Chapter Nine
F elix
Felix smiled across the long dining table that took up most of the back patio of his parent’s house as he watched Autumn laughing with Beckett’s fiancée Willa and Aiden’s girlfriend Nicole.
The morning of today’s family luncheon had seen Felix pacing his bedroom, worrying about how she would react to so many “new” people at one time, but it had been all for nothing because his best friend was dealing with it all like the amazingly strong woman he’d always known her to be.
There had been a few moments earlier when Felix had panicked, wondering if Autumn would decide to go with her parents, but she had stayed.
Hearing her say that she felt at home with him had filled his heart with happiness, helping to suture some of the open wounds that had formed in the aftermath of her accident.
While she could have been talking about Applewood, the orchard, or even their apartment, somehow Felix knew she had been talking about him.
The Autumn he knew and loved was still in there somewhere, but even if she never fully remembered him the way she had before, Felix would do everything in his power to convince her to give the man she was getting to know now a chance.
“Felix.” Autumn’s mother Regina was looking at him expectantly. “How is your cider business? When we left it was just getting off the ground. Autumn’s told us a little, but I imagine it’s grown quite a bit from the farmer’s market if you have your own space downtown now.”
Felix nodded, happy to talk cider with anyone who would listen.
Even though Lottie was looking after the bar, he’d still had to keep up on his cider making or risk losing a few batches he had aging at the moment.
“It is definitely a bigger undertaking now than it used to be, but I still love it.” He looked over to see Autumn watching him and couldn’t help smiling at her.
“If you like, after lunch I can walk you guys over to my little cider shack and give the tour. I’ve got to check on my apple and grape hybrid brew anyway, so it’s the perfect excuse. ”
“Not sure I want to peek behind the curtain, but I could go for a taste,” her dad Joe said. “Do you think I could get a bottle or two while we’re here? I’m going to need something to do while we’re in town, and it seems like sampling cider might be one of the more fun activities.”
Felix chuckled, happy to spread the love of a good hard cider around to anyone who was interested. Keeping Autumn’s parents in good spirits was another motivating factor. The longer they stayed in Applewood, the less likely they would be to try and drag Autumn back to Phoenix again.
“I think I can spare a little, though I can’t promise you’ll be too keen on the flavor.” Anytime he’d gone to Autumn’s house for dinner, her dad had always enjoyed the meal with a small glass filled with football brown liquid. “If I recall correctly, you’re more of a whiskey man.”
Joe smiled and clapped Felix on the back. “That is a fact, but I will happily expand my horizons. Especially if it’s free.”
Felix’s dad joined in on the laughter as stood up and started gathering plates. “If you’re that hard up for a distraction, Joe, Travis and I could use some help grafting our trees if you want to get a taste of that old farm life.”
All of the color drained from Travis’s face at their dad’s suggestion. The man was nothing if not dedicated to the orchard and allowing a stranger to touch his trees was like sacrilege to him. Their dad might as well have suggested the man light a match near the driest tree.
Joe barked a laugh, and put a hand on his large belly.
“I hardly call my having taught at the community college over in Redbrook farm life, but it is still a far cry from my job at the college downtown in the city.” He rubbed his bald head and smiled apologetically.
“Think I’ll take a rain check on the grafting and just stick to the cider. ”
Travis audibly exhaled his relief before standing and helping his father with the plates, Felix shaking his head at his brother who seemed unable to deal with change.
The man was far too inflexible. His mom dishing out her famous blueberry crumble to the group had Felix’s mind off his brother and onto the sweet dish in front of him.
It was one of his favorite desserts, but he was feeling absolutely stuffed from the pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw Aiden had made.
The longer he looked at the purple pastry, the more Felix felt like his belt might unbuckle from the pressure applied by his belly.
“If it’s alright with everyone, I think I’ll go check on that batch right now.” Felix patted his slightly rounded stomach as he stood, hoping the stretch would help digest the veritable buffet that sat in his gut like a rock. “I need to walk off all that food anyhow.”
