The Apple Tree (Sunday Morning #2)

Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ROD STEWART, “LOVE TOUCH”

Eve

“Tell me everything,” Erin said as we put on our choir robes before church the next morning. “And you should have called me last night!”

“Let’s go, ladies,” my dad said, peeking around the corner.

Erin frowned.

I shrugged. “It’s not my fault you were late this morning.”

“It was my brother’s stupid fault,” she grumbled.

We quickly got to our seats just as my dad welcomed everyone and bowed his head to pray.

“Just tell me if you did it?” Erin whispered.

I folded my hands and closed my eyes as if I didn’t hear her.

She elbowed me.

I elbowed her back.

Dad cleared his throat in the middle of his prayer, which meant he saw Erin and I misbehaving.

“Amen,” everyone echoed my dad.

As the choir sang, my gaze navigated to Kyle, and he smirked. I was sure he thought I was lip-syncing—and I was. However, I wasn’t in the mood for his smugness because I was still mad at him. So I didn’t give him another glance for the rest of the service.

“Call me immediately!” Erin said after the congregation filed out of the church before I joined my parents and Gabby.

I nodded.

“Eve,” Drew called my name as I descended the steps in front of the church.

“And the plot thickens,” Gabby mumbled, hugging her Bible.

I shot her a scowl before facing Drew.

“Wanna go to homecoming with me?” Drew asked. “I got your dad’s permission.”

“Uh …” I surveyed the churchyard and found Kyle and Josh talking to the Vanderleests, but his attention was laser-focused on me. “I graduated.”

“No duh. So what?” Drew said.

“I broke up with you,” I whispered.

He chuckled. “I’m not asking you to go steady with me again. I’m asking you to homecoming because I don’t care to take anyone in my class. But I’ll probably be homecoming king, so I think I should have a date. You know?”

I barely registered what he said because Kyle and Josh headed toward us.

“Ask Erin,” I quickly said with a stiff smile.

“No offense, but I’m not that into Erin.”

“Drew,” Kyle said, putting his hand on Drew’s shoulder and giving it a firm squeeze. “Did you ice your arm after Friday’s game?”

Drew nodded. “Yes, Coach.”

“Hey, Drew?” Marcus, Drew’s friend, yelled from a small huddle of guys, all seniors like Drew. “What did she say?”

They all snickered.

“Your friends are laughing at you.” Kyle gave Drew’s shoulder another squeeze.

Drew rolled his eyes. “Uh …”

“He asked me to homecoming, Coach, ” I said, batting my eyelashes.

Drew blushed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Coach Collins intimidated him with nothing more than a shoulder squeeze. But he no longer intimidated me.

“And what did she say?” Kyle looked only at Drew for the answer.

“Uh, nothing yet. But she was about to say yes.” He smiled so wide it made the corners of his eyes crinkle like he was giving his coach a wink, like he thought his coach would be proud of him.

“Is that so?” Kyle eyed me with peaked brows.

“I’m hungry, Daddy,” Josh said, pulling on Kyle’s leg.

I held open my arms to Josh, and he let go of Kyle’s leg so I could pick him up. “Are you coming to my house for dinner?” I asked Josh in my sweetest voice, before turning my back to both arrogant boys and carrying him toward my parents.

Hugging me with his arms and legs, he mumbled a “yes.”

My mom smiled while we approached her. “He’s like the little brother you never had,” she said.

I bit my tongue and returned a smile.

“Buddy, you’re going to get Eve’s dress dirty from your shoes,” Kyle said. I knew he’d be right behind us.

Josh’s tiny fingers dug into my neck for a quick second. Then his body jerked. I felt something warm and wet pool around my neck, oozing into my dress and sliding down my back.

“Oh no!” my mom said.

“Oh, jeez, Josh.” Kyle quickly took him from me as I stood unmoving like a board.

Josh wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the vomit.

“Oh!” Gabby turned green and cupped her hand over her mouth and nose.

“Poor thing. Was your tummy hurting?” Mom handed Josh a wad of tissues because he had a little vomit on his face.

Kyle grimaced at me. “Eve, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s nobody’s fault,” my dad reassured Kyle. “Eve, let’s take you around back. There’s a spigot. We can get you rinsed off before you get in the car. Gabby, grab some paper towels from the bathroom and a choir robe your sister can wear home.”

Everyone was staring at me.

“I’m sorry, Eve,” Josh murmured in a weak voice.

I started to shake my head, but it only made more of the vomit slide into my dress. “It’s fine,” I said, trying to sound genuine, but I knew my smile was as stiff as the rest of my body. And the sour stench was making me nauseous.

Mom jerked her head, gesturing for me to follow her to the back of the church where she and Gabby hosed me off like a muddy pig.

“COLD!” I jumped and tried to get out of the direct stream, but Gabby kept the stream on me while grinning.

“Hold still, Eve, so she can get you cleaned off,” Mom said.

After the vomit was rinsed from my body, Gabby checked both sides of the church to make sure no one was coming while mom unzipped my dress, blotted me with paper towels and covered me with a choir robe.

Erin was going to be bummed her family left so quickly and she missed the big event.

“Guess what?” Gabby startled me when I opened the bathroom door after my shower.

I dried my hair with a towel. “What?”

