Page 73 of The Apple Tree

My fake, calm smile felt psychotic. “You haven’t kissed me, touched me, said anything that’s the least bit suggestive, or even winked at me in two weeks.”

Kyle made duck lips and returned an easy (infuriating) nod. “Because I’ve been focused on working forit.”

I pumped my fists. He was too chill.

Too dismissive.

Too everything except making any sense.

I rubbed my hands over my face and then ran my fingers through my hair, and he had the audacity to let his lips twitch into a tiny grin.

“Ugh! You’re such a jerk.” I turned and stomped my feet toward the door.

“What are you doing here?” Josh asked in his blue jammies from the top of the stairs, rubbing his tired eyes.

“Hey, sorry. Did I wake you?”

“Go back to bed, buddy,” Kyle said, climbing the stairs. He framed Josh’s face in his big hands and kissed his forehead. “Bad dream?”

Josh nodded.

No. I couldn’t let him make me weak in the knees again, not just from being a good dad.

“Did you show Eve the hut without me?” Josh asked in a soft voice.

“That was a secret,” Kyle whispered, but I heard him.

“What hut?” I said.

Kyle deflated, hanging his head.

“Me and Daddy built you a new hut.”

“Go to bed, buddy.”

“Show me,” I said.

Kyle looked at me. “Not now. It’s getting dark.”

“Bring a flashlight.”

“I can’t leave Josh.”

“I’ll come too.” Josh perked up.

“You should be asleep.”

Josh clasped his hands together in a prayer pose at his face. “Let’s show her.Please.”

Kyle frowned.

“I’ll get my boots on.” Josh slid past him and hopped down the stairs, sticking his jammie-covered feet into his little cowboy boots.

Kyle rolled his eyes, taking his time descending the stairs. He disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a flashlight.

We didn’t head in the direction of my old hut. Instead, Kyle guided us further north, away from my family’s land, to where the creek snaked between a long grove of trees at the bottom of a hill.

Kyle pointed the light to the right, and there was a hut, but it was more like a treehouse on the ground, made from wood and much larger than my hut.

---