by Terra Kelly
I leaned my head back against the seat and thought about everything that had transpired. After my marriage ended I had this urge to do the opposite of what I was told. For ten years I let my ex-husband boss me around. It took way too long to find the courage to stand up for myself. When I signed on the dotted line and the marriage was final, I knew it was time to turn over a new leaf. For way too long I was living for everyone else. Now it was time to let myself be happy.
Ryan Appleton popped in my mind one morning after I decided to do everything opposite. He was supposed to be off limits, but what if he could make me happy? One thing was true, his dark green eyes always had me reaching in my nightstand next to my bed for Mr. Happy, my trusty vibrator.
Three
Ryan
Two weeks later…
“There’s a new restaurant in Freeland. Want to check it out tomorrow?” I don’t know what came over me, but after the hike with Grace, I had to see her again. What I didn’t expect was two weeks later we would be planning our sixth date. “Unless you had a different place in mind.”
“Um, no.” She was whispering and there was a sound in the background that reminded me of tractors. “What about staying in tonight?”
“You okay?”
“What? Yeah, of course.”
“Is that tractors I hear in the background?”
“Tractors,” she burst out laughing. “No, silly.”
“Okay.” Now I had no clue what to think. This conversation felt really odd. “So we’re enjoying dinner in? Your place or mine?”
“Your place. See you around seven?”
“Grace?”
“Yeah?”
“Everything okay?”
“What? Yeah. Totally.” She paused for a beat. “See you soon, Ryan.”
I hit end and pulled the phone away from my ear to glance at it for a moment. “That was odd.” I was talking to myself. As I tucked the device in my back pocket right as my brother Eric walked into the barn.
“What’s up?” He dumped a crate of apples on the conveyor belt where they were sorted. “Wait, don’t tell me.” He held his hand up. “I know, girl troubles.”
“No, smart-ass.” I rolled my eyes and pulled out a couple rotten apples. “For your information, everything is perfect. We’re going on our sixth date tonight.”
“Oh, fancy.” He pulled out several small sticks as the apples moved on the conveyor belt. “What was her name again?”
“Grace.”
“As in Grace from Breyer Farm?”
I scowled at his words. “No, as in Grace Murphy who works at a bank.” She told me on our first date she was a financial advisor at the local bank in town.
“You sure?” He grabbed another crate and threw them down to be sorted. “How many Graces are there in this small town?”
“For one, the woman I’m dating, her name is Grace. The daughter at Breyer Farm, her name is Gracie.” The words were coming out of my mouth but for some reason I was finding it hard to believe them. “Hey, I need to go.” Eric was saying something to me but I ignored him and walked away.
The last two weeks played over in my mind. Grace and I had gone on five dates. All five dates were at restaurants she picked and were forty minutes outside of town. Every time she picked a place, she would have some story as to why we needed to go. I didn’t have a reason to think that was odd.
Until now.
Then the tractor sounds I heard on our phone call had me starting to doubt some things. Was Grace Murphy really Gracie Knight?
I shook my head and made my way to the truck. This was ridiculous. There was no way Grace Murphy was Gracie Knight.
“Hey,” I opened the door and reached for her hand to tug her inside. “I’m glad you opted for us to stay in tonight.”
She giggled and fell against my chest. “Oh yeah, you have some hot plans I should know about?”
At the end of our second date, I couldn’t resist getting a taste of her finally. We had been flirting all night with each other, so it was obvious we were into one another. I had a feeling it was okay to take things further. The moment I leaned in to kiss her lips, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around my neck. Every time we see each other now, I have a hard time keeping my hands off of her. We haven’t had sex yet and trust me, I think about fucking her on a daily basis.
“Maybe,” I rubbed my nose back and forth against hers. “That’s only if you play your cards right.”
She had the biggest smile as she gasped and swatted at my chest. “My cards? I don’t play because I’m a sure thing, Mister.”
“Are you now?” I pulled her back and peppered light kissed down her neck. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“Now you’re judging me.” She jumped up into my arms. “I should be offended.”
“But you’re not.” I lightly nipped at her bottom lip. She groaned and finally kissed me. We immediately took the kiss deeper and I wrapped my hands tightly around her body. Suddenly the conversation with my brother popped in my mind. While she was still kissing me, I tried to talk. “Grace. I need to ask you something.”
She leaned back and looked at me. “This sounds serious.” She hopped down out of my arms. “Ask away,” she said and walked into the kitchen.
I followed behind her and leaned my hands on the large island. It took me a moment to get my words right. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing, yet, if she was lying I deserved to know. “Didn’t you recently move to Freeland?”
She gave this look that was hard to read. “Um, I’m not sure what you’re getting at?”
“You just moved here, right? At least that’s what you indicated when you signed up for the hiking group.” I watched her every move and how she was tapping her index finger harder and harder against the countertop. “It’s not a trick question, Grace.”
She let out a small laugh and pulled out a barstool. “Yeah, it’s a bit more complex of an answer.”
