvious heat we shared between us.
Our gazes met, and my heart raced in my chest.
“Are you okay?” I asked as her eyes drifted down to my mouth. When her tongue slowly swept over her lips, I heard a low growl come from the back of my throat.
Her whispered one-word reply was my undoing. “Aiden.”
Before I could think twice, I spun her around quickly, backed her up against a tree, and lowered my mouth to hers.
The kiss started soft and slow, until Willa whimpered into my mouth and clutched at my shirt, and I lost control. I pushed my body closer to hers, the feel of my hardness against her soft nearly driving me mad. The kiss deepened, and I knew I needed to pull away. Should pull away. Put distance between the two of us…but everything inside of me told me to hold her tight. To take what I had been wanting for so many fucking years.
Willa.
Willamina Turner was who I wanted. Who I had needed for as long as I could remember.
Her hands slowly wrapped around my neck while her fingers slid into my hair. All the nights I had dreamed of kissing her, longing to hold her, were nothing like the real thing. The nights I woke up with thoughts of her while I brought myself to pleasure. It was always her. It would always be her.
A throat cleared, and Willa immediately dropped her arms, pushed me back, and stepped away from the tree to face our unwelcome visitor.
“Catching up?” Lacy asked, holding Lilly’s hand and tapping her fingers against her pregnant belly. The smile on her face was evidence that she was pleased with what she had walked into.
Moving toward her sister, Willa asked, “Lacy, what are you doing here?”
Lacy’s gaze bounced from Willa to me and then back to her sister. “Lilly was wondering if it was apple-picking time, and she wanted to come and see Mom and Dad.”
Willa let out a nervous laugh. “Yes!” she said, her voice a pitch or two higher than it should have been. “It’s time. We’re going to start harvesting tomorrow.”
I walked up and stood next to Willa, giving Lacy a smile. Then I reached over and tapped Lilly on her nose. She giggled and buried her face into her mother’s leg.
Lacy laughed. “I see you haven’t lost your touch with the ladies, Aiden.”
I winked. “It’s good seeing you again so soon, Lacy.”
She gave me a nod. “It’s good seeing you again, as well. And yes, so soon, who would have thought.”
A knowing smile moved over her face as she focused back on Willa, who shot her sister a shy look. “Well, we’re going to keep going on our little walk. Lilly wants to see the fairy princess apples.”
“What are fairy princess apples?” I asked.
Willa and Lacy both looked at me—Willa with an excited expression, Lacy with a look of pure dread. When Willa bounced a bit on her toes, Lacy rolled her eyes and mumbled, “Here we go.”
“About six years ago, I talked my father into trying a new method of growing. We planted six acres of trees that would grow on a V-trellis system.”
I felt my brows go up, and Willa smiled even bigger. It was obvious she loved talking about the orchard. “What’s a V-trellis system?”
“You shouldn’t have asked,” Lacy grumbled.
Willa ignored her sister. “It’s where you build a trellis system and grow the apple trees on them. We’re doing Pink Lady and Gala apples. It allows you to get an earlier harvest, they yield more apples—”
“Better-tasting apples,” Lacy interjected. “I can attest to that.”
Willa giggled like a little schoolgirl. “Yes. They do seem to taste better. The way the system works, it allows an increase in light through the canopy, and because the apples don’t have to put so much energy into building large, sturdy trunks, they put more energy into the fruit, yielding tastier apples.”
“How did you know about this system?” I asked, truly interested.