Page 98 of The Apple Tree

I tried not to laugh at her sluggish brain.

“Oh, yeah, it’s where you first rejected me.”

“Rejected you?”

She took another bite of the apple and nodded while chewing.

“How did I reject you?”

“You avoided looking at me for the looongest time, and when my bra strap slid off my arm, you put it back in place instead of going in the opposite direction.”

I shook my head, snickering. “Shut up. We were friends.”

Her head jutted backward. “Uh, speak for yourself. I’ve been heavily stalking you since you moved in. I don’t know what took you so long. You’re so dense, Mr. Collins. You’ve spent too muchtime looking at women in magazines, not having to do any work to see their titties, that you’ve become lazy with your efforts to woo women.”

I leered at her.

She rolled her eyes and pivoted, traipsing toward the fence in a crooked line. “I can read your mind. Just say it.”

I chuckled. “I promise, there’s no way you’re reading my mind.”

Eve popped the apple core into her mouth and climbed over the fence. “You love me, too. And you love Clifford.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but my heart climbed up my throat to block the words as it whisperedlet it be.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHRIS DE BURGH, “THE LADY IN RED”

Eve

With Fred and Anne visiting,I did not need to watch Josh for the rest of the week, which left lots of time to distract Erin from studying.

“This can’t go on forever. If you love him, you have to tell your parents,” Erin said, looking up from her textbook as I spun in circles in her desk chair while she sat on her bed with Clifford.

My dad insisted I find a new home for the puppy, so I took him with me to work and pretended I was doing my best, but the look on Josh’s face when Clifford ran to him after school prevented me from being serious about my rehoming promise.

“I don’t think ‘Daddy, I love him’ will work. I think Kyle should tell Fred, get him on our side, and then Fred can tell my dad.”

“Do you think Kyle can get Fred on your side?”

“Absolutely not.” I laughed.

“You know how this story goes, don’t you?”

I stopped spinning and gave her the hairy eyeball. “How does it go?”

“Your parents find out. They disown you, like they did with Sarah. But you don’t care because you love him. And then Josh’s mom returns and takes what you risked everything to have.”

I wrinkled my nose. “You are a terrible friend. Why would you say that?”

She shrugged, returning her attention to her textbook while rubbing Clifford’s tummy. “Friends are honest with each other. You have to be prepared for anything, including his past coming back. Have you talked to him about her? What do you know? Was he madly in love, or was it some one-night stand who popped out a kid and dumped him on his doorstep with a note?”

I rocked back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t know. He doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“I think you should run off and get married andthentell your parents. Don’t risk everything until Kyle’s willing to be your new everything.”

“We’ve known each other for less than two months. I’m not sure he’s ready to propose.”

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