Felix walked around to where Autumn sat and placed a hand on her shoulder. When her blue eyes met his, she was already nodding. “I’ll be fine. Go ahead.”
Smiling at them still having the ability to communicate silently, Felix turned only to stop when he heard the words, “I’ll go with you,” spilling from Beckett’s mouth. Kissing his fiancée on the cheek, he stood and slapped Felix on the back.
The next thing Felix knew, all four of his brothers had left the table and were walking with him toward his cider shack.
Gazing around at their concerned faces, he rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh at their acting like mother hens.
“I hope you all realize that you’re not at all subtle,” he griped.
Their blatant attempt to check up on him was touching, but unnecessary.
“I’m fine. I already had my little Come to Jesus talk with Lottie last night. ”
Nate snorted, but luckily Beckett cut him off before he could launch into another lengthy diatribe about the woman and her gossipy ways.
“Well, I’m glad you had someone to talk to, but you can’t fault us for being concerned.
” He clasped Felix’s shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze as they stepped into the brown wooden shed Felix had converted into his cider brewery years ago.
“Watching someone you love lose a piece of who they are sounds rough, and we can’t just sit back and not check in on our baby brother. ”
Felix balked at being called a baby, but reminded himself that Beckett said it with love.
Stepping over to his latest cider concoction and checking the seals on the growlers to make sure they were airtight, he shot a look at the other men.
“Where was this concern when we were growing up and you would ditch me during hide-and-seek?” He finished checking his bottles and spun around on his brothers.
“One time, I stayed out in those trees for almost an hour.” All four of the men looked slightly ashamed, and Felix swore he could hear one of them snickering a little. Assholes.
“We’re sorry about that,” Aiden said. Felix raised a brow to call him on his bullshit because if anyone had been the leader of the campaign to ditch him, it was the eldest Kemp.
It was hard to feel too upset since Felix couldn’t imagine wanting to hang out with someone almost a decade younger than him when he was a teen either, but it was still a dick move.
“Okay, maybe not sorry, but we can all recognize how immature of us that was, but we’re older now and yeah, we’re concerned about you, Felix.
” In a rather uncharacteristic display of warmth, Aiden pulled him into a hug.
Felix had seen the man soften ever since Nicole came into his life, and he had to admit that it felt good to get a hug from the brother he’d always looked up to while also always being the slightest bit afraid of him.
“What are you doing?” He mumbled into Aiden’s shoulder.
Aiden scoffed and held him tighter. “Hugging you, dumbass.”
Felix felt Aiden nod against him and the next thing he knew, he was in the middle of a Kemp brother dogpile.
Strong arms enveloped him, and despite him having thought it unneeded moments ago, he got a little choked up at the care his brothers were showing him.
It wasn’t unusual for any of them to hug, but all of them together had him feeling like crying again.
After a solid minute of embracing, Felix wiggled his body to disperse the large group. “Alright, alright,” he sniffed. Surreptitiously wiping a couple of tears away, he shoved at his brothers lightly. “Thank you for that, but I really think I am going to be okay.” He hoped he would anyway.
Felix always tried to look on the bright side, to see the silver lining in the storm clouds, but that was difficult to do when you were facing what felt more like a hurricane in the form of memory loss.
It was scary as hell, but he was hopeful that at the very least, the friendship that he and Autumn had formed and maintained over the last decade would bounce back.
The romance part of their relationship? Well, that was still a giant question mark, but maybe with time, she would come to see him that way again.
“You sure?” Nate asked. They were the closest in age, though not necessarily the closest in personality.
Nate was just as friendly as Felix was, but he was also far more ambitious, causing his affability to sometimes take a back seat to the aggression that was needed to get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“We’re here to talk if you need it.” As he spoke, his phone chimed and he rolled his eyes at the screen.
“Well, they’re here to talk. I have to go deal with another town emergency. ”
Travis snorted. “Someone paint their house blood red again?”
Felix chuckled at the reminder. Apparently someone had painted their house the garish color in retaliation for their neighbor constantly mowing their lawn at seven in the morning. That had taken Nate a good three weeks and multiple mediation sessions with both neighbors to fix.