5. Hannah
5
HANNAH
I open my car window, letting the sun warm my bare arms as I drive to the cherry orchard on the outskirts of town. My pie is in the passenger seat. I slaved over it for hours, messing up at least five times before I got it perfect. I may not be from Cherry Hollow, but I think I stand a fighting chance of winning this thing.
The Cherry Festival is in a wide open field next to the orchard, the waterfall-streaked mountains towering around it. I park in the designated lot, hearing the echoes of live music and chattering crowds. The place is packed, and I recognize several faces as customers from the bakery. I was a little nervous that I might bump into Andrea, but there are enough people here to make me feel safe. Clearly, this festival attracts people from all around Crave County, not just residents of Cherry Hollow.
I follow the ambling crowd, smiling around at all the attractions. Booths selling everything from handcrafted furniture to freshly baked desserts; drinks stands dedicated to cherry coke, cherry milkshakes, and cherry smoothies; a merry-go-round and Ferris wheel; carnival games and prizes; a petting zoo; kids running around holding sticks of cotton candy, cherries painted on their cheeks, all bathed in sunshine beneath the forget-me-not blue sky.
God, I love it here.
I catch sight of Diane standing behind her booth loaded with desserts, her cherry cheesecake in pride of place.
“Hey!” she calls, grinning when she sees me. “You made it.”
I grin back at her. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
Her eyes flicker to the pie in my hands. “That looks great! You better go put it on the judge’s table. The pie competition usually starts pretty early.”
She points out a row of tables all laden with cherry pies, each with a name beside them. I put my pie down and add my name, glancing around to see if Kane is anywhere nearby. My eyes have been peeled for him since the moment I got here, looking out for his giant frame towering over the crowd.
“That your pie, Ginger Snap?”
The deep voice sounds from right behind me, sending a shiver down my spine as I swivel around, heart thudding. Kane is looking down at me.
How can a man this big move so darn quietly?
“Yes,” I say, trying not to betray how happy I am to see him. “That’s why it has the name Hannah next to it. You know, my actual name?”
“Hmm.” Kane inspects my pie, raising an appraising eyebrow. “Looks pretty damn good. You sure you’re not from Cherry Hollow?”
“Positive.” I can’t help beaming at his praise. “Where’s your pie?”
“Already here.”
He points to a pie a few places to the left of mine. I have to admit, it looks perfect. Golden and flaky, the filling red and juicy.
“Not bad,” I say, attempting to sound nonchalant as I shrug my shoulders.
Kane chuckles hoarsely. “Still sure you’re gonna beat me?”
No way in hell.
“One hundred percent!”
He smiles. “We’ll see. Either way, I’m impressed.”
“So am I,” I admit. “Your pie looks great. Annoyingly great.”
“Damn.” Kane shakes his head. “Can’t have been easy to admit that.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Wanna go get a cherry sundae? Might make you feel better about being nice to me.”
I press my lips together to stop myself from smiling wider than a Cheshire Cat.
“Sounds good,” I say.
Kane guides me to an ice cream booth, easily parting the crowd with his hulking body. I follow behind him, feeling like a mouse in the shadow of a grizzly bear. But I love it. Kane radiates raw power, from his thick biceps to his giant height. His inked forearms and wild beard only add to the panty-melting effect, and I can’t believe I’m walking around in public with this gorgeous beast of a man. He makes everything and everyone look tiny by comparison, and it sends a thrill of desire through my body.
Kane buys us both a sundae called the Cherry Hollow Special: vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, cherry sauce, dark chocolate sprinkles, and a final cherry on top.
“This is incredible,” I say, scooping up every last bit of ice cream. “This town sure knows how to make desserts.”
“Everybody has a sweet tooth here.”
Kane is looking down at me, his eyes fixed on my mouth. He raises his hand to my face and I suck in a breath as his thumb brushes the corner of my lips. The world seems to melt away as we stare at each other, the festival nothing but background noise. My skin burns where he touched me, and I’m finding it a lot harder to breathe.
“You had a little cherry sauce,” he says, his voice hoarse.
All I can do is nod dumbly.
Suddenly, I want to be away from the crowds, away from the laughter and the chatter. I want to be alone with Kane—just him and me. He seems to read my mind.
“Come on,” he says decisively. “We’re going cherry-picking.”
I blink up at him. “Alright, bossy. Let’s do it.”
The urge to hold his hand as we walk through the crowd is overwhelming. It’s crazy. I’m not his girlfriend; I’m just the stubborn redhead who likes to talk back to him. But somehow, being by his side feels so right. All my worries feel a million miles away when Kane is beside me, and all the crap from Silvercrest is like a different planet, a different world, totally separate from the happy bubble surrounding me as I follow him away from the crowd and toward the cherry orchard.
The trees are green and leafy, dotted with thousands of juicy red cherries. They stretch as far as the eye can see, glinting like scarlet jewels in the sunlight.
“You’re sure we’re allowed to pick them?” I ask, looking around wide-eyed.
“Sure. A pound of cherries each—it’s included in the festival entrance fee.”
I watch as Kane grabs each of us a basket before reaching up to pick a handful of cherries.
“I think,” I say as I raise up on my tiptoes, trying to reach, “that one of us has a slight advantage here.”
Kane chuckles and grabs the cherry for me, standing so close that I can feel the warmth radiating from him. “Here you go, Short Snap.”
