The Apple Tree (Sunday Morning #2)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

ERIC CARMEN, “HUNGRY EYES”

Eve

While everyone sipped soup, laughed, and talked over each other, I stared at Kyle’s hands as he gripped the spoon, held the napkin to blot his mouth, and clutched his water glass. His rugged, masculine hands had calluses, and those hands had touched me intimately.

We were a tinderbox, and every touch and look sparked an uncontrollable flame. He was desperate to have sex with me, and that made me feel so powerful.

“Are you okay?” Mom rested her hand on my lap. “You’re not eating.”

I returned a slight headshake and sat up straight, bringing Kyle’s attention in my direction.

“Your face has been flushed since you got back from our house. Are you feeling okay?”

A bear chased me .

I started to giggle but disguised it by clearing my throat. “Yes. No. Actually, I’m a little tired. Would it be okay if I went home to lie down?”

“Of course,” she said.

I pushed my chair back.

“Feel better,” Anne said. “Maybe we’ll see you tomorrow.”

I bobbed my head several times and found a fake smile to give everyone as I stood.

“Can you walk home?” Mom asked.

“Yeah, I should be fine. I’ll take Clifford.”

“No!” Josh protested.

“The dog can stay for the night,” Kyle said. “And I’ll drive you home real quick. Just get in my truck.” His words were slow and calm, like an afterthought. He did a much better job of pretending I wasn’t anything or anyone more than the girl next door who babysat for him.

“Thanks, Kyle,” my dad said as if God offered to escort me home.

I set my bowl in the sink and headed straight outside. It took Kyle a little longer than expected to meet me and climb into the driver’s seat.

He started the truck and shoved it into Reverse . “Are you feeling okay?”

I smirked. “Of course.”

“Then take off your jeans and underwear.”

“W-what?” I laughed.

“Just do it.” He didn’t look at me. Instead, he stayed focused on driving down his lane, leaving a plume of dust behind us as we fishtailed onto the gravel road to drive a hundred or so yards to my lane. He took a sharp right while I wriggled out of my jeans and underwear.

The second he stopped and killed the engine, he undid his jeans and plucked a condom from his front pocket.

That’s what took him so long. He didn’t have to say another word. As soon as he had the condom rolled on, and the seat was adjusted as far back as it would go, I straddled his lap. Despite the urgency of our time restraint, Kyle smiled at me like he had done in his bed. Sexy and vulnerable, as if he knew it was wrong, but it didn’t feel wrong.

I thought about it for a moment. He always smiled right before he kissed me.

Our lips sealed, and we moved together.

I thought it was just me—a boy-crazy freak who started thinking about sex years earlier and spent the better part of my high school days and nights dreaming of being the woman I was with Kyle. But it wasn’t just me; it was him too. It was us.

It was hell-bound, lustful sex. Screwing like rabbits.

An undeniable attraction.

An unavoidable scandal.

By the time we finished, the windows were foggy from the cool evening temperature.

“I’m not even a little sorry,” he murmured in a winded whisper while he nuzzled his face in my neck, both hands still up my shirt, cupping my breasts.

I grinned, climbed off him, and pulled on my underwear and jeans. Then I leaned over to kiss him, leaving a breath between our lips. “One: Clifford is a hunting breed. I got him for you as well. Two: I’m gonna love ya, and if you don’t like it, that’s just too bad. I’m not even a little sorry.”

“AHH!” I jumped. “You scared the life out of me,” I snapped at Gabby, who was in my face the second I closed the front door.

“S. L. U. T,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

I couldn’t look at her. “What are you even doing home? Mom said you were supposed to be studying with friends.” I jogged up the stairs.

“I got home fifteen minutes ago. And I heard something out front. So I looked out the window, and guess what I saw?” She chased me.

“You saw nothing because it’s late, and there’s barely any sunlight left, so whatever you thought you saw, you did not.”

Before I could lock my bedroom door, she turned the handle and rammed her shoulder into it.

“Get out!” I yelled, putting my body weight into it in the opposite direction.

“Let me in, or I’m telling Mom and Dad.”

I didn’t hate her, but I really, really didn’t like her. Without warning, I stopped pushing and stepped aside. The door flung open, hitting the door stop as Gabby tumbled onto my floor.

“His truck was moving!” she yelled, jumping to her feet and brushing her hair away from her face. “Like someone was shaking it. And you were on his lap, bouncing up and down.” She parked both fists on her hips. “Was he giving you a pony ride on his knee like Dad used to do to us?”

It was none of her business, and I was furious that she felt she had the right to scold me. But, oh my god, I couldn’t believe she said that. Both of my hands covered my mouth.

Her eyes were squinted; mine were bugged out. And the room was silent.

I broke first with a loud snort and then a fit of laughter that made my eyes water.

“Stop—” She clamped her jaw shut, but her lips still quivered. “Stop laughing,” she cried, falling apart into a fit of giggles.

We collapsed onto my bed, bodies curled into tiny balls of laughter.

After several failed attempts to gain our composure, we finally relaxed with hard sighs while we stared at the ceiling.

“I love him,” I said.

She didn’t respond right away.

“It’s too weird. You can’t love Dad’s best friend’s brother. You can’t love my Trig teacher. Do you know how hard it will be for me to sit in class tomorrow and not think of him giving you a pony ride?”

Again, we started giggling.

“Gabbs, you’ve ruined pony rides. They can never be innocent bounce play again.”

Her body shook with more laughter.

“And don’t you ever talk about my sex life and Dad in the same breath.”

She rolled toward me, propping her head onto her arm, and I did the same, facing her. “This is bad, Eve. Maybe not Sarah level of bad, but Dad will be so mad. And what are you going to do if you get pregnant?”

“We’re using protection.”

“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.