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“And sometimes allspice,” she added proudly.
“It’s fine, but have you ever had fresh apple cider straight from the orchard?” I asked.
“Yes. You took me last fall.”
“Right, and it was fantastic, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was good, but…”
“But you want me to say pumpkin spice,” I finished for her.
“No,” she answered quickly. “I want your honest opinion.”
“My honest opinion is apple cider. What’s this about?”
Nadine propped up the binder for me to see. She’d pasted all kinds of photos of various cakes and recipes inside. She wore a goofy grin and exclaimed, “It’s for our wedding cake!”
I furrowed my brow. “How’d we get from apple cider and pumpkin spice to cake?”
“I’m trying to decide our flavor.”
“Apple cider isn’t a flavor,” I said. “It’s its own thing. It’s a drink.”
“No, but like… you make an apple cake with cream cheese and cinnamon frosting. It’s a whole thing. But then there’s the pumpkin one, and I was leaning toward that.”
“Then go with pumpkin,” I offered.
Her shoulders sagged. “But it’s your wedding, too. I want to make these decisions together.”
I reached across the table and took her hand in mind. My fingers trailed over her engagement ring. “As long as I’m married to you by the end of it, I don’t care about the details.”
I tugged on her arm, and she came around the table to sit on my lap. I curled my arms around her middle and pulled her close to me. I inhaled the rose scent of her hair, which always made my head spin. My fingers trailed down her body.
Nadine wiggled her hips. “Mm… right here?”
I kissed the back of her neck. “I get excited when I think about marrying you. In just a few short weeks, you’ll be my wife.”
Nadine turned around, until she was straddling me. “October thirty-first can’t come soon enough,” she whispered, before pressing her lips to mine.
I leaned back in my chair and ran my hands over her backside as she began kissing me. The stress of the whiteboard completely fell from my mind as desire for my fiancé consumed me. Nadine reached down for the button on my jeans…
“Eh hem.” Someone cleared their throat in the doorway, and Nadine jumped.
My shoulders slumped. Not again.
I loved Helena as if she was my own grandmother, but god damn it. This woman was always right there whenever Nadine and I were about to get it on. Hell, Nadine and I were about to fool around in the master bath the other night. As soon as we filled the jet tub, Helena knocked and wanted to clean. Nadine had gotten rid of her, thank the goddess, but it’d really put a damper on the mood.
“I made tea!” Helena said brightly as she came into the room carrying a tray. Isa, Oliver, and Cornelius followed along at her feet, meowing like they were waiting for treats. Helena stopped in her tracks and eyed the mess. “Oh, my.”
She set down her tray, then went to start cleaning up the papers.
“That’s not necessary,” I told her quickly. “I’ll get it.”
Helena hesitated, like it physically pained her to witness a mess without cleaning it up. I swear, all she’d done in the last three months was clean and cook. She wasn’t faring well with the cabin fever any better than we were.
Helena cleared her throat. “You should have some applesauce. It turned out perfect.”
Nadine and I had gotten really bored here at the safe house, so we gardened over the summer, then canned fruits and vegetables with Helena whenever we needed a break. Helena had found stacks of empty jars in the basement our first week here and suggested we use them, and we just… never stopped. She’d planted all kinds of vegetables around the property, and we’d found a handful of apple and pear trees near the house we’d been harvesting. I didn’t know how many batches of applesauce we’d made, but we’d started storing food in the basement because the pantry was too full. We certainly weren’t going hungry anytime soon.
