Chapter Thirty-Eight

Taylin

Second guessing himself, after the week of haranguing his brothers had given Hollis for switching Ziggy and Wilder, Taylin had planned a day date picking fruit. Jupiter had laughed his ass off, and his other brothers weren't much better when he'd stupidly told them what he was going to be doing today.

Hollis needed something to put the smile back on his face and Taylin was going to do his best to achieve that, despite what his brothers thought was lame.

"Will I need a warmer coat?" Hollis asked, lifting the light jacket he held.

Eyeing the soft blue sweater Hollis wore, Taylin shook his head. "That should be fine. I checked the weather forecast, it's not gonna rain."

A furrow appeared between Hollis's brows. "So, are we going to be outside? "

Taylin gave him a nervous smile. "Yep."

Hollis's head tilted to the side and he waited with a look of expectation. When Taylin grinned but said no more, Hollis slipped on his jacket and made a huffing noise. "So it's a secret," he muttered impatiently, heading off towards the door.

A chuckle tickled the back of Taylin's throat as he went after him, clutching his own jacket. "Don't you like surprises?"

At the bottom of the stairs, he turned to look up at Taylin and shrugged. "No one's ever arranged a surprise for me before, so how would I know?"

Finding out he was the first, Taylin wasn't sure if he should be jumping for joy or be terrified if what he had organized fell short of Hollis's expectations.

He came down and stood in front of Hollis, reaching to straighten his glasses. "I've never done it before, so it'll be a first for both of us…" he came forward and kissed him. "So please be gentle on the feedback."

The lips under his trembled as they curved up. "Ok… I'll dust off my rating system."

"You're not funny," Taylin replied, taking in the gleam of delight behind Hollis's glasses.

He reached up and touched Taylin's lips. "Then why are you grinning at me?"

Taylin took the hand, slipping it into his to tug Hollis to the door. "'Cause I get to spend the day with my temptation."

"Good answer." Hollis's giggles were a pleasure to listen to and continued long after they pulled away and were heading to the Hillcrest Orchard .

The place was several miles away and offered the opportunity to pick different varieties of apples they grew: Rome Beauty, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Goldrush and Yates. Hollis loved all fruit but had a thing for apples, especially in cake. There was a bakery at the orchard too. Taylin had checked with Bowie to see whose turn it was to bring in cake on Monday. It was Hollis's, so he had the option to select something for work too. Although Hollis in an apron, elbow deep in flour mix, was a sight that got Taylin a little hot under the collar—weirdly.

"Is the heater too hot for you?" Hollis questioned, his hand pressing the dial to lower the heating settings.

The blush warming Taylin's skin upped in temperature as he swung a quick glance at the man eyeing him.

"Nah, I'm…" Taylin caught Hollis's nose twitching out the corner of his eye and he bit his lip at how his arousal was filling the interior of the car. "Behave," he finished instead.

"Me," Hollis asked innocently, his hand landing on Taylin's upper thigh, close to his groin. "I'm not the one having… inappropriate thoughts."

"I'm having no such thing," Taylin argued for form, loving this cheeky side of his mate more and more.

Hollis's fingers skimmed the crease of his thigh, inches from his cock. "Oh… what a pity." A throaty chuckle came next as the fingers retreated.

"Put that hand back," Taylin challenged, laughing when Hollis made a point of folding his two hands together and placing them in his lap.

"You're driving and we don't want any accidents. "

His laughter increased as he changed gears and slowed, seeing the sign that told him to take the second left turning. "I can always stop and turn around."

"Don't you dare. I want my surprise date!"

He hoped it wasn't a disappointment. Taylin had read there was a petting zoo and a farmer's market with other fresh produce. If the fruit picking was a total bust, then at least they could see some cute animals and grab treats for the rest of the weekend! This was what he continued to reinforce to himself as Hollis switched his attention to look out the window.

Taylin navigated the traffic and wasn't sure what to make of the odd squealing noise when they passed the large sign telling Hollis where they were.

Too busy looking for a place to park with how full the car lot was, Taylin couldn't take the time to really gauge how Hollis was feeling about their final destination.

"Over there," Hollis said, pointing to a car pulling out, bouncing in his seat. "Quick, before that other car swings back around."

Was he excited?

Taylin focused on parking, before he finally chanced a look at Hollis, who was already undoing his seatbelt, reaching for the car door. He flashed Taylin a wide grin full of happiness. "Can I pick the apples? It said on the sign we could. Did you organize for us to do that too? I want a large wicker basket. I'm sure I saw a dude with one of those. Do you think they have more? "

Hollis was already out the door and Taylin chuckled at getting no chance to respond. He got out, smelling the sweetness of fresh fruit, and came around the hood.

Hollis paid him no attention, his head swiveling this way and that, trying to mimic an owl.

"Yes I did, but I've no clue on both counts." Taylin said, working through Hollis's unanswered questions.

Hollis glanced at him, wearing a look of confusion. "Huh?"

"I'm answering your questions," Taylin explained, doing his best to hold back his laughter.

"Oh, yeah, right." Hollis reached for Taylin's hand and started to drag him towards the building. "Can we get two baskets, one each? I don't want to share."

The laughter came out this time. It didn't stop Hollis in his pursuit of dragging him as quickly as he could to the entrance. "You can have whatever you want."

Hollis fired a smile at Taylin that hit dead center in his chest. "Good, because I want everything." He stopped to reach up on his tiptoes and gave Taylin a wet kiss, then let go of his hand to skip excitedly through the door.

How could he not love him?

Basket in hand several minutes later, with instructions on which orchards held the apples Hollis favored, they headed off. The weather was perfect, not too warm, just pleasant enough to feel comfortable walking, and it was dry.

Taylin wandered behind Hollis, happy just to watch him take the less busy paths and fastidiously pick his apples. His two tongues got busy, appearing repeatedly as he sniffed at the apples, sighing in contentment as the pile in his basket grew.

When the sun glinted off the dark strands of Hollis's head, it revealed a couple of leaves that had landed there. He made for a pretty picture. His glee at seeing his basket overflowing, standing amongst the apple trees, the leaves in his hair adding to the overall effect.

"Here," Taylin said, offering his empty basket when Hollis' was too full to take any more apples. His fingers itched to reach for his cell phone to catch how Hollis looked.

Hollis bit the corner of his lower lip, sucking it past his teeth and shifting his gaze from the basket to Taylin and back.

He was too fucking adorable wearing a look of conflict as he stared longingly at the empty basket, then at his full one. "I won't eat them."

Taylin worked to keep his face straight at the look of relief that came at him guessing exactly what was running through his mate's mind.

When the swap happened, Taylin reached up and picked out the leaves. Hollis squinted as he looked up to see what Taylin was doing. "You've got leaves in your hair," he explained.

Hollis ran a hand through his hair, impatiently displacing them before Taylin could, then he was off once more in the direction of the next group of trees, labeled Golden Delicious.

"These are good for baking, as they're really sweet," Hollis said, eyeing the apples intently. "I could make some apple cobblers for Monday." He eyed the basket Taylin held critically. "I might need another basket. I want to make jam too and apple slices… oh, and maybe apple flapjacks. Then of course there are Danishes too, for breakfast."

The basket was not small and the weight he held told Taylin their current hall would be plenty, if not a little too much.

Did he say that aloud?

Of course not, he smiled dopily at Hollis. "I'll go see if I can swap out the basket for an empty one."

"Make sure they don't give my apples to anyone else," he called after Taylin when he headed off in the direction of the main building.

He lifted his empty hand, shaking with laughter at his own worry that Hollis would think this idea to visit an orchard would be lame. And they hadn't even visited the bakery yet.