Page 9 of Take My Heart
She sits back and looks at me. ‘Where are we going?’
‘To my house.’
‘I can’t go to your house. I don’t even know you. I still can’t tell if you’re a .?.?.’ She searches for the word.
‘Serial killer?’ I say with a laugh. ‘I’m not. And if I wanted to kill you, I could just do it now and toss your body in the snow. It’d be a lot easier than killing you at my house.’
When I glance at her, I see the frightened look on her face and regret what I said. I was just kidding around, but she didn’t take it that way.
‘Relax,’ I tell her. ‘I was joking. ‘
‘How do I know?’ she asks, eyeing me with suspicion.
‘I live in a small town. Everyone knows everyone’s business. If I was a serial killer, people would’ve found out by now. I’m also a Kanfield, which automatically means I’m a nice guy. If I wasn’t, people would tell my mom and she’d kick my ass.’
The girl looks at me. ‘You’re a Kanfield? The ones who own the orchard?’
‘That’s us,’ I say with a hint of annoyance. I love my family, but I’m tired of my whole identity being associated with my parents and the orchard. I want to be my own person, but instead I’m known asthe youngest Kanfield. Sometimes people don’t even use my name. They just call me the Kanfield boy. It’s freaking annoying.
‘What’s your name?’ I ask.
‘Katelyn, but I go by Kate. What’s yours?’
‘Brody,’ I smile. ‘But I go by Brody.’
She laughs a little. ‘So you work at the orchard?’
‘No. I had enough of that place growing up there.’
‘You didn’t like it?’
‘It was great. I just didn’t want that being my job. That’s my parents’ business. I wanted my own.’
‘So what do you do?’
‘Lawn care and snow removal. That’s why I’m out in a blizzard. I was heading to a customer’s house to clear their driveway but decided it’s no use plowing it when it’s snowing like this. I’ll have to wait for the storm to end.’
I slow down as we come into town. There isn’t a single car on the road. Even the plows aren’t out. Snow’s piled up everywhere, some of it drifted over the road.
‘Where’s your house?’ Kate asks.
‘Near downtown. We’re almost there.’
She gets out her phone. ‘My battery’s dead. Maybe that’s good. I won’t have to hear from my family.’
‘So what exactly happened? You just decided you didn’t want to get married?’
‘I told you I don’t want to talk about it,’ she says, sounding annoyed.
‘Why? I thought girls liked talking about stuff.’
‘We do, but only when we’re ready.’
‘What do you have to be ready for?’
Shesighs. ‘Okay, fine. I left. I left my wedding. I couldn’t go through with it.’
‘Why?’