She followed me into my bedroom. “Mom wants you to take dinner to Kyle and Josh so you can let Josh know that you’re not mad. Kyle called to apologize while you were in the shower. He said Josh was crying on the way home because he felt so bad.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” I said, putting on my bra and underwear.

“Check them well so you don’t put them on inside out.”

I glanced up at Gabby. “I need to know right now if you can keep this secret or if I need to tell Mom and Dad and risk getting kicked out. But I won’t let you hold this over my head. And let’s be clear; if you can’t be more mature about this, then don’t ever expect me to be there for you or take your side on anything.”

She narrowed her eyes and tipped up her chin before spinning the other way and exiting my room while slamming my door shut. I overreacted, and I knew it the second she shut the door. Fear made me nervous and irrational.

After eating a partial chicken leg and two bites of scalloped potatoes, I took the food my mom had packed to Kyle’s.

He opened the door, and a regretful smile marred his face. “I’m so sorry,” he said, taking the bag of food from me while I slipped off my shoes. My hair was still damp from my shower, but my jeans and red button-down blouse were clean, and that’s all that mattered.

“Stop apologizing. He didn’t get sick on purpose. Where is he?” I poked my head into the living room, but he wasn’t there. Kyle had a football game on the TV.

“I gave him a little ginger ale when we got home, and now he’s upstairs taking a nap. I told him you were coming over with dinner, but he couldn’t stay awake.” Kyle removed the foil-wrapped plates. “Did you eat?”

I nodded, sliding my hands into my back pockets. “Aren’t you going to ask me if I’m going to homecoming with Drew?”

He kept his chin down while removing the foil. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I know the answer.”

“How can you possibly know the answer? Because you built me a hut?”

“No, Eve.” He rested his hands on the counter’s edge and glanced over at me. “If you’re emotionally still in high school, that’s fine. Embrace your youth and enjoy your last two years as a teenager. But I’m out. You can be my babysitter, and I’ll pay you a fair wage, but that’s it.”

“Is that an ultimatum?”

“It’s a fact.” He pulled open the drawer in front of him and grabbed a fork.

“Why are you being such a jerk to me?”

Like I’d been to Gabby.

He set his fork on the counter next to the plate, and it seemed to take everything inside of him to control his response. I had that effect on people.

“ Why are you so angry and confrontational with me?” he asked.

“Because I feel like …” My face scrunched as I shook my head. I didn’t know how to explain it, and that frustrated me. His insisting I try to explain my feelings bothered me even more.

“You feel like what?”

I shook my head. “I-I don’t know. Just … just like you’re waiting to see if I’m worth your time. I feel like I’m being judged, like you know I’m going to mess up, so you can say I’m too young for you.” My words came out faster and louder on a wave of panic. “And that’s a lot of pressure. I always feel like everyone around me is waiting for me to screw up because that’s what I do.”

“Just chill.”

“I CAN’T CHILL!”

He winced, and our gazes shot toward the stairs as we listened for Josh.

“I’m not a chill person,” I said. “I’m sorry. It’s not in my genes to chill. If you must know, I’m needy and sometimes whiny. I nag until I get what I want. You’re on my mind twenty-four-seven.” I pointed in the direction of my house. “I look for you through my bedroom window—with binoculars. Every song I hear is about you. I can’t shower without touching myself and thinking of you. When I go for a run, I imagine I’m chasing you. My life went from boring to amazing because you moved into this house with the world’s cutest little boy. I watch Josh and make dinner or an apple dessert, and I pretend that this is my house too, and he’s my son.

“So, if you need to know why I asked about homecoming with Drew, it’s because I like you so much, and when you changed Denise’s toilet, I went crazy jealous. And I wanted you to show me a teeny-tiny fraction of jealousy.”

I felt fairly certain that I had ended us.

Whiny? Check.

Jealous? Check.

Needy? Check.

Immature? Check.

Desperate? Double check.

Psycho? Absolutely.

We weren’t “going together,” but had I been in his shoes, I would have sent me home, changed the locks, and filed for a restraining order.

I showed him the worst version of myself because I had no chill. Which was worse? Being oblivious to my least desirable traits or seeing them flashing like a neon sign without feeling control over them?

“Eve—”

I covered my ears because some childish behavior remained in me. “Don’t. I know you’re going to lecture me. You’re going to be an adult. And we are over. I know. I really do. You’re too mature to say or do anything as stupid as I just did. So save me the embarrassment of you being perfect. I’ll just go.” I turned, closing my eyes for a second and berating myself on the way to the door.

Before I slid on my shoes, I heard his footsteps behind me.

“Eve,” he said. “Follow me, please.”

I turned as he headed up the stairs.

“Now,” he said, halfway up.

I bowed my head like an errant child and followed him. He peeked into Josh’s room and softly shut the door the rest of the way. Then he continued to his room. That’s when I noticed he had something in his hand.

I stared at that something as I stopped at his door.

He jerked his head for me to keep walking. As soon as I passed the threshold, he closed and locked the door.

The can of beer in his hand hissed when he opened it and handed it to me. I hesitated, gaze flitting between the beer and him. Then I took it.

Kyle tugged the button to his jeans and pulled down the zipper. “I don’t care which you swallow first. Your choice.”