Page 84 of WASP

“Okay, I think I’ve got my official guess. Honeysuckle, pear lychee, with agave and steamed almond milk,” she said, a hopeful inflection in her words as she waited for confirmation from Annie.

“Well, that’s unfortunate…” Annie took her cup, along with Max’s, setting them both on the bedside table. “Your guess was incorrect. And I’d like to collect my winnings at a later time.”

A slow grin unfurled across Max’s face. “Really? I thought I had it.”

Annie shifted, kneeling on the bed in the space between her legs, hands lightly running over exposed thighs. Max slipped a hand around the back of Annie’s neck, her lips claiming Annie’s in a rush of catching breath and laughter as she twisted their bodies, dipping Annie, kissing her deeply.

“So what’s the tea flavor?” she asked nonchalantly, returning them to their upright position. Annie’s giggle flowed through her, effortless and easy, so sweet to her ears.

“You’re really just going to kiss me like that then go right back to our conversation? That doesn’t count as my winnings by the way.” Annie swatted at her arm. “The tea is Elderberry Yuzu with honey and steamed almond milk. Summer got it in at Muffed and Stuffed this morning, and we’re the first to try it. I promised we’d give her our full review the next time we stopped in.”

Max reached for her cup, taking another sip. “It’s perfect.”

“I thought so too. I also grabbed us some muffins. I was thinking,” Annie drew out her words, fingertips gliding across the bedsheets, “maybe we could go over to the vineyard and work on the house a little today. Maybe take a walk through the cherry orchards. The bloom is so pretty right now.”

Max looked at Annie, really looked at her, knowing that Annie could pretty much ask her to do anything and her answer would always be a resounding fuck yes. “Absolutely. Leave in ten?”

Annie’s smile was the one Max knew paired with Annie getting exactly what she wanted. The same one that, if Max had her way, she always wanted her wearing.

“Perfect.”

* * *

They spent the morning sifting through piles of old things at the farmhouse, laughing between stolen dances and bites of stuffed muffins while they dodged dust bunnies the size of cats. Annie had picked out a delicious combination of banana Nutella and key lime pie stuffed muffins, and Max may have snuck more than her half’s worth of bites of the banana flavor, thankful Annie didn’t call her out on it.

It felt good to be working on the house together. Since they had moved out here in January, the farmhouse had sat pretty much untouched aside from the handful of times they had come by to do odd maintenance tasks. Max had needed to shift her attention immediately to learning to manage the vineyard’s day-to-day needs, so finding time to pour into the place kept getting put on the back burner.

Annie was always the first to remind her, in that gentle, reassuring, Annie kind of way, that even doing a little here and there would be enough to get them closer to the goal of being able to make this house the home they wanted it to be. And Max loved her for that.

Max sneezed, sending a cloud of dust flying off the rustic mantle she had been inspecting moments ago. “I think the dust is getting to me.”

“Sounds like the perfect time for a walk through the cherry blossoms.” Annie held out her hand, Max slipping hers into it, right where she belonged.

Their shoes crunched along the gravel beneath them as they made their way down the hill towards the sea of trees adorned with fluffy pale pink and white flowers. A slight breeze picked up, swirling the cherry blossom petals, making them look like snow.

“I love when they do that.” Annie smiled, squeezing her hand as she tucked herself snugly against Max’s frame.

If she were being honest, Max was definitely still having a lot of those pinch-me, is-this-real-life kind of moments. And today had already been full of them. She still couldn’t believe that they were here, together—in Michigan, on her vineyard, fixing up the house that, if everything went according to Max’s plan, they would raise their kids in. Like, c’mon—how was this really her life?

She glanced at Annie. The crisp May air, still holding the lingering chill of the long winter, turned her cheeks a rosy pink that Max wanted to remember forever. Halfway down the row of cherry trees, Annie slowed, sliding both hands into her jacket pockets.

“You know how much I love you, right?” she said, her voice softer than Max had ever heard it before.

“I do, and you know how much I love you, right?”

Annie smiled, tilting her chin slightly to look up at her as she stepped closer still, her lips parting. “When we came out to visit the vineyard last year, I told you that I was upset I met you at a time in my life where I felt like I was such a mess.”

Her dark braid shifted as Max nodded, remembering the conversation they had had in the cozy bed of the cabin.

“But now I can’t help but think about how silly that was to say.”

Annie shifted her gaze away, looking down at the scuffed toes of her boots, and that’s when Max picked up on it. A nervousness she hadn’t felt from Annie in a long time.

Her question was tentative as she asked it. “Everything’s okay, right?”

“Everything is more than okay,” Annie responded, the nervousness still there but mixing with confidence now.

Annie withdrew her hands from her pockets, and that’s when Max noticed it: a small wooden box clutched in her grip. Time felt like it was moving at half speed as she watched Annie lower herself down onto one knee on the soggy, damp earth in the middle of the cherry orchard blossoms in full bloom, holding the tiny box up in front of her—a box Max instantly recognized as her mother’s ring box.