Page 48 of The Apple Tree

“Thanks. Nice bowtie,” I said, giving him a quick glance before looking away as if there were far more interesting people than him who deserved my attention.

“See you in a bit,” he said.

That got my attention.

Kyle took Josh’s hand. “Your parents invited us to lunch.”

Of course, they did.

“Lovely.” I plastered on a smile.

He offered my friends a courteous nod before heading to his truck.

“He’s so bad. I can’t wait for school to start,” Lizzy said. She was getting ready to start her senior year.

“I bet he’s strict with his grading system. All thegrodyguys are flawed,” Erin eyed me.

“I agree,” Kelly said. She was going to be a junior. “Mr. Collins is not grody, but I feel like the ugly ones are the worstteachers because they were picked on in school. And they’re determined to make everyone pay and suffer like they did.”

“Everyone’s leaving.” I nodded toward the parking lot. “See y’all next week.”

Erin squeezed my arm while leaning close to my ear. “Stay strong. He’s old and ugly.”

He looked like every woman’s dream, with a darling little boy as his sidekick. As good as I was at lying, I couldn’t convince myself or anyone else that Kyle was old and ugly.

“Two weeks in a row, huh? Are we adopting them?” I asked my parents when I slid into the back seat next to Gabby before we headed to get Grandma Bonnie.

Mom glanced over her shoulder at me. “Kyle and Josh?”

“Yeah. Who else did you invite to Sunday dinner?”

“They’re like family because Fred is the brother your father never had. So think of Kyle as your uncle or cousin.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. I had cousins, and they weren’t ugly, but I didn’t have a crush on them. I tried to latch on to that idea.

Kyle was my cousin with a cute little boy. We were all family. Incest was not only forbidden, it was gross.

After we picked up Grandma Bonnie and arrived home, I changed out of my white dress into a denim skirt and red blouse with tiny gold buttons. I still had to look nice for Sunday dinner, but white wasn’t a good choice since we were having barbecue ribs, green beans, fingerling potatoes, and, of course, apple pie with homemade ice cream.

Gabby answered the knock at the door for ourcousinand his son while Mom and I finished setting the food on the table.

“Daddy got the booster,” Josh said to my mom.

Kyle smiled, holding up a booster seat. No Bibles would be sacrificed during dinner that day.

“Good thinking.” Mom took the booster seat and set it on the chair for Josh.

I headed to the kitchen to grab the basket of dinner rolls, but Kyle was in my way, so I gazed up at him with a platonic grin. “Excuse me.”

He didn’t move. “Are we okay?” he asked in a hushed tone, quickly scanning the room before returning his gaze to me.

“Of course we’re good. Why wouldn’t we be?” I did my best to pretend that nothing happened.

If he wanted to act like I had a crush on him, I wouldn’t do anything to confirm it because it wasn’t true.

Mind over matter.

It. Wasn’t. True.

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