Chapter 17 #2
Using another slice of bread, I mop up the last of the broth in my bowl. “This was delicious, Aaron. Thank you so much for dinner.”
“Did you save room for dessert?” he asks.
My eyes widen. “Dessert?”
He grins, setting down his empty bowl and wiping his fingers on the napkin in his lap, then reaches in the back seat for the bag.
He closes up his bowl and holds out his hand for mine, which I pass to him quickly.
After putting the lid back on and depositing it inside, he pulls out two containers.
“I wasn’t a hundred percent on what kind of dessert you might like, so I brought a couple of options.
We have the standard romantic chocolate-dipped strawberries.
” He pulls the lid off one container, revealing a row of strawberries covered in a perfect chocolate shell, each one with a white chocolate drizzle going over it.
“It’s a little hard to tell in the dark, but half are milk chocolate, and half are dark. ”
“Oooh. Can I have one of each?”
He laughs. “Of course. Have as many as you want. And then I also brought”—he pulls the lid off the other container—“an apple crisp made with apples from the orchard just outside of town.”
“Wow.” The square container in his hand contains a large portion of apple crisp, and he holds up two forks.
“Since we’re in a truck, I figured we could just share the crisp if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” I breathe. “Wow.”
He chuckles. “I’m not sure if your shock is because this is way too much dessert or something else.”
I giggle. “No, it’s just …” I press my lips together, not sure what to say or how much I want to reveal.
He specifically avoided asking why I know that people don’t always listen to advice about their bad relationships.
I’m not sure I want to bring up my last objectively bad relationship, though I didn’t realize how bad it was at the time.
Why is it that things always look so much worse in hindsight?
I did have that conversation with my sister a couple of months after Ian left.
According to her, it’s because once we’re out, we no longer have to pretend everything’s great just to keep the status quo.
Now that it’s over, I can finally admit to myself that Ian was actually kind of shitty.
Not in the super obvious screaming, punching, threatening kind of way.
Just in that undermining, sneaky way he had of making me feel less than—less smart, less important, less valuable—that was easy to dismiss and rationalize in the moment, but stands out as super shitty in the stark light of day.
“I’m just impressed,” I finish at last. “You made dinner, you bought dessert—” The grumbly sound he makes gives me pause. “You made dessert?” I clarify.
“Not the strawberries. I bought those. But I made the crisp, yeah.”
“Oh my god,” I murmur, digging out a bite of that first. “Don’t tell me you picked the apples too?”
Another grumbly sound. “I like to take Colin apple picking in the fall. He’s very enthusiastic, so we got a ton of apples. I sliced a lot of them up for pie filling—or crumbles—and stuck them in the deep freeze. No sense in wasting all those apples by letting ‘em rot.”
“I’m a little surprised you don’t have your own orchard,” I murmur.
A smile tugs at his lips, and he shakes his head, setting the crisp on the seat between us next to the container of strawberries and loading up his own fork with a bite.
“We grow conifers. There are some aspens and a few other deciduous trees on the back of the property, but, like my dad, I like to only grow native species on our land. Mom keeps a garden that isn’t all native plants, but we do have a section next to the yard that’s all native plants to help the local pollinators. ”
“Wow,” I breathe again. “You really did grow up with a big respect for the land.”
He ducks his head—half a nod, half an excuse for more crisp.
“It’s part of the deal when you rely on the land for your living.
You support it, and it supports you. And part of that is also knowing how much money you can reasonably make from it, and not demanding more than it can give.
Which is why I have a job on top of running the farm.
Mom runs the shop, of course, but she says she likes having something to do now that she’s retired.
She’s always helped a lot with Colin too, of course. ”
“That must be so nice having her nearby.”
He nods. “She says she’s glad she gets to spend a lot of time with at least one of her grandbabies. My sister lives in Colorado, and my brother’s in California, so she only sees those grandkids in person maybe once or twice a year. The rest of the time, it’s just video calls and texted photos.”
As he’s reaching for a chocolate covered strawberry, his phone goes off. Pulling it out, he silences it and lets out a sigh. “Unfortunately, that’s our sign that tonight has come to an end. I’ll take you back to your car, but I have to go pick up Colin from his mom.”
Disappointment washes through me, but I cover it with a smile. “I can’t believe it’s been over an hour already! This was delicious. I had a nice time.”
Aaron smiles at me. “Me too.”