by Terra Kelly
I dropped my head back and closed my eyes. Before I said another word I counted to ten. That was something my mom encouraged me to do with my hot-head. “I’m not taking it from your paycheck.”
She rung out the towel and stepped up beside me. “I’ll stay late to make sure the pies are prepped for tomorrow’s rush.”
Hannah and I had our fair share of fights in the last six months. The last few weeks she seemed to not join in when I was pissed, which helped cool me off. My mom had worked in the kitchen several weeks ago. I had a feeling she was the reason for the change lately. Mom was the fixer of the family.
Maybe it was for the best. I was tired of arguing with Hannah.
She continued cleaning up the spill and then walked around me to go get new supplies in the walk-in refrigerator. I was standing in the center of the kitchen watching her every move. “Let me help.” The words slipped out before I had a chance to think about what I was saying.
She dropped the ingredients on the counter and looked up at me. “Um, you don’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t, but I want to.”
Hannah glanced around the room. The other employees had already left for the night. We were alone which happened more often because I didn’t want to pay everyone. Farm life was not easy and paying employees was difficult some months. I wasn’t trying to be cheap; it just made sense having Hannah and I do the brunt of the prep work.
“Sure.” She handed me a knife. “Want to dice-up the apples?”
“Why do I always get that job?”
“You’re better at it.”
“Hardly.” I laughed and stepped up beside her to grab the knife. “You’re the chef, remember.”
She dropped the spoon in the bowl and sighed. “Jesse, can you not do that?”
“Do what?”
She rolled her eyes. “Try to start a fight. I just want to get this done and go home.”
I didn’t say another word.
We worked in silence for the next two hours. The radio was playing in the background but it didn’t help my busy mind. Right as I rolled the last pie and placed it in the pan, Hannah clapped her hands together. “Last one complete.” She covered the pan and took it to the walk-in cooler. As she walked out of the cooler I was standing in the way. “Jesse.”
“Tell me something.” I took another step toward her. “Are you happy here?”
She looked confused by my question. “Yeah, of course. Why are you asking me that?” She ducked below my arm and walked over to the sink to wash the remaining dishes.
I followed her over to the sink and stood directly behind her. “Good.” That’s all I said. There was more I wanted to say but I wasn’t ready. It was easier to be pissed off. The moment I was near Hannah at the sink it was like I lost my voice. “I need to go.” I quickly stepped away. “See you bright and early tomorrow.”
My hand was on the back door. “Jesse.”
“Yeah?” I didn’t turn around.
“See you tomorrow.”
I didn’t respond. I just opened the door and left. Before I headed to my loft above the barn on the property, I made my way over to the main house. I needed to talk to Mom.
“Jesse,” Mom said and walked over to give me a hug. Her house was only a few feet away from the kitchen. “This is a surprise.”
“Hey, Son.” Zinger said and squeezed my shoulder. “Are you staying for dinner?”
“Um, sure.” I glanced at the table. There was a casserole dish full of what looked like lasagna. “Mom, can I talk to you for a moment?”
“Sure, honey. Everything okay?” She grabbed a cup from the cabinet and poured some sweet tea for me.
“Well, yeah, it is.” I took a sip and collected my thoughts. “Do you think I try to start fights with people?”
“Why are you asking such a thing?” Janie, my mom reached for my hand.
“Hannah said something tonight.” I sat down at the kitchen table. “Maybe I’m overthinking it.”
She sat down beside me and reached for my hand. “Jesse, you know I love you.”
“But.”
“But, yes, you do.” She squeezed my hand. “You know that hot-head of yours.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Well, this is great.”
“Why, is Hannah quitting?” She looked worried.
“No, thankfully.” I stuck my fork in the center of the lasagna and pulled out a big bite. “I better go.” I stood up and bent down to kiss my mom on the top of her head.
“Wait, stay and eat.” She reached for my hand.
“I need to go.” As I walked to the door mom followed behind me. “I love you.”
She watched as I made my way down the steps. “Don’t mess this up, son.”
I stopped on the bottom step. “Mess what up?”
“You know.” She winked and blew me a kiss.
Well, shit. My mom was always smarter than all her kids combined.
Four
Two days later…
“Did you see this?” I held up the local paper as I walked into Jesse’s office. Sharing the paper was starting to become a thing with me. My little excuse to talk to him. “The public is voting on their favorite apple pie option.” He was typing something on the computer. I noticed a smile slowly emerge. “Wait, you knew about it?”
“Maybe.” He stopped typing and lifted his head.
“Does that mean the cream cheese one stays?” I was trying to process his words. He seemed so pissed the other day.
“The public will decide.” He winked. “Not me.”
For the last few days something felt off. Jesse was being nice. Not that he wasn’t nice, but still. “Are they voting on just the two options?” I had about three other ideas but he didn’t want to talk about any new recipes the other day.
