The Beekeeper

Abigail Mercer is a beekeeper in Prince Edward County who has arranged her life to run with the same logic as her hives: orderly, predictable, and largely people-free. Elias Bennett farms the orchard next door. There is a split-rail fence between their properties. He has started stepping through it.

He remembers her tea order. He packs extra sandwiches. He shows up in rain with shepherd's pie. He notices when she labels jars upside down. He is, by any reasonable measure, the most inconvenient thing that has ever happened to her routines.

The Beekeeper is a short story about two people who both needed someone and spent a whole season pretending not to notice they'd found them.