Page 89 of The Apple Tree

“Let me run upstairs and take a quick shower.” I ruffled Josh’s hair and headed down the hall and up the stairs.

After a quick shower, I stepped into my bedroom, rubbing the towel through my hair, but my motions stopped when I saw Eve sitting cross-legged on my bed, holding a ladle. I glanced toward the stairs before closing the door.

“What are you doing?”

“Running to my house to get a ladle because you didn’t have one.”

“I have one.”

Her gaze drifted to my bare chest and jeans that I hadn’t yet zipped and buttoned. “I know.” She held upmy ladle. “But they don’t. So you’re up here, but I’m at my house.” She winked before setting the ladle aside and leaning forward on her hands and knees.

“Take the ladle downstairs. I’ll be down in a minute. And that dog is not staying. Youdo notbuy pets for kids that aren’t yours.” I pulled a shirt out of my dresser drawer.

She wrinkled her nose and sat back on her heels. “He needed a home. He’ll be an excellent hunting dog. And all young kids should have a dog. Also, what’s up with your attitude?”

“My quarterback let it slip that you were sneaking around with him last year.” I turned toward her, tucking in my shirt and buttoning my jeans.

She rolled her lips between her teeth, brown eyes extra wide.

“I don’t care, Eve. But if you screwed my QB, I’d like to know since I have to listen to him and his friends talk about you. If I punish them for being disrespectful, I need to know if it’s justified.”

After a few seconds, she nodded slowly. “We messed around, but we didn’t have sex. My older sister told me to lose my virginity to someone who knew what they were doing. Drew was sixteen when we were first a thing. If you want to know what we did?—”

“I don’t.” I ran my hands through my hair.

“Are you mad?”

“No. Get downstairs before they start asking questions, and make sure that dog doesn’t pee everywhere.”

“You sound upset.” She slid off the bed. “If you must know, I was with Drew because his dad owns a distillery outside of town.” She shrugged. “He never noticed when a few bottles of alcohol went missing from his bar.”

I rested a hand on my hip and stared at the ceiling. “You let a guy touch you because you wanted booze?”

“When you say it like that, it sounds bad. Drew is nice. And he’s fun.” She pulled my hand from my hip and guided it around her, placing it on her ass while she pressed her chest to mine and stared up at me.

I didn’t want to look at her because she was a massive weakness of mine, but I did anyway.

“Kiss me,” she whispered.

It was a bad idea since my emotions teetered somewhere between brooding and insanity, but I kissed her, squeezing her ass. She moaned into my mouth, so I released her because I was getting an erection.

“Go,” I said.

She frowned and turned, but something in my brain short-circuited. I slid my hand around her waist to bring her back tomy chest. My other hand pulled her hair away from her neck, and I kissed below her ear. She smelled sweet like apples and sugar.

Her head lulled to the side as I unbuttoned her jeans and dragged down the zipper.

I thought of Drew talking about her.

I thought of Fred and Anne suggesting she date Austin.

I thought of the no-name who took her virginity.

I thought about taming the rebel child in her.

Then I slid one hand down the front of her underwear, and my other snaked up her shirt and into the cup of her bra. She embodied everything that made men weak and impulsive.

“You’re fucking with my head, Eve,” I said, and it came out as a growl like I was upset. And maybe I was.

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