He stood and walked around his desk. “Maybe. Depends on what I think about the other options.” It was weird, my body started to have this odd feeling that ran down my spine and stopped smack dab at my core. Fuck. He stopped directly in front of me. “Should we test some recipes today?” He tucked his hands in his pants pockets. “The daily count for pies are all made, so we would just be prepping for two days from now.”
“Or we could have fun testing and put off making extra pies for the customers.”
“Or we could do that.” He surprised me by reaching his hand forward and tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Jesse,” I whispered. “What are you doing?” I had thought about his touch. Hell, I even dreamt about what it would be like to have him touch me. There were several nights where I had to tend to my desires. Never in my wildest dreams did I see him showing me kindness. He seemed to enjoy fighting with me more.
“I don’t know.” He pulled his hand back. “Should I keep my hands to myself?”
“Um…” I quickly turned and left the room. “That’s up to you.”
“Up to me,” he said in a husky voice. “All up to me?” He was directly behind me now. I could feel his breath on my skin.
Was this really happening? I turned to face him. “Jesse, what are you doing?”
He took one step back. “I thought we were going to make some new recipes together.”
“Not that.” I circled my hands in between us. “This.”
He stood there staring at me for the longest moment. I wondered what he was thinking. Then he inhaled and slowly let it out. “I’m an asshole, Hannah.”
Well, that was not at all what I expected him to say.
“Come again? And tread lightly because I don’t want you to lose your man card with your answer.” I was trying to process his words and struggling not to laugh.
“Ha ha,” he rolled his eyes and continued. “Can we start over?” He leaned his body against the three-compartment sink and crossed his arms over his chest.
“What are we starting?” Now he had me curious.
“Everything. Us.”
“There’s an us?”
“Well, I mean…”
He uncrossed his arms and pushed off the sink. Before he could step away I placed my hand on his forearm. “Hannah, I know I’ve been tough on you.” I pulled my hand away and waited for him to continue. “My mom made that clear the other night.”
“Your mom is a wise woman.” I was starting to enjoy this conversation. For several months now all we did was argue. It was just our thing. I was trying to figure out what changed his mind. Why was he all of the sudden wanting to be nice?
“She is.” He dropped his head and kicked his foot back and forth a few times.
“Hey,” I moved my hand to his shoulder. “If we’re getting all personal here, can I ask a question?”
“Of course.”
“What changed your mind?”
“If I say my mom, is that weird?”
I burst out laughing and quickly covered my mouth. “Maybe just a little.” I put my index finger and thumb a quarter inch apart.
“Only a little?” He shook his head and pushed my finger and thumb apart further. “More like this.”
“Yeah, that’s fair.” I wrapped my hand around his. “What did your mom say to change your mind?”
“There’s just something about you that caused my shift.” He rubbed his thumb back and forth over my skin causing goosebumps to form. “Then my mom confirmed everything.”
“She said you’re an asshole? I find that hard to believe.”
“Well, she used the word hothead.”
“Which is much nicer.”
“She is a nice woman.”
I finally decided to make the first move. I stepped forward leaving only a small amount of space in between us. “Enough about your mom.” Then I placed my hands on his chest.
“Shit.” He sighed and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Hannah.”
“Is this wrong?”
“No, it’s the very opposite.”
I moved my hands up further and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I couldn’t agree more.” Without thinking I combed my fingers through his hair. “This is much nicer than arguing.” As I continued to run my fingers up and down his scalp, he closed his eyes. “I bet we could get so much more done, too.”
“You think?” He opened his eyes and leaned in closer.
“Oh yeah, think about how productive we could be.” It felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest it was beating so fast. “Every time we argue, we stop working.”
“We may have a new problem now though.” He brushed his nose back and forth against mine.
“Oh yeah, what’s that?”
“I’ll want to touch you more. Which is a problem because it violates the handwashing rules.”
“And we can’t have that.” I finally cleared the distance and lightly kissed him. “The health department would have a field day.”
“Hannah Porter,” he whispered.
“Jesse Appleton,” I whispered back.
Finally after all this time I was getting exactly what my body craved.
Five
Jesse
I tightened my hold around Hannah’s waist and deepened the kiss. She felt so good in my arms. Now I could feel what I had been missing all this time. Why did I have to be such a hothead?
Hannah pulled back a few inches and smiled. “Shouldn’t we be making apple pies?”
“Probably. I think this is more fun though.” I brushed my finger down the side of her face and leaned in to kiss her again. “This is probably against all the food safety codes.”
“So a quickie in the walk-in cooler is probably out of the question?” My eyes went wide. I honestly thought she was being serious, until she winked. “Jesse.” She slapped my chest. “I was kidding.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but it does sound like fun.”
“No.” She stepped away from me. “Absolutely not.”
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. “Not feeling adventurous?”
“I can be adventurous. That is just gross.” She gasped. “Wait, please tell me you’ve never ever done that before?” I paused. “Oh my shit, you did.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“But you didn’t answer right away.”
