Page 104 of The Apple Tree

She gave me her usual eye roll while tightening her robe’s sash.

After I spat and wiped my mouth, she grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to face her. “I’m going to ask you something, and I need you to be truthful with me.”

I blinked several times, waiting for her to continue.

“Do you still have your virginity?”

I pressed my lips together and mirrored her narrow-eyed gaze. “Like … on me right now? It might be in my purse. I’d have to check. If it’s not there, I could check the back seat of my car. You know I tend to lose things. I’ve lost my car keys twice, and I still haven’t found my lower retainer.”

“Eve Marie Jacobson, stop it. This is nothing to joke about.”

“Even if I tell you I’m still a virgin, will you believe me? No. Of course you won’t because no one ever believes me.” I reached past her to open the door. “Now, can I have a little privacy to pee?”

She gave me an evil stare for a few more seconds. “You’re grounded for a week.”

I shut the door behind her and mumbled, “Of course I am.”

“Where’s Dad?”I asked at breakfast on Saturday morning.

I assumed he’d be waiting for me with a new lecture scripted in my blood.

Mom set a pitcher of orange juice on the table while Gabby had her nose in a book between bites of French toast. “Well, you’re probably not going to believe it.”

“Why wouldn’t I believe it? Is he still at the strip club?”

Gabby whipped her head out of the book, eyes wide.

Mom scowled at me. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Love me. That’s your job,” I said, pouring juice into my glass.

She hummed as if she needed to think about it. “He went hunting with Kyle and Fred.”

I choked on my juice. “W-what?” I fisted my hand at my mouth.

Kyle didn’t say anything about hunting.

Mom gently laughed. “I know. I can’t imagine it either. Can you see your dad in camouflage?”

We giggled.

“Is he really going to kill a deer?” Gabby asked.

“I highly doubt it,” Mom said, buttering her French toast. “Fred talked him into going.”

“Does Fred hunt?” Gabby asked.

Mom shrugged. “I guess.”

“Kyle’s a good hunter. And he’s really cute in his camouflage,” my ornery, instigating sister said, eyeing me while smirking.

“Kyle’s like family,” Mom said, giving Gabby a funny look. “Don’t talk about family that way.”

“You’re right.” Gabby pressed her lips together and nodded. “It would be really weird to think of Kyle as anything but family.”

Unless he had put his face between your legs and teased you with his tongue, then it would have been really weird to think of him as anything but the hot dad next door. But to each their own.

“When will they be back?” I asked.

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