Chapter 10

In the middle of June Lynne found a buyer who would take truckloads of apples to make cider out of, which meant we were going to have to expand the harvest to three times what we had done in years past. The cider customer wanted three varieties, which was no problem except that all three varieties chosen were in different parts of the orchard.

About half the trees in the orchard hadn't been pruned in years. The fruit on them hadn't been harvested anyway, so they had been let go because there just wasn't enough time to deal with them. As a result the apples on those trees were smaller than optimum. There was also a lot of dead wood, and some of the trees were in peril of dying. If we were going to expand into those areas, then we needed to start doing something with the pruning schedule. It would mean hiring extra help, but the increase in harvest would more than compensate for that.

Lynne went along with a can of fluorescent paint and marked the trees that had dead wood or damage in them that needed immediate care. Jill and I got to work, trying to get as much done as possible before the picking started. There would be a larger than normal crew of high schoolers this year, and the most promising of them would be offered part time work outside picking season.

The third day of emergency pruning was unseasonably hot, and by ten in the morning I was sweating. Our job was to get the dead wood out so it wouldn't inhibit the pickers when they came through. The smaller apples weren't a problem for the cider making process, but the overgrowth would make picking more difficult if we didn't get some of it out.

We broke for lunch, which was sandwiches, chips and fruit juice.

"I'm going into town for some things," said Lynne. "Anybody need anything?"

"You could bring me an advance on my birthday," said Jill.

"Right," said Lynne. "You can wait another month."

"It's thirty-eight days," said Jill.

"You can wait thirty eight more days," said her mother.

"It's not fair," said Jill. "You're not waiting." She looked at us both. "I heard you last night."

Lynne's cheeks got pink. "It's not my fault I'm already old enough," she said defensively.

"I'm so horny!" complained Jill.

"Jill!" moaned Lynne, who still wasn't used to her daughter being so open about things sexual. It had been almost a month since "the deal" was struck, but none of us had really adjusted completely. Of course things were still in a state of flux, to some degree. I was doing better, though, because I was playing with them both, sexually. I went much further with Lynne, of course, but the mood was there with Jill.

"You know how to masturbate," I said calmly. "Isn't that what you did before we made this deal?"

"Bob!" moaned both Lynne and Jill together. In their world people just didn't talk about masturbation openly.

Which I thought was a hoot, since these two women had negotiated whether or not I'd get to pop Jill's cherry when she turned eighteen.

After lunch Jill said she was going to change into something cooler and told me to go ahead. I waved at Lynne as she drove away in a cloud of dust.

I started an examination of one tree that I wasn't sure could be saved. There was a split down low where two main branches met, and the injury went a good foot down into the trunk. As I walked around it several times, I decided that maybe it could be pulled together up above the injury with a cable and then wrapped to keep insects and water out. It might grow back together and we had nothing to lose if it didn't. I'd need Jill to help me, though, so I went looking for her. I called her name and she yelled back.

I followed the sound of her voice and found her standing five feet above me, sawing off a dead branch. She had changed clothes after lunch, and was now, for some reason, wearing a denim skirt and a bikini top. The way she was standing made it easy to see her white panties.

"Nice view," I said, smiling.

"Dirty old man," she said mischievously.

"All men like to see a girl's panties," I said.

"My mother would probably not approve," she said.

"You're probably right," I agreed.

She held onto a branch with one hand and reached under her skirt to push the panties off one hip. Then she changed hands and pushed them off the other hip. Once down to her knees, she lifted one foot, pulled it out and let the panties drop to her ankle. She used one foot to kick off the tennis shoe that was on that foot and I jumped out of the way as the shoe landed right beside me. The panties floated down and caught on a twig above my head. Her other shoe barely missed me too, but I didn't care, because she was holding her legs apart.

"Can't tell Mom you could see my panties any more," she said.

"Careful, girl," I said, my voice husky. "You could get yourself into trouble.

"Gee," she said brightly. She climbed down two branches until her feet were on a branch that was even with my shoulders. "Ya think so?"

"Oh Jill," I sighed, staring at her young, virgin split.

She had such a pretty pussy. She'd trimmed it at some point, maybe to go with the bottoms of the bikini top she was wearing. I knew she'd gone swimming in a lake nearby with some of her friends, but the water was only warm enough to do that during July, so I didn't see her in that suit often.

"I'm SOOOOO horny, Bob," she moaned.

The hand holding her skirt up slid down and one long, slim finger split her labia and slid inside her.

"I don't want to just ... masturbate," she whined.

"Oh baby," I groaned.

"Nobody can see us," she said. "Mom's gone."

"We're supposed to wait," I moaned.

"Do you want to wait? 'Cause I don't."