I walked over and sat down beside her. “Complex. How so?”
“You promise you won’t get pissed at me?”
“I’m not promising anything.” The conversation from earlier ran around my mind. Fuck, my brother was right.
“Ryan, I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell you.” She dropped her head and started to twirl her thumbs back and forth. “It’s–”
“You’re Gracie Knight.” I blurted out. “Breyer Farm is your family’s apple orchard.”
Her head popped up and she reached for my hands but I pulled them away. “Ryan, let me explain.”
“Please, because I’m really confused right now.” Confused and feeling upset was more like it.
“Would you have gone on a date with me if you knew my real name?”
“Um, I don’t know.” That was the truth, too. “You didn’t give me a chance to decide.”
“So you really hate the Breyer farm as much as my father hates your farm?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that question. “No, I don’t. It’s lying I hate.”
She let out a heavy sigh. “I should go.” When she stood and attempted to step away I stopped her. “Ryan,” she whispered.
“Gracie.” This time I said her real name. “I didn’t say I wanted you to leave.”
Her head flipped up and she had this look of shock. “But…”
“I want to know why you didn’t tell me the truth.” I dropped my hand and leaned my body against the counter. “I have a feeling this story is good.”
“Well, only the last half. The divorce part is not pretty,” she admitted.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I pulled out a chair and sat down.
“You don’t have to be sorry.” She smiled and sat down beside me. “My dad is going to flip when he finds out.”
“It’s funny,” I said and grabbed her hand. “My family just knows to stay away from anyone at Breyer Farm. We honestly don’t have any animosity toward anyone.”
“Really?” She seemed genuinely surprised by my statemen
t.
“Really.” I shook my head and stood to go grab my phone. “We’re ordering take-out. I have a feeling this will take a while.”
“You want me to stay?”
I stepped into her personal space and placed the palm of my hand on the side of her face. “Gracie, I don’t plan to ever let you go.”
That was the truth, too. From the moment I met this woman, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Of course, she didn’t know that yet. She was everything I wanted in a woman and more.
Family feud or not, we would figure out how to make this work.
Four
Gracie
“Wait, so you’ve been eyeing me since I was like ten?” Ryan had his nose scrunched up.
“Well, when you say it like that it makes me sound like a–”
“Don’t say it.” He leaned over and covered my mouth before I had a chance to say the P word. “I think it’s sweet,” he admitted.
“You do?” I felt a little shocked to hear him say that.
“I do.” We were sitting on either ends of the small sofa. He started to inch closer and immediately my body lit up. “I’m sorry for what your ex put you through.” He reached for my hand. “Opposites, huh?”
I closed my eyes and thought about how pissed my dad would be when he found all this out. “Yeah, opposites.” I pulled his hand close to my lips and kissed each finger. “It’s also really, really hard to resist your forest green eyes.” As I said the words, I looked right into his eyes. “Really hard.”
“Even when I was ten?”
“Maybe,” I shrugged my shoulders.
“Wow, and here all this time I thought I was just this lanky, nerdy kid.”
“You may have been. I didn’t notice.” It was nice not lying anymore. There were so many moments in the last two weeks where I wanted to tell him the truth. “I honestly thought you would recognize me when I stepped into your office.”
“Truth?”
“From now on let’s make that happen.”
“I like that plan.” He smiled and squeezed my hand. “The truth is, I never really paid attention to your farm.”
“So you never saw the pictures of me in the paper?”
“I didn’t, or if I did, I don’t remember them.”
“Well, that all makes sense now.” When I walked into his office, I was just another customer signing up for a hiking group. “I was surprised when you didn’t notice me that day.”
“All I saw was a beautiful woman flirting with me.”
“I didn’t flirt.” I burst out laughing.
“You totally flirted.”
I pushed at his shoulder. “Nope, you have it all wrong.”
He grabbed a fork. “This is your wallet. If I remember correctly you said, look it matches your eyes.”
I threw my hands over my face. “Okay, I maybe flirted a teeny tiny bit.”
He pulled my hands away and tugged me closer. “I’m glad you did.”
“Yeah?” I rested my head on his chest. “Why’s that?”
“Because I liked your approach. I wanted more of it.”
I lifted my head to look at him. “You did, huh?”
He brushed a strand of hair away from face. “So what now?”
“We keep it a secret for a little longer.”
He sighed. “I think my brother, Eric knows.”
I sat up. “What? Really? How?”
“He was giving me shit today. Started saying, how many Graces could there really be in this small town.”
“Should we talk to him?”
“I’ll talk to him.” He wrapped his fingers around my waist and tugged me onto his lap. “Would your father really be that pissed if he found out we were together?”
“Ryan, I cannot express in words how pissed he will be.”
“Appleton Farm is not that bad.”
“He feels differently.”
“Because we took some of your business away?”
“A lot of the business.”
He dropped his head back on the couch. “How are we going to make this work?”
