Page 53 of Forbidden to Fall

As she ran to her next treasure, I shot James a harried but grateful look, and he gave me a small smile, then strode away.

Mia pulled me down to inspect three potential additions to the leaf bouquet, but I stole a glance at James’s retreating figure, wondering what was going through his mind.

After we’d acquired a dozen leaves of varying shades and colors, Mia finally agreed to make our way home.

We spent almost an hour at the bakery. Morgan had to be looped in on the tradition of offering Mia our discarded pastries, but once she was, she was surprisingly sweet to her.

Afterward, we went up to my apartment and spent some time playing princess—an activity that consisted of me bringing every blanket, pillow, necklace, and headband in my possession to Mia on my small couch—then colored in the new Disney coloring book I’d bought her a few days ago. Mia was less about staying in the lines and more about crayon-graffiti-ing every page as quickly as possible.

If I made any money from my ventures at the maple farm, it would probably be just enough to fund Mia’s coloring book habits.

I tensed when a knock on the door signaled the arrival of Ryan and Lily. Neither of them brought up James, though, and by some miracle, neither did Mia.

It made me wonder whether maybe Lily hadn’t mentioned the run-in to Ryan.

I had no doubt it would come up at some point thanks to Mia, but I was glad to save that bridge-crossing for later.

In the chaos of taking Mia yesterday, I’d forgotten to ask James if I could use his truck after work. I shot off a text to him before getting started at the bakery, and it wasn’t until I pressed send that I realized it was three in the morning. Hopefully, he put his phone in Do Not Disturb mode at night.

When Mrs. Keller had mentioned Morgan coming into town, she’d made it sound like she and Morgan would be taking about half of the morning shifts during the week and half of the later shifts so Morgan could get a solid sense of the tasks required at different times of day.

In practice, Morgan wasn’t much of a morning person, so I was taking more of them. Even though sleeping in was nice, I liked that I’d be done with work earlier in the day because I had big plans for the afternoon. Beyond picking up the furniture from Bennett, I planned to spend it baking more maple blondies—trying a couple of alterations to see if I couldn’t make them stand out a bit—and then talking to May about packaging and branding.

I felt a bit like a chicken running around with my head cut off, but I was also enjoying the feeling of having a project that was my own.

Not fully my own, of course, because I was doing it for the maple farm, but May and James weren’t micromanaging me at all, and that was a novelty.

I slipped a hairnet over my hair as my phone buzzed, making me jump. I was used to silence in these early mornings.

James

Of course. I’ll have it ready for you

Do you need help with anything?

I gave a small sigh at the second message. James was more thoughtful than your average guy, which was why I had such a hard time reconciling the two version of James: the one I’d been spending time with and the one who’d kissed Lily behind my brother’s back.

The last eight years had taught him a lot, apparently.

Not that that seemed to matter to Ryan. Or maybe he just refused to believe it.

He thought I was falling for an act.

Maybe I was. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

It didn’t seem like a probability, though.

Sadie

The truck IS the help :)

When I pulled up the road to the farm, the sight of the Carvers’ red house set against the backdrop of acres and acres of autumn-kissed maples sent a quiver of pleasure through me. The truck door was open, and James was bent over, leaning inside.

Was he cleaning it?

I was only taking it into town for fifteen or twenty minutes.

At the sound of my car, he emerged and looked at me.