“Shelby,” Ashton looked at me suspiciously then at the wobble wagon. We decided to take our daughter to the apple orchard for the first time. “What is that thing?”
I looked at him like he was stupid. I should have known he didn’t know what a wobble wagon was. This was his first shot at a small town life. He is used to the fast going LA life, but here he is with me, at the Rustin Orchard.
I’ve been here every year since I was a little baby, which made me sad that Isla is four before we decided to take her.
“It’s a wobble wagon.” I replied.
“Oh, what does it do?”
I was literally laughing on the inside. I tried to hide it though, he doesn’t like when I laugh at him.
“It’s a wagon and it wobbles.”
“That would make sense.”
“It would, wouldn’t it,” I laughed.
“So, do we like, ride it?” Oh my gosh this guy is so oblivious. I freakin’ love him!
“I mean if Isla wants to ride it, you can too. I’m not riding it after giving birth to two of your kids. It's makes you sick.”
“I kind of really want to ride it,” he said. Then he picked up Isla for she was only four and put her on his shoulders. His muscles showed through his shirt and his hair blew in the wind. “Do you want to ride that, Isla?” He pointed to it.
“Yes, yes, yes!” She replied. I honestly don’t know if she was even looking at the wagon. Her eyes obviously didn’t follow Ashton’s finger.
We walked over and they got in line. I stood with the other mama’s who didn’t ride. I felt kind of awkward with them because none of them were my age. I was way too young to have a kid the age of four. Or in general, I was too young to have a kid at all.
They all knew my story though, I’m Shelby Booker for gosh’s sake. I am trending on most searched almost every week on Google.
People were getting off of the wagon, I could tell that Ashton was excited to get on. He was more excited then our child.
I watched them from afar as he put Isla on one of the sitting places and buckled her in. Then, he sat behind her. I got a few pictures but they weren’t really quality. I sort of wished we had brought our filming camera, but we decided that we weren’t going to make any videos this week. It’s family time.
I stood and watched them take off, I believed it was going to be a short ride but I actually had no clue.
I got my phone out and started checking some emails. Mostly, junk. Then, I got on Instagram and started scrolling through other celebrities content. Really nothing too exciting.
I watched as the wobble wagon returned, and Isla looked like she had seen a ghost.
“Was it that bad?” I asked.
“That was horrible,” she uses big words, “I thought I was going to fling into the thor bushes.” Yes, my daughter calls thorn bushes thor bushes.
“I thought I was going to throw up,” Ashton told me.
“Oh I’m sorry,” I said, picking my daughter up and putting her on my side. Isla was shaking with fear, “Do you want to go pick apples now?” I asked with that voice you give babies.
“Yeah!” She was happy now, though still trembling. “I’m so sorry dear,” I pulled her close to my chest as we walked to get a basket.
Ashton grabbed one and we walked through the big red barn to where the apple trees are. “That is a lot of trees!” He said in awe.
“Yeah,” I replied blandly.
“We should plant a bunch of trees like this at our house.” We live in one of the biggest mansions in Beverly Hills. ‘When you got money, spend it’ is kind of the motto we live by. We had room for an apple orchard in our backyard. I just wasn’t a fan of the idea.
“Yeah no,” I said.
“Well of course it wouldn’t be apples,” he retorted, “I don’t even like apples. It would be oranges or lemons or something. We should seriously have a lemon farm. It would be so fun!”
“You don’t like apples?!” I shrieked.
“How do you come to an apple orchard and not like apples?” Isla asked. She is just as sassy as me.
“Well Isla, one day you will do stuff you don’t like for the people you love.” Ashton is so good to our children.
Isla laughed, “Love.”
“You’ll understand one day, but not until you're 80. Boys are bad.” He is so hot, I really wanted to kiss him but I had Isla on my hip.
“Isla, can you walk? You are bothering my hip.”
“Ok,” she sounded so sad as I sat her on the ground.
Ashton looked at the trees. “So, do we just pick them?”
“Why did I marry someone so oblivious?”
“Love.”
“I guess you can call it that.” I paused, “But hey, since you don’t like apples, let's go back to where the yellow ones are because they are the best.”
“You’re the boss,” he said as he followed me back to where the yellow apple trees are. “This says they are ‘golden delicious.’” He said reading a sign.
“Yeah, they are delicious.” I picked one off of the tree and put it in the bucket that Ashton was carrying.
Isla went to pick one off of the ground. She picked it up and it was brown and mushy. “Here mom,” she handed it to me.
“Thanks, I guess.” I said putting it back on the ground. She picked it back up.
“Why did you put it on the ground, mom?”
“Yeah mom?” Ashton mimicked.
“Well Isla, you see how it is brown and mushy and all over your hands? That means it is not good to eat.” She looked at me confused.
“It is still good to eat!” Isla bit the rotten decomposing apple. Then, she spit it back out, “That is nasty!”
She handed it to me.
“You try the nasty apple mommy,” I looked at the apple in disgust. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I did the only reasonable thing I could think of. I threw the apple at Ashton.
“You try it,” I said. It hit his arm and fell to the ground. Then he picked it back up.
“No shelby, I think our daughter wants you to try it.” He threw it back at me.
“Hey, let’s not throw the apples because I kind of got in trouble for throwing apples around here when I was a kid.”
“You rebellious child!”
“Do you know me?” I looked at him like her was stupid.
“Yes, yes I do.” He dropped the apple bucket and pulled me by the hips to kiss him.
“Eww,” Isla said. “PG, PG.”
We ended up picking up our dropped apples and finished picking ripe ones. Isla did not eat a rotten one ever again. Then, we bought our apples and left. We went back to my parents-- where we were staying. Lastly, we reunited with baby Ily.
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5 comments
I liked the way you built of the characters, and I really enjoyed this story!
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Thank you!
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I liked the little pieces of backstory you put in, it made me want there to be more to read!
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Amazing! A wonderful read!
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Thank you so much!
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