Page 34 of My Ex, the Pumpkin King

I glance over at Rachel, making sure she’s okay, but she’s frozen in place, her eyes locked on Parker. It’s not like she’s afraid of him per se, but she’s afraid of something. There’s an uncomfortable animosity between them, and it’s as if everything from today comes together and clicks in my mind.

“Did something happen between you two?” I blurt out, glancing between the pair.

“Did something happen between us?” Parker asks. “Why don’t you tell him, Rachel?”

Rachel opens her mouth and closes it several times, but no words come out.

“You know what Parker? Fuck off.” I push myself up, ignoring the pumpkin debris all over me. “Get the hell out of here.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. That bitch is crazy.” He turns and stomps to his car, and I clench my fists, refraining from going after him. And while something happened between them, no matter what it was, he has no right to call her names. Rachel’s not crazy. Rachel… shit.

When I turn around, she’s curled up, her arms wrapped around her knees, and she’s pulling them to her chest. I sink to her side as she rocks back and forth, tears filling her eyes.

“Rachel, Rachel.” I cup her cheeks with my hands, staring into her eyes, willing her to stay with me. “I’m here. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

She nods, still not speaking, and she inhales slowly, then exhales. She takes a few repeated breaths, going through her list of things to do to calm herself, and the difference in how she handles this now compared to then is absolutely amazing. And she didn’t even need me. She’s coping all on her own. She’s fucking amazing.

When she’s calm again, I take her in my arms, holding her as if I’ll never let her go. And I don’t want to.

“So Parker—”

“Rachel, you don’t have to explain anything to me. We weren’t together. It doesn’t matter.” I didn’t know what I would say until the words were coming out, but they’re absolutely true.

“No, I want to tell you. I should have told you at the restaurant. It was just one time. We had too much to drink, and I was so lonely. I shouldn’t have let it happen, and I knew that right after. He agreed and said he felt it was wrong too, but he was lying. I broke his heart, and it broke our friendship.”

“His wife knows, I assume. That’s why she doesn’t want you two to be friends.”

“Oh yes. I’m glad he was honest with her. I should have been with you.”

“You don’t owe me an explanation,” I repeat.

“Still. I feel like I lied to you. In a way, I did know he had feelings for me, and I should have admitted it when we went to dinner.”

“To be fair, neither of us were on our best behavior that night,” I remind her. “Now, how about we finish these pumpkins and get ourselves cleaned up. Everyone may want to take our picture again tonight.”

She nods in agreement and we get back to it. There’s a new calmness between us, as if not telling me this the past few months has kept her guard up. As we work, I remember her mamaw sending Parker away, and I’m sure Rachel confided in her. She didn’t seem to be a fan of Parker, though, and I’m not either. If he’s married with children, he doesn’t need to be sniffing around and causing trouble here. Or calling Rachel crazy.

If he ever shows up here again, he’ll find Jack the Ass at Sorrell Farms. And I won’t be joking around.

FOURTEEN

After we finish our pumpkins, Jack and I go our separate ways to do a few things. He goes with his mom to a meeting, and I honestly need some space to de-stress. The whole situation with Parker is more than I bargained for. After an amazing day and finally reaching a point of making a decision with Jack, the last thing I want or need is Parker showing up to screw everything up. I should’ve thought about him being one of the organizers of the county fair. He’s never been the one to come measure our pumpkins, so I didn’t think about it. But I knew he works there. It is what it is now, and I know it’s better that everything is out in the open.

I can’t shake the feeling that the other shoe is about to drop, though. That Jack is going to change his mind or something else will come up as a reason we can’t be together. And Parker’s words still echo in my head.That crazy bitch.I’m not crazy, and I know that, but sometimes it feels like I am, so it hits close to home. I have to remind myself that my brain just works differently than others.

There’s a knock on my door. I consider ignoring it, but they knock again, so I push off the couch and shuffle over to peek into the peephole. And who I see makes me want to ignore it even more.

“What do you want, Parker?”

“Can we talk? Please.”

“Yeah, you can talk through the door,” I decide. “You have one minute.”

“I’m sorry about what happened. About everything. I should have never stayed your friend with the expectation of more. That just made our friendship less genuine.”

“Yeah,” I agree, not saying anything else.

“I just got so angry when I realized you and Jack are back together, which is dumb. I’m happily married.”

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