Chapter 13 Amber
amber
Sneaking into my house like a teenager was humbling. Especially when my mother was already up and waiting for me in the kitchen.
“Amber Noel Dalton.”
“Ahh geez, Mom.”
“Did you forget to come home last night?”
“Um...sort of. I fell asleep on Tate’s couch.”
She arched a brow at me. “His couch?”
I cleared my throat. “I’m just going to go take a shower.”
“Hmm.”
Ignoring her narrowed eyes, I sprinted up the stairs to my room. The last few steps left a twinge. I was sore in all the best ways.
I pulled out my phone and winced at the half a dozen texts waiting for me. I’d been ignoring my phone for days now and after the videos of Tate and me on the night of the parade, a few of my friends were dying to know who he was.
I skipped over most of the messages, and winced at Stevie, my manager’s, eleven texts. I’d have to deal with that later. Cindy’s stream of conscious texts gave me a clue as to how bad it was.
Cindy:
girl, who is that beefy dude?
You can’t leave me hanging. Tho, I bet he’s hung. DANG, girl.
You are just cruel.
I snickered and quickly fired off a response.
I’m pretty sure I officially know what a thorough dicking feels like.
Leaving that bomb, I stripped on my way to my shower.
A part of me didn’t want to wash off Tate’s scent, but I desperately needed to moisturize from the previous night.
The abrasions on my skin were staggering.
Each one made me shiver as I tried to downplay the pink burn marks.
As I was soaping my breast, I actually gasped.
He freaking left a hickey.
I finished up and started my skin care routine. One thing I couldn’t slack on was that. Not with winter already making itself known. When I was slathering on my lotions, I got closer to the mirror. My neck had all sorts of scratches on it.
“Holy crap,” I whispered and dug through my bag for one of my tinted moisturizers to downplay some of the marks.
I dried my hair and did some light makeup, then set my face and neck. I needed to dig into the back of my closet for one of my high collared sweaters. Which of course didn’t cover nearly enough of the marks. It would probably be a neon sign if I wore a scarf around my neck.
This is what I got for sleeping with someone like Tate.
“And you liked it,” I told my reflection.
God, I really did. And I would have let him do more to me this morning if Velma hadn’t interrupted me.
Don’t get ahead of yourself.
Live in the moment.
It was a crisp fall day, so I went with jeans and riding boots since we were going to an orchard.
Maybe if I brought my mother home some apples she’d forgive me.
I fluffed my hair around my shoulders, hoping she wouldn’t look too hard at me before I left.
I swapped out my tiny purse for a cross body bag with my wallet and phone.
I wasn’t sure how much walking we’d be doing.
Back in the kitchen, my mother was cooking breakfast for her and my dad.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to an orchard with Tate. Somewhere called Brothers Three, I think.”
“Oh, is that right?”
I felt the flush in my face. “Yes. I guess he’s having them come in as a vendor for Wonderland. I think he wants to check them out first.”
“Sounds like a nice date.”
“Mom.”
“What? I’m just saying. Tate is a nice man, and you don’t have to worry about him like some of the other men you’ve gone out with.”
“Gee thanks.”
My mother sipped her coffee. “I never liked Julian.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to talk about him.”
Nothing like a little slap of reality. Not only did Julian cheat on me, but he did it during Christmas. I thought I was going to ring in the New Year with a wedding, and instead I got one more reason to hate the holidays.
My mother sighed. “Have a nice time.”
“Thanks.”
I was about to walk over to Tate’s when I noticed him in my driveway. My dogs were circling the truck, barking happily. He hopped down to give them rough scratches which made them run around with glee. They were too hyped up to even stop and let me pet them.
He walked around the truck to open my door. “You look amazing.”
“Thanks. I had to use makeup in a helluva lot of places, sir.”
He glanced around, then dragged me in. “Is that right?” He drew his nose along the skin behind my ear. “Where else do you have marks?”
I shivered. “Maybe I’ll let you play hide and seek later.”
“I’ll remind you of that.” He hefted me up into the truck and I yelped.
“Warn a girl.”
He gripped my thighs. “I like throwing you around.”
“I’m aware.”
“Swing those distracting legs in.”
I spun on my butt and let him close the door. I waved to the dogs, who gave me sad faces because we were leaving. “Can we stop for a coffee?” I asked when he opened his door.
“Think we can manage that.”
“Now the more important question.”
“What’s that?”
“Can I man the stereo?”