“Let me figure that out.” I repositioned my body and threw my leg over so I was straddling him. “For now, let’s just work on this.” I pushed my body down and moved back and forth over his obvious erection. “It’s more fun now that the truth is out there.”
Ryan wrapped his hands around my ass and squeezed causing every nerve ending in my body to ignite. “Can we agree on one thing?”
“Sure. What are we agreeing on?”
“To always be honest with each other?” He brushed two fingers down the side of my face. “I’ve only known you for technically two weeks, but I’ve enjoyed my time with you.”
I held my pinky up. “I pinky swear to always be honest from here on out.”
He wrapped his pinky around mine and shook our hands back and forth. “Good, because things were just getting good.”
I let go of his hand and combed my fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes as my fingers moved back and forth. “Were they now?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he teased and fisted his hands around the hem of my shirt. “Is it wrong to assume you’re thinking about the same thing as me?”
“Are you thinking about sex?”
“Maybe,” he winked and lifted my shirt up over my head.
I helped tug my shirt off. “Well, I hope we’re on the same page, because otherwise I would look pretty silly sitting here without a shirt on.”
My father made it clear early on that it was his way or the highway. I was old enough now to make my own decisions. As I snuggled closer to Ryan, I realized my father’s rules were going to have to change. I had a tall, sexy man with the last name Appleton who was quickly becoming my new favorite addiction.
Five
Ryan
“You most certainly do not look silly.” I slid the straps off each shoulder and reached behind to unhook her bra. When it fell off, my eyes locked onto her breasts. “Definitely not silly.” I cupped my hands around each breast. “You’re perfect.”
“Perfect, huh?” She started to unbutton my shirt. “Even at my age I’ve still got it.”
“Your age?” Her words made me laugh. “Gracie, you’re not old.”
“There is a ten-year difference.” She pushed the edges of my shirt apart and moved the fabric back. “Does that bother you?” When she moved her hands up and down my chest, I couldn’t think straight.
I wrapped my arms around her waist and stood up. “Hang on tight.” She giggled and tightened her hold. “We need to change up locations for this conversation.”
“Oh yeah, where are we heading next?”
“You’ll see.” I nuzzled into the crook of her neck and couldn’t stop peppering light kisses on her delicate skin. I noticed goosebumps form and I loved how she was reacting to my touch.
As I carried Gracie up the stairs and down the hall to my bedroom, I thought about the family feud. Well, the Breyer Farm dislike for Appleton Farm. I tried to remember a time when my parents made it clear I was forbidden to talk to the competition.
“Are you focused on me, Ryan?” She nipped at my shoulder.
“Apparently not enough.” I kicked open the door and stopped at the end of my bed. “I was letting my mind replay conversations with my parents.”
“Well that could kill a mood quickly.”
“I just don’t remember my parents ever telling me to not talk to you.” I brought my knee up on the bed and carefully let Gracie fall onto the mattress. “It wasn’t a main topic in our house.” I climbed up her body and settled in between her legs.
“So you should know, this conversation is giving me lady blue balls.”
I dropped my head onto her chest and chuckled. “I suck. I’m sorry.”
She lifted my chin up. “You don’t suck. Well, I hope you do but that’s a whole different topic.” My mouth was inches from her breast. I lifted up slightly and took her taut nipple in my mouth. �
�That’s so much better.”
“Gracie, I will make sure you don’t experience blue balls ever again.”
“Oh yeah, you think you have the power to do that?”
“Well, I don’t know about power, but I plan to fuck your sweet pussy until you beg me to stop.”
“And if I don’t beg?”
“Then we’ll have a long night ahead of us.”
“You may have just received bonus points on your man card.”
I lifted up, unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans. “Bonus points. What do I get with these bonus points?”
She winked and slid her hands under the waist band of my jeans. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” Then she found a way to grab a hold of my cock. “You need to get rid of these jeans and soon.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” She pulled her hand out of my pants and I hopped off the bed to quickly remove my jeans and boxers. “Only one thing left.” My thighs were leaning against the mattress and Gracie’s legs were on either side of me. I dragged my fingers down over each breast and circled the tip of my fingers around each nipple. Fuck she was gorgeous.
“You better remove my panties and quickly, or I will.” She rubbed her foot up and down over cock.
“Are you always this bossy?”
“Not always.” She continued to massage my growing erection. “Only about ninety percent of the time.”
“Oh, is that all?” I bent down to grab a hold of the edges of her panties. “Should I rip them off or carefully remove them?”
“I don’t give a fuck.” She lifted her behind up pushing harder against my hand. “Just decide and fast. I want you inside me and now.”
“Oh, is that right?” I looped my index fingers around the edges of the fabric and pulled them down her legs. Then I tossed them behind me and pushed her legs further apart. “Fuck, you’re so beautiful.” I dropped to my knees at the edge of the bed and inhaled her scent before letting myself get a taste. “You should know, I tend to go deaf during these moments.”