Page 89 of Apple Orchard Bear

He kissed her hair.

Kate looked out across Bramblewood. She still had decisions to make. In a few days, she and Penny would go home. There were things there that needed dealing with properly rather than through phone calls and altered schedules. She needed to talk to Penny’s preschool, to clients and to the people whose lives had not paused simply because hers had changed.

Then they would come back. After that, they would work out what came next. Not all at once. Fate had not handed her a finished future. She wanted one with Wes, and she had decided it was worth the practical work of building it.

She turned her face toward him. “I love you.”

Wes’s expression softened. “I love you too.”

From several feet away, Penny called, “Wes!”

He closed his eyes briefly.

Kate laughed. “What?”

“I was enjoying the moment.”

“So was I.”

“Wes!”

He raised his voice. “I’m coming.”

Penny pointed toward the label. “It’s crooked.”

Wes looked at Kate.

She kissed him quickly. “Go fix the emergency.”

He got to his feet and held out his hand. Kate took it.

Together they walked over to Penny, who was waiting beside the tiny tree with all the impatience of a child who had already been told it might take years to make apples. Wes crouched to straighten the label.

Kate stood beside him with Penny pressed against her leg, her parents behind them and Eileen only a few steps away.

That was exactly where she wanted to be.