He laughed. “Can I trust you?”
“Probably not.”
Since Halloween was officially around the corner, I found “Thriller” when we got on the highway with snacks and coffees.
Both of us knew the words and sang along. Tate’s Vincent Price cackle made me dissolve into giggles. It was a lot different to road trip in a big truck instead of my usual modes of transportation, but I had a blast singing old songs with him.
Tate had an impressive knowledge of many decades of music. A lot of people either showed off while singing with me or kept their mouth shut. He didn’t give a crap, and sang off-key with a ton of power behind his voice.
I’d never had such a good time.
When we saw signs for Turnbull, I sat forward. The old logging roads were windy and steep. The fall foliage was on its last legs, but most of the trees were stately pines and evergreens. The tree cover was so thick, the sun barely peeked through to the road.
A massive wooden sign came into view as we rounded a bend. The barn owl mid-flight was stylized, but beautiful. There was a smaller sign informing us that Christmas trees would be coming soon.
Since it was the middle of the week, there weren’t a whole lot of cars and trucks in the orchard.
But there were a few school buses letting kids out at the mouth of one of the fields of trees.
Each of the kids had a basket in hand and tore out of the bus to be let loose in the craggy rows of apple trees.
The winding road showed off the beautiful apple trees of all kinds. Miniature cabins dotted the street with souvenir and bake shops. The whole place was tricked out for Halloween with spooky specters and hidden spiders with nests that gave me the creeps.
“Mind if I take a look at the shops?”
“Sure.”
He parked at a venue called The Lodge and we got out to look around on foot. Ornamental apple trees lured us onto the paths around the property. Watching Tate take it all in was an experience.
I didn’t need the small talk. The distant laughter of kids and the heady harvest scent of fresh apple baked goods drifted in on the crisp air.
I put oversized sunglasses on to hide my identity.
My new haircut actually helped out a bit on that front as well.
It was really nice to walk around unnoticed.
The walking path lead around to the excellent views of the orchard and finally brought us back around to The Lodge and nearby food shop.
As soon as we walked in there was a tower of pies, breads, cookies, and muffins.
It was a mixture of apple, pear, and pumpkin.
Massive pumpkins were carved into jack o’lanterns or painted in artistic faces or cool patterns.
The painted ones were for sale and were tucked in every available space on the displays.
I found myself picking up jams and even an apple salsa that intrigued me. All the while, Tate was checking out how things were used in displays. He pulled his phone out to make notes every once in a while, but mostly he just seemed to be taking everything in.
While I bought everything.
We make a pit stop at the truck to unload before we followed the road to the café for some truly exceptional cider and donuts.
With a little more fuel, we walked uphill to a rustic gift shop full of branded clothing, trinkets, and the largest Christmas tree I’d ever seen, pregnant with ornaments of every type.
“You can go look around, I’m going to buy all of these.”
He laughed. “Okay, I’ll find you.”
I shoved my sunglasses up on my head. Then lost myself plucking all the sweet little woodland creature ornaments off and threading them over my fingers as I reached for the sweet little bells at the top of the tree.
“Finding everything okay?”
I turned with a smile at a woman with white hair and sharp blue eyes. Recognition hit in her sweetly lined face and I tried to pull down my shades.
“Don’t worry. We have an affinity for musicians here, though we haven’t had one of your caliber here before. I’m Laverne Ronson. One of the founding families here.”
“It’s beautiful. As you can see, I’m quite taken with these.” I held up my fingers that were doing a terrible impression of a tree branch.
“Let’s get you a basket.”
“That would be the smart way to shop.”
She tapped her nose with a wink, then hurried to the door where a surplus of wire baskets were stacked. She picked the larger one. Laverne had me pegged for sure. “Here you go.” She held it out and I gingerly placed the ornaments on the padded bottom of the basket.
“Thanks. I make up special boxes for my people for Christmas. I’m woefully behind on shopping.”
“Well, then let me help you.” She led me to a wall of one-of-a-kind gifts. “What brings you to Brothers Three Orchard?”
“My...friend.”
Laverne’s lips twitched. “I see.”
“There you are.” Tate waved and headed our way.
Laverne’s eyes kept tracking up. “My goodness.”
“Tate this is Laverne Ronson. She’s—”
Tate held his hand out. “Oh, yes. We’ve spoken a few times when I tried to get a hold of Rachel.”
“Tate Reynolds?”
He nodded.