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“Mama, mama, lookit this one!” Jesse waved at her mother as she pointed wildly to a pumpkin more than half her size. “Can we get this one?! Please?”
Amanda followed hand in hand with Billie—the toddler had set the pace for their journey through the patch despite her older sister’s sudden determination to find the biggest pumpkin at the farm. “That’s pretty good, huh? But don’t you want a smaller one for your jack ‘o lantern?”
“It’ll make a good picture,” Sonny said, bringing up the rear with his camera in hand. “You girls get in close and smile!” He’d been snapping pictures all through the crisp fall morning—they’d spent the first half apple picking on the other side of the farm.
He’d found himself perplexed by the number of apples Amanda had loaded into their basket. “You makin’ applesauce at home now? Cuttin’ costs for Billie?” he joked, gesturing to the toddler napping in the carrier on her chest.
“I can’t always cook, but I never said I can’t bake,” Amanda countered with a chuckle.
Sonny raised his eyebrows in surprise and nodded. “I’ll believe it when—“
Jesse tugged at his sleeve frantically. “Uncle Sonny, help! I want the apple up there!”
Sonny glanced back at Amanda and grinned. “Duty calls.” He let Jesse lead him through the orchard to the aforementioned apple, then lifted her onto his shoulders as she giggled with joy. “Now twist and pull,” he instructed, gesturing as he spoke.
Jesse repeated the process and turned to her mother with excitement as she held the apple aloft. “Look, mama, I picked the apple! Can I eat it now?”
“Not yet, pumpkin,” Amanda called as she walked over, “we’re saving them for something special later.”
Jesse, Billie, and Amanda squeezed into the frame, and the shutter clicked. “Gorgeous,” Sonny said, beaming from behind the camera. They continued their quest for the perfect carving pumpkins, pausing every so often to mull over a new candidate. Three finalists emerged victorious, and they loaded their precious cargo in the trunk of Amanda’s car beside the basket brimming with apples.
Satisfied with their treasures, they began the long journey home. They hit the highway, and in minutes, Jesse and Billie were fast asleep in their car seats.
“I can’t wait to print these,” Sonny said, looking through the shots he’d taken throughout the day. “Too bad I don’t scrapbook.”
Amanda scoffed and smiled. “Like you’d have the time to scrapbook. How’d you get today off, anyway?”
Sonny shrugged and looked out the window to avoid Amanda’s gaze. “My caseload was light this week.”
“Liar, liar,” Amanda chided, reaching across the console to elbow him lightly, “I know that ain’t true. Not with how things are right now. Who’d you bribe? I won’t tell.”
“I… may have offered to buy lunch for a week if a couple of the clerks took care of some extra files for me,” Sonny admitted as a blush rose in his cheeks. He turned his attention back to the camera in embarrassment, eventually arriving at the photos taken in the orchard. “I told my secret, now you tell yours. What’re the apples for?” he asked, nodding toward the back of the car.
Amanda smirked, but remained tight-lipped. “Family recipe,” she said, copying Sonny’s earlier attempt at nonchalance. Her hand reached across again, this time lacing her fingers with his. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Sonny’s smile was almost involuntary. These were the moments he’d grown to treasure in the past few months—the simple serenity of being together. To him, this was worth more than any clandestine kiss in a courthouse corridor or a shared knowing glance over a stack of paperwork.
A beat of silence passed as the road noise thrummed outside. “I know Jess will say it later, but… thank you for coming out here today.” Amanda’s thumb slowly ran back and forth over the back of his hand, a silent reminder that all this hadn’t been a five-month fever dream.
“Well, thank you for letting me tag along.” Sonny’s grin only grew. “And, ah… thank you for shutting me up the other month.” That had become their quiet colloquialism for a kiss they’d shared at a time that now felt to be ages ago. It was Amanda’s leap of faith that brought them to this point. His eyes turned back to the first few buildings rising from the horizon, signaling that their final approach to the city had begun. Sonny groaned in fake-despair. “Too late to turn back now.”
Amanda sighed and chuckled. “I know. Back to it.” She gave his hand a final squeeze before returning it to the steering wheel as the traffic thickened around them. “You still up for some pumpkin carving?”
Sonny looked over his shoulder at the girls sleeping behind him. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said, then turned back to Amanda with a smirk. “And I gotta see how these apples turn out.”
“No pressure or anything,” Amanda joked, flicking some hair from her eyes. “As long as everybody keeps their fingers and the pumpkins aren’t smashed, I’m calling today a win.”
Garbage bags were cut up and clipped to the kitchen table in preparation for the pumpkin carving. Sonny flipped through a book of carving patterns with Jesse and Billie on the couch as Amanda peeled the apples in the kitchen. “Can I make it a funny face?” Jesse asked, pointing to a page in the book.
“We can do…” Sonny paused for a moment, clearly choosing his words carefully, “any of the ones that say ‘easy,’ how about that?”
Amanda chuckled at this exchange as she arranged the apple slices in the pan and covered them with the crumble topping. The pan was slid into the oven and a timer was set; the hard work was done. “I agree with Uncle Sonny,” she chimed in as she leaned on the counter, “you gotta pick from the easy ones.”
After her own moment of thought, Jesse brightened. "Okay!” she chirped, “Is the funny face easy?”
Sonny nodded and started tearing at the perforation of the page as the unmistakable scent of cinnamon and sugar began to permeate the air of the apartment. “Smells good already,” he said as he brought the kids to the table.
“I told you I could bake,” Amanda laughed as she started washing the bowl she’d used. “My grandmama would make this every year in the fall for us, no matter what was goin’ on.” She dried her hands and moved to join them at the table, sitting across from Sonny. “She’d always have this apple crumble waiting for when we’d visit all together as a family.” Their eyes met as she spoke, and his heart swelled in his chest—they were family.