Monthly Bonus Content #2 - 'Amongst the Apple Trees' (Mason Version) (Patreon)

Autumn. It’s crisp, it’s golden, it’s perfect. It’s impossible not to make the most of the days when they’re as bright as this. The ideal day for making memories.

The thought explodes from my mind as a pink-red fruit projectile comes hurtling towards me. I duck out of the way, narrowly avoiding it before it connects with my shoulder.

“What are you doing?” I call, glaring at where Mason is concealed behind the trunk of a thick gnarled apple tree.

He peeks out around it with a shrug. “You said you wanted the best ones. It smelled like it might be.”

“You could have just handed it to me. You know, like a normal person,” I groan, striding towards him, shifting what is practically already a bushel of apples in my arms before bending down to place them as gently as I can into the basket buried in the grass.

“Normal doesn’t really apply to me, sweetheart/handsome,” he states, slinking out of the shadow of the tree to rest against the trunk with folded arms. “Doesn’t exactly apply to you either.”

I sigh. “No. I suppose not.”

“Don’t take it as an insult,” he says, stooping down beside me with a smirk and picking up an apple to toss it into the air with an impressive spin.

“I don’t,” I groan. “It’s just sometimes a life without people constantly wanting to kidnap or kill me might be nice.”

He arches a brow. “I bet you’d get bored after a week.”

“But it would be a safe bored,” I reply with a chuckle. “Come on. I’ll show you where the best fruit is.”

We move off together, Mason still chucking the apple into the air as I carry our basket.

Passing through a picket gate, trees stand in strict rows, disappearing into the distant field, each dripping with juicy apples so tempting that I even notice Mason’s eyes glint with a slight hunger.

We start at the top tree, twisting and popping apples from the stalks to place into the basket. As we work, I can’t help but glance to Mason over my shoulder, watching as he examines an apple and shakes his head before moving to the next.

“Thank you for coming,” I say, brushing the remnants of apple blossom from the top of an apple with more concentration than really needed.

“You said you needed help,” he responds, tossing another crisp fruit onto the pile. “Obviously I was going to come.”

“Oh,” I reply. “Well, thanks.”

His lips tilt into a lazy smirk. “You said that already. Anyway, I think it’s time for a break.” He tugs himself up into the tree, settling onto a thick branch and leans over to look down at me. “You coming up?”

My gaze scans the orchard. Thankfully we’re far out enough from the house that it’s unlikely the owner would see us possibly causing damage to his crops.

I smile and nod.

He holds out a hand, and I slip mine into it. Settling my foot onto a thick knot of the tree, I spring myself up to sit beside him. The branch tilts slightly at my motion, tipping along the stalk until I bump into Mason.

He grasps an arm around me to keep me steady. “Falling for me again, sweetheart/handsome?”

I roll my eyes, but partly so as the fizzle of warmth that his comment sends sizzling across my skin doesn’t show on my expression. “Now what?”

“We just…relax,” he says, staring out through the zigzag of branches to the meadow horizon beyond.

“Nature is really your thing, isn’t it?”

His lips purse in thought before he lets out a long breath. “Away from people is my thing. Away from the confined buildings you humans love so much is my thing. It’s stifling. I don’t know how you cope.”

“I suppose I don’t notice considering I’ve grown up with it,” I respond. My gaze shifts down to the arm he still has wrapped around me as it slides lower to rest around my hips. I lay my hand on his thigh. “It is quiet here. Tranquil.”

“It is,” he says, his voice deeper than a moment before. My stomach lightens into a whirlwind of flurries as his crooked finger traces down the curve of my neck before he settles his face there. “But it’s far more peaceful here.”

My breath shivers out of me, but I disguise it with a chuckle. “You’re really going to try it on while balanced precariously on a tree branch?”

“No, it’s just…Can I stay here?” he mumbles against my skin. It’s not a kiss but more just because it’s as though all the energy has suddenly been sapped from him. His body nestles against mine in a perfect match to my lines. “Just for a while?”

A smile catches me. “Sure.”

I try not to move in case we topple from the branch and, after a moment, I can feel his breath heavy on my neck. Each exhale is deep and relaxed, each inhale is long and clear. I manage to twist slightly to watch him. His thick lashes brush the freckles on his sharp cheekbones, his expression the most relaxed I’ve ever seen it.

While he sleeps, I watch the afternoon sky turn from molten gold to electric pink and realise that as memories go, this one is probably at the top of my list.