“So.”
“I don’t believe you.”
I shrugged my shoulders and walked over to grab a large metal bowl. “What do you want me to say?” I grabbed a spatula. “I really haven’t. My mom would kill me.”
She burst out laughing. “How the hell would mommy find out that?”
“Moms have eyes in the back of their heads.”
She was still laughing as she walked over to the walk-in cooler. “With Janie, I do believe that’s true.”
“Right?” I chuckled and realized I was truly an idiot. Plain and simple.
Hannah Porter was not so bad.
She also didn’t really flash her chef credentials in my face. I did that all on my own.
I watched her as she stepped out of the walk-in cooler. “What?” She glanced behind her and back at me.
“Nothing.” I rested my hands on the counter. “You mentioned you had a few other apple pie recipe ideas.”
“I do.” She placed two packages of cream cheese on the counter. “I wanted to test adding chocolate.”
“In the pie filling or on the pie?”
“Oh,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest. “You know what? I was thinking in but maybe on would be better.”
“Let’s test both ways.” I waked over and grabbed the milk crate of apples sitting on the pantry shelf. “You get to dice the apples this time.” I sat the crate down in front of her.
“Oh, is that how it’s going to be?” She grabbed a knife and quickly started to sharpen it.
“Yup, it is.” I was kidding of course but it was fun messing with her. Before she could say another thing I grabbed an apple and started to peel it.
“Wait, that’s my job.” She bumped my hip.
I don’t know what happened, but I had this urge to throw her on the counter. For six months I worked alongside Hannah and not once did I think about fucking her. Now I had this urge and it wouldn’t go away. I glanced over just as she made the first cut into the apple. Even the way she moved the knife was causing my cock to stir.
Now I was being ridiculous.
“You okay?” She sat her knife down and turned to face me.
“What? Oh yeah, totally fine.” I started to cut the apple but stopped halfway through. “That’s a lie.”
“What’s a lie?”
“I’m not okay.”
“Oh, what’s wrong?”
I turned to face Hannah. “It was easier to be mad at you.”
“Oh, are we going back to that?”
I shook my head. “No, not at all.”
“I’m confused.”
“Me, too.” I grabbed her wrist and turned her to face me. “I feel guilty.”
“Jesse, I was an asshole, too.”
“So now that we’ve established that we were both asshats. Does that mean we can have a fresh start?”
“We can do whatever the fuck we want.” She pulled me closer and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Can you let go of the past?”
“I need to work on my issues.”
“That’s not what I asked. Can you let go of the past?”
I rubbed my hands up and down her arms. “I think so but I’ve never tried before.”
“Well, it’s the perfect time to start.” She leaned up and quickly kissed me. “I hate holding grudges.”
She moved out of my arms and grabbed the knife to continue cutting the apple. “So because you hate grudges, I have to hate them, too?”
“Pretty much.” She winked and pointed at the knife in the apple. “We need to get these apples prepped. I do need to go home at some point.”
“You have a hot date or something?” I was teasing of course.
“No, if you must know, my cat does enjoy my company.”
/> I pushed the knife down through the core. “Well, let’s hurry up then, we don’t want to keep the little guy waiting..”
Going from angry to joking was a big shift.
It was nice laughing with Hannah. I planned to do a lot more in the near future.
Six
Hannah
“How are we going to decide now?” I held a pie in one hand that had chocolate chips mixed into the apple pie filling. In my other hand was an original apple pie recipe with chocolate ganache drizzled on top. “We need to ask your family.”
“That’s a great idea.” He took another bite.
“But that means you can’t eat all the samples.” I reached forward and grabbed the piece in his hand.
“Hey.” He attempted to reach forward to take it back but I turned my body away from him.
“Nope, we have to save some for your family.” I bent forward to shield the pie. Jesse quickly leaned in and wrapped his body around mine.
“Oh, are we interrupting something,” a voice said from behind us. “We can come back later.”
Jesse jumped away and stood to face the mystery person. It was Autumn and Levi. Well that was awkward. “I almost dropped a pie,” I said and was obviously lying.
“She needed help with something.” At the same moment I spoke, Jesse said something, too.
“So which was it, you dropped something or needed help with something?” You could tell Autumn was trying hard not to laugh.
I cleared my throat and sat the mangled pie on the counter. “Did you need anything?” It felt easier to change the subject.
“Yeah, we need to know how you are both doing?” Levi chuckled.
“Actually, we were getting ready to head up to the house, but we’ll ask you here.” Jesse walked over and grabbed two small paper plates. “We need help deciding on another new apple pie variety.”
“That involves chocolate.” Autumn walked closer to the table and grabbed a couple chocolate chips to pop in her mouth. “We’re not done with the other conversation, but you have me curious right now.”
I cut each pie in half. “Adding chocolate is a great idea. The problem is, in it or on it?” I sat a half of each on their plates. “Or if you don’t like either of them, that’s an option too.”
