A Perfect Harvest

Hannah did not follow.

Emma supposed this was all that she could expect from her oldest sister. She felt bad for Hannah a lot of the time. The eldest sister, she had only been sixteen when their mother had died five years ago, but with her little sisters in need of parenting, she had had to grow up remarkably quickly.

And her parent role had not fallen away. Their father had left her to do all of the emotional heavy lifting, preferring not to see the girls who reminded him of his wife.

This was the third year he had spent most of his time at his brother's farm. He claimed that his brother needed the help, and that Hannah could handle things on her own, but none of the girls were fooled.

Hannah was no doubt feeling the pressure this year. Before, their father had at least returned to prepare for the all-important apple harvest, helping to schedule the workers and transportation. This year he had left it all to his eldest daughter, and would only arrive in a few weeks when the harvest was almost over.

So Emma could not feel too irritated with her sister, she decided. Even if she was the closest thing Emma had to a living parent, and she could not even respond when Emma told her she was in love...