When I Fall In Love

“What do you mean? How did he look at me?” Tayler asked, apprehensive about the answer.

“Let’s just say I noticed him noticing you. That’s all. Come on, let’s go pick some blackberries—Rita promised me a cobbler after dinner.”

After a brief stop back at the truck for a bottle of water and a new basket, Tayler tried to talk Barbara into letting her wait by the truck, but she wouldn’t hear of it.

“If you’re going to be out here after we leave, you need to learn a thing or two,” she insisted. “Come on, city girl.”

With the sleeve of her shirt, Tayler wiped the sweat from her brow and followed Barbara along a path that lead to blackberry bushes. Hot, tired and ready for a bath, Tayler could barely muster up the energy to pick berries.

“Okay, honey, dig in. But be careful, they have thorns. And remember, the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice,” she said with a laugh. “Oh, I love that saying.”

Tayler chuckled and shook her head.

“No, seriously, though, the blacker and plumper the berry, the better. The red or purple ones aren’t ripe yet, so leave them. And don’t be afraid to get under there and find them berries. They’re tough—you can’t hurt anything.”

But my hands, Tayler thought. Then, she realized the sooner they had enough berries, the sooner they would be out of there, so she held back the thorns with one hand and plucked off berries with the other.

A few minutes later, she moved down farther in search of more plump blackberries. She was starting to get the hang of it and had only been pricked by thorns twice. She crouched down when she saw a bunch of blackberries close to the ground. Careful this time, she pulled the thorns back with one hand and reached in with the other.

Suddenly, a long black snake slithered from the open path, headed in her direction.

“Ahh!” She screamed, jumped to her feet and ran as if her life depended upon it.

Before she could catch her breath, she ran into a brick wall named Rollin.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked as he reached out and caught Tayler by the arm.

“A snake!” She flung her arms and looked back over her shoulder. “A snake attacked me back there. It crawled out from under the bushes and came right at me.” She shook her hands before brushing down her pant legs.

“Did it bite you?” he asked.

All she could do was shake her head.

“How big was it?” he asked, holding her now with one arm around her shoulders to steady her.

She took a deep breath. “I don’t know, it wasn’t too big, but it was a snake nonetheless. Yuck, I hate snakes.” She swatted at the crawling sensation going up her arm.

“What color was it?”

Now everything on her body itched, and Tayler pulled away long enough to shake her pant legs and notice the smirk on Rollin’s face. “I think it was black, or...what’s so funny? Are you laughing at me?”

“No, of course not,” he said as he pointed behind her. “Is that it?”

Without looking behind her, Tayler jumped and ran behind Rollin, and then glanced at the ground. She didn’t see anything.

The roar of laughter caught her attention and she looked up at everyone in the truck bed having a good laugh at her expense.

Rollin chuckled and held his hands up, palms out. “I’m sorry, that was mean. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Barbara called out, trying not to laugh, “Tayler, we’re sorry, but it was only a small garden snake. It won’t hurt you.”

With her arms crossed, Tayler glared at Barbara and the crew. “It was a snake, that’s all I know, and I don’t do snakes.”

“Occasionally, a little snake crawls under the bushes looking for a nice warm bed. Come show me where you saw it.” Rollin touched Tayler’s elbow, edging her back down the path.

Arms crossed, she stood rooted to her spot. “I’m not going back down there. I told you, I don’t do snakes.”

Kevin walked up. “Is she okay?” he asked Rollin.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine.”

“It was probably a garden snake, like Mrs. Barbara said,” Kevin offered. “They’re virtually harmless, and they do their best to avoid people. I don’t see too many of them out here.”

Kevin and Rollin walked down the path in the direction of the snake. They poked around under bushes, but it didn’t look as if either spotted the snake. Rollin picked up her basket of blackberries. She wondered what she was going to eat every day, since she wasn’t about to come back out here to pick anything.

Back at the truck, Tayler sat on the edge of the bed, trying to get her hands to stop shaking. A snake! A damned snake! If anyone had told her they had snakes here, she would have stayed in Chicago.

Rollin and Kevin made their way back to the truck, laughing with each other. No doubt she was the topic of conversation.

“Glad I could make your day, fellas,” she said.

Rollin looked from Kevin back to her. “I’m sorry, we weren’t talking about you. Here’s your blackberries.” He set the basket next to her.

“Thank you.”

“I’m sorry your first morning turned out to be such a dramatic one. Guests usually don’t encounter snakes this soon.”

“So it usually takes a few days before snakes show up?” she asked sarcastically.

“Oh, they’re out here every day. You startled that one, that’s all. Next time, make some noise and it’ll slither away.”

“Next time! Oh, I don’t plan on coming back out here. I’ll eat all my meals in town if I have to.”

Rollin nodded. “That’ll get pretty expensive.”

“I can afford it.”

“Maybe you can.” He stretched his arms over his head. “Guess I was right when I said you might not last a month. I can spot a quitter from miles away.”

He touched a nerve and she straightened up. “I’m not a quitter. I just don’t play with snakes.”

He shrugged. “Just stay out of the blackberry bushes, then everything will be okay. What do you say?”

She looked at his outstretched hand, waiting for her to accept it, then looked away. She wasn’t making any promises.

“What do you have to lose? You’ll eat some good food and might even make a new friend.”

She raised a brow at him. “You want to be my new friend?”