“Short Snap? That doesn’t even make sense! You…you Big Giant Snap.”
“You’re gonna have to work on that one.”
I roll my eyes, biting back a smile as I reach up again for another cherry, straining my arm with all my might. A second later, I feel my feet leave the floor, and I let out a gasp of surprise as Kane’s powerful hands clutch my hips, lifting me effortlessly. I’m a big, curvy girl, but he holds me like I’m as light as the basket he’s carrying, and I shiver at the feel of his rough hands gripping me tight.
Dazedly, I grab a handful of cherries before Kane sets me down again.
“Th-thanks.”
He makes a noise deep in his throat. “No problem.”
There’s a delicious scent in the air, but it’s not the fruity sweetness of the orchard. It’s Kane. He smells like leather and pinewood, fresh and masculine, and I want to bury my face against his plaid shirt and breathe him in.
But I force myself to take a step away, heading toward a lower-hanging branch. With my back to Kane, I take a few deep breaths, steadying myself. This man is too much. He’s a walking fantasy that I never knew I had, and I’m pretty sure that if I spend too much longer with him, I’ll be nothing but a puddle by the time I leave this festival.
“Can I ask you something, Ginger Snap?”
I don’t dare turn around. Kane will see my feelings written all over my face. Instead, I busy myself with picking cherries, glancing over my shoulder just long enough to say, “Sure.”
“What brought you to Cherry Hollow?”
It’s a big question, even if he doesn’t know it. In the space of a heartbeat, my parents’ faces flash through my mind. I can still see the resignation in their eyes when they were arrested outside our mansion, the way they didn’t even look at me. I swallow hard, forcing aside the memories until I’m back in the present, surrounded by leaves and cherries and the distant sound of the festival.
I don’t want to lie to Kane, but I can’t tell him the truth either. So I settle for something in between.
“I wanted to find somewhere I could belong,” I say tentatively. “Somewhere with an actual community.”
“You didn’t have that back in Winterdale? I always thought it was a pretty friendly small town.”
I frown, squeezing my eyes shut. Thankfully, he can’t see my face. I always thought of myself as an honest person, but since I left Silvercrest, it feels like I’ve done nothing but lie. The guilt is overwhelming.
“I guess I just wanted a change,” I say, swallowing down my emotion. “A new start.” I force myself to face him. “What about you? Guess you’ve lived here a long time?”
“All my life.” Kane reaches for a branch and pulls it down so I can reach the juicy fruit. “Left for a while when I joined the military. My Grandma raised me in a cabin in the forest, and I still live there now.”
I’m hooked on every word. There’s so much I don’t know about this sexy lumberjack—so many things I haven’t figured out how to ask.
“Your Grandma raised you?” I ask, unable to mask my curiosity.
“Yeah. My mom died when I was still in diapers. Never knew my dad.”
My heart pangs as I look at Kane. “I’m so sorry.”
He shrugs, dropping another handful of cherries into his basket and adding some to mine. “My grandma was great. Gave me an awesome childhood and taught me how to bake.” He smiles a little wistfully, his eyes meeting mine. “Where are your parents at, Ginger Snap? Back in Winterdale?”
Nope. In jail.
“Yeah,” I lie. “Honestly, we’re not that close.”
That part is definitely true. My parents were always too busy trying to elevate their status in Silvercrest to pay much attention to me. I spent most of my life being left with nannies and babysitters. Being the mayor’s daughter meant I got the best of everything. Everything except the one thing I wanted: parents who gave a crap about me.
“That’s why you came here?” Kane asks, abandoning cherry-picking to stare at me. “You wanted to get away from them?”
“Something like that.”
He grunts. “Do you like it here?”
“Yes.” Another truth. “I love this town. It’s everything a small town should be.”
Kane nods. “You’re not wrong there. I love this place too.”
“You don’t get lonely?” I ask tentatively. “Living out in the woods away from everybody?”
“I guess I’m just used to it.” He shrugs. “It’s where I grew up. But sure, sometimes it can be lonely.” He frowns slightly. “I never really thought about it much until…”
His voice falters, his frown deepening like he’s said too much.
“Until what?”
We’ve been moving gradually closer while we’ve been talking, a step here and there. Now we’re barely a foot apart, and my skin is tingling at the closeness. I have to tilt my head back to look up at Kane’s face, and my heart thuds as I take in his warm brown eyes, his dark beard, the way his lips are slightly parted as he stares at me.
“Until…” he says, swallowing hard. “Until someone walked into my woods and started yelling about signs and bears…”
I’m breathing fast, struggling to get enough air as Kane inches toward me.
“Someone?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper.
“You know it’s you, Ginger Snap.”
His eyes turn molten as he closes the space between us, and my heart explodes. I feel his beard first, rough against my chin before his soft lips press against mine. His hand reaches for the back of my neck, and he holds me still as he kisses me hard. All the pent-up frustration seems to spill out of us both as we clutch at each other, finally giving in to the desire that has been bubbling between us since that day in the forest. I reach up, wrapping my arms around Kane’s neck as his tongue slips between my waiting lips, setting off fireworks in my belly.
The cherry orchard disappears.
All that’s left is Kane—his musky taste, his hungry tongue—and a bolt of need zips between my legs as I melt against his broad, muscular chest, losing myself in him.
I can’t get enough.
I want more of my sexy lumberjack.
So much more.