Page 93 of The Apple Tree

“It’s not a hundred percent.”

I wrinkled my nose for a beat. “I don’t know. If it were to happen, then I guess we’d have a baby. And I’d have to tell Mom and Dad.”

“You’re totally going to have to tell them eventually, right? Or do you think it won’t last like with Drew, so there’s no need to cause a stir?”

It pained me to think of us not lasting, but Kyle wasn’t exactly proclaiming his love to me, so she had a point.

“Did he say he loves you?” Gabby asked as if she had read my mind.

“Not yet.”

“If you got married, would Josh call you ‘Mom’?” She was jumping too far ahead.

“It’s not that I don’t want to get married someday, but I don’t dream of it like you do, Gabbs. But …”

“But?”

I grinned. “Sometimes, I imagine what it would be like to live with him and feel like Josh was mine.”

Gabby’s face lit up. “That’s so romantic.”

I restrained from rolling my eyes. But it was shocking how she went from wanting to kill me, threatening to tattle to our parents, and wishing for me to get pregnant, like it was a curse, to thinking my living with Kyle and Josh would be romantic.

But she was finally on my side, the way I was on Sarah’s, and that’s all that mattered.

“Don’t worry, Gabbs, we’ll find you a good man someday.” I squeezed her hand.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

THE BEATLES, “LET IT BE”

Kyle

“Fred and Anne are here.A surprise visit, andEve got Josh a fucking dog,” I said to Adam when he called me after everyone was in bed. I was sitting on the deck with said dog curled up on my lap. He knew he needed to bond with me to stand a chance of staying.

As soon as I could have a coherent thought around Eve that didn’t involve planning the easiest and quickest way to put my dick inside her, we were going to have a serious conversation about the dog.

Adam chuckled. “Who buys someone else’s kid a dog?”

“Precisely.”

“Josh must love having your brother and Anne there. They spoil him.”

“Yeah,” I said, staring into the night sky filled with stars. “They said a few days, but I bet they stay until next week because Fred will want to listen to Peter preach this Sunday.”

“Sounds like you’ll have a babysitter then while you hunt on Saturday.”

“I have two sitters living next door.”

“Yeah, how’s that going? Are you still being a better man than me?”

I didn’t answer. Was Eve right? Did friends tell each other everything?

“Kyle Marcus Collins,” Adam mimicked my mom’s voice. “You haven’t put your filthy hands on the preacher’s daughter, have you?”

I chuckled. “You’d make a terrible woman, which is surprising because you’re such a pussy sometimes.”

“You’re dodging my question.”

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