The Apple Tree (Sunday Morning #2)

Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION, “PURPLERAIN”

Eve

I loved him. It was unlike any love I imagined—too good to be true. There was a one hundred percent chance I would ruin everything.

If we told my parents and I messed things up with Kyle, I would have no one and no place to live. The fact that Kyle was terrified to love me made me even more scared of screwing up.

I put the brakes on my heart and focused on work, visiting Grandma Bonnie, and taking care of Josh, Clifford, and Kyle before and after school. My parents didn’t question my staying at his house all night. They assumed I was sleeping in the spare bedroom. After all, Josh and Kyle were “family.” I knew it was only a matter of time before I blew up their world and mine.

“Where did you get that?” Kyle asked as I helped Josh into his Cookie Monster costume.

The last football game was that night, followed by a scavenger hunt around the church for good Christians who knew that Halloween was Satan’s holiday. The church-going kids in Devil’s Head waited almost two weeks after October 31st to don their costumes.

“I made it,” I said, buttoning the back of it.

“Like made it with a sewing machine?” Kyle eyed me while he stepped into his boots. He was back to work and coaching.

I laughed. “Yes, with a sewing machine.”

“Look, Dad! Mmm … me Cookie Monster. Num num num …”

Kyle’s face lit up, which made me feel warm all over.

“I go look in the mirror,” Josh said, running toward the stairs.

“Damn, I love you, baby.” Kyle kept his beaming smile for me.

I tried to return the same sentiment, to act as though I wasn’t feeling the pressure not to screw up. So far, I’d been playing the part of a responsible adult. Occasionally, I snuck a few drinks to take the edge off, but no one noticed. For the first time, I felt nothing but pride from my parents.

“I love you too,” I said.

He stepped closer, giving me a look I hadn’t seen in a while. It was a hungry look, sexy and sensual. Besides a few kisses, we’d acted more like roommates than lovers, which felt normal, given his injury. But this look was different, and a wave of nerves hit me.

He ducked his head to kiss me but quickly stood straight when Josh raced down the stairs.

“Mmm … me need cookies,” Josh said in a gruff voice.

I curled my hair behind my ears and tucked my hands into my back jeans pockets. “There will be lots of cookies at the fall festival,” I said. “Let’s get going to the game.” I snagged Kyle’s car keys just as he reached for them.

“You don’t have to keep chauffeuring me around.”

I winked like he did to me. “I do. Let’s go.”

During the football game, Josh ran around with the other kids in their non-satanic costumes. Kyle barked at his players because it was the closest they’d come to losing that season, but Drew threw for a twenty-five-yard touchdown to win the game with less than fifteen seconds left on the clock.

When we arrived at the church after the game, Kyle’s jaw dropped. “Did you help with this?” There was a maze of angel-carved pumpkins lighting up the churchyard, a dunk tank (that my dad was going to sit in), food, and lots of games.

“I made the caramel apples. But my mom, Gabby, and some other ladies did the rest. I’ve been busy playing Nurse Jacobson to Mr. Collins.”

He smirked at me as we opened the truck doors, and Cookie Monster hopped out.

A half hour later, most of the football team, along with half the town filled the churchyard to play games in honor of “fall” instead of Satan’s holiday.

It was all a little weird, but I was used to Jesus being infused into everything, often in a peculiar way.

“Want to be my partner in the three-legged race?” Drew asked, playfully draping his arm around me.

“Um …” I nervously smiled while looking for Kyle.

He was pitching baseballs at the dunk tank with his good arm, and on his second attempt, he hit the target, and my dad fell into the water.

I laughed.

“Coming, Eve?” Drew pulled me toward the starting line.

“Uh … sure.” I stood next to him while he tied our legs together.

When Kelley Ross yelled, “GO!” Drew and I took off running.

It wasn’t our first three-legged race. We were town champions. A well-oiled machine. However, after crossing the finish line way ahead of everyone else, Drew tripped, or he seemed to because the next thing I knew, he was on the ground with me on top of him.

“I miss you,” he said with a huge grin, our faces a few inches apart.

“I don’t know how I feel about my star player trying to run with his leg tied to someone else. Reckless behavior like this could end your football career before it starts.”

I rolled off Drew when I heard Kyle’s voice, my hands quickly untying our legs.

“Jeez, Coach, we were having a moment,” Drew said jokingly.

But when I jumped to my feet and looked at Kyle, his scowl didn’t convey humor.

“Eve Jacobson, you should see if your mom needs help, check on Cookie Monster, say a prayer …” A little evil resided in Kyle’s eyes.

I held his gaze for a long moment, a silent standoff.

He jerked his head. “Run along.”

Run along?

That was something one said to a child. I wasn’t a child. I was the woman who had been making his meals, bathing him, taking care of his son, sewing a costume, and working a full-time job. How dare he tell me to run along.

“Trouble in paradise?” Erin asked as I pulled a container of apples out from under the food table to refill the tray while she rinsed out paintbrushes at the table next to me. Since she was artsy, she volunteered to do face paintings.

“Coach Collins likes to treat me like a child when he’s jealous of a seventeen-year-old.”

“I have to pee!” Josh ran up to me and pulled on my hand. “I’m stuck.” He reached for his buttons.

“Oh, dear. Let me?—”

“Nooo …” he grabbed his crotch.

I pulled the costume down his body, but he’d already wet himself.

“My costume,” he said with a quivering lower lip and big tears.

“Oh, buddy. I’m sorry. Let’s get you cleaned up.” I looked around for Kyle.

He was talking to some of the players’ parents, so I led Josh into the church. It was dimly lit because Dad only had it open for people to use the restrooms.

“Now w-we have to g-go,” Josh said, sniffling.

“Yes, but we’ll do something fun to make up for it. Okay?”

“What? I wanted t-to play g-games.”

I closed the restroom door, helped him out of his soiled clothes, washed him off, and then pulled off my hoodie and put it on him. It nearly reached his ankles.

“Listen, sweet boy.” I lowered before him and cradled his face, wiping his tears with my thumbs. “I’m going to wash your costume tonight. Then tomorrow, we’ll do something extra special. Okay?”

He sniffled. “Will I get to wear my costume?”

“Absolutely.” I kissed his forehead. “Now”—I pulled the hood over his head—“Let’s sneak out. No one will know it’s you.” I took his hand and led him out of the church.

As we headed toward the truck, Kyle spotted us and made his way toward it too. “What are you—” he started to ask before he eyed the wadded costume in my other hand.

“Sorry, Dad,” Josh mumbled with his head down.

I wrinkled my nose. “It was my fault. I put the buttons in the back.”

Kyle shook his head. “It was an accident. Nobody’s fault.” He opened the door, and I helped Josh into the back seat. “You should have told me. I would have dealt with him.”

“Why? You think I’m not capable?” I walked around to the driver’s door.

“No,” he said when I climbed into his truck and started it. “Is everything okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” I put the truck into reverse.

“Watch out for?—”

Thunk!

“Oh my gosh!” I covered my mouth.

Kyle closed his eyes for a second.

“What happened?” Josh asked.

“We hit a utility pole,” Kyle said slowly while I put the truck in Park and jumped out.

“Eve Marie Jacobson!” Mom cried, running toward the truck.

It wasn’t just her. Everyone gathered as though I had run his truck through the front door of the church. I was so embarrassed.

“Darling, what on earth were you doing?” Dad asked as we surveyed the dented bumper.

Worth noting: It was barely a dent.

Still, I wanted to cry, but I didn’t. There were too many people. And grown-ups didn’t cry when they ran their vehicle into something. But it wasn’t my vehicle. It was Kyle’s truck.

“We’ll get it handled, Kyle. I’m so sorry about that. Eve won’t see her paycheck for quite some time,” Dad said.

Barely. A. Dent!

“It’s fine. It was an accident,” Kyle murmured, rubbing the back of his neck while staring at the bumper.

I hung my head.

“You broke his arm, and now Eve dented his bumper,” Mom said to my dad. “I bet he regrets moving here.”

“Maybe it’s best if someone else drives you,” Dad said.

“Eve’s got it,” Kyle replied, opening the passenger’s door.

Keeping my head bowed, I sulked to the door and climbed into the truck. “I’m so sorry,” I muttered, starting the truck and putting it in Drive.

Kyle sighed. “It was an accident.”

That was all he said the rest of the way to his house.

Josh and I headed straight upstairs and Kyle let the dog out. I made sure Josh took a shower before putting on his jammies and brushing his teeth.

“What story do you want tonight, buddy?” Kyle asked as I straightened the covers on Josh’s bed.

“This one!” Josh held up a book and Clifford jumped onto the bed.

“I’m going to make a grocery list,” I said without looking at Kyle.

“You can go home if you want,” he said.

My heart cracked, each chamber barely holding together. And I swallowed past the rush of emotions.

“I just mean, you’ve been living out of a backpack. Tomorrow is Saturday. Josh will sleep in a bit, and so will I.”

I returned a slight nod, heading toward the stairs.

“Eve?”

I continued down the stairs.

“Eve, don’t leave until I’m done reading to Josh.”

I wasn’t going to stay. Everything inside of me wanted to run home, even if it meant getting a lecture from my parents on my driving. But I stared at the refrigerator when I grabbed my purse from the kitchen counter and decided to look for something to take the edge off.

When Kyle found me on his deck, I had already downed one-and-a-half cans of beer to soothe my nerves, and his little radio by the door played U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

“Think that’s a good idea?” he asked, sitting in the rocker beside me.

I stared out at the clear autumn sky with a glitter of stars. “Does it matter if my ideas are good?”

“It’s a small dent, Eve. I don’t expect you to hand over your paycheck.”

“I know it was a small dent, and I might not have hit the pole had you not treated me like a child in front of Drew and everyone else. I have been doing my very best to prove that I’m not a child. I didn’t mean to fall on him, but our legs were tied together. And …” I leaned my head back and closed my eyes with a giggle that stole my thunder. “I don’t remember where I was going with that.”

He reached for my beer, and my eyes snapped open as I tightened my grip.

“It’s my beer.” He smirked.

“I earned it.”

His gaze shifted to the hoodie I borrowed from his closet since Josh had mine, which needed washing. “And the hoodie?”

“I earned it too,” I said, trying to keep from grinning. “But I’ll let you have the rest of my beer if you earn it back.” I wasn’t fully drunk, but my inhibitions were lower. After setting the beer on the floor, I stood and removed my jeans and underwear, but his long sweatshirt hung mid-thigh keeping me covered.

As luck or Satan would have it, the next song that came on the radio was George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex.”

One of Kyle’s brows quirked up his forehead, and I knew what he was thinking.

I nodded to the beer before sitting down. “I don’t care which one you have first.” I rested one foot on the rocker's edge, and then the other, as I leaned back.

Kyle didn’t jump out of his seat right away. He took his time, arching his back for a stretch before standing.

Without that liquid courage, I wouldn’t have been able to hold his gaze as his lust-filled eyes flitted along my body. My nerves would have eaten me alive knowing my legs were spread, everything on display for him to see.

I felt confident, sexy, and deserving of what he was lowering to his knees to do.

The music.

The lyrics.

It was all so perfect.

He gripped my ankle with his good hand and lifted my leg, resting it on the chair’s arm.

The cool evening air found my sensitive flesh, and I sucked in a tiny breath and trapped my lip between my teeth. George Michael and one and a half beers were the perfect combination to keep me from comparing myself to the centerfolds under Kyle’s mattress or any of the women in town who were pining for him. One and a half beers made me feel powerful.

He picked up the beer, and I waited for him to drink it or do something kinky, like pour it between my legs and lick it off.

“Baby,” he tipped the beer, letting the rest spill over the railing, “the only thing I need in my veins is you.”

The can clinked, and his head bowed. He held the inside of my thigh as he kissed me, teased me with his tongue, and stole my breath.

“God …” I whispered, closing my eyes while my other heel pressed harder into the chair. My fingernails scraped along the wood arms.

The song lyrics seduced me. He seduced me.

Thoughts collided with feelings and mind-blowing sensations. I couldn’t tell if I was thinking the words “don’t ever stop” or if I was chanting them aloud.

I’d spent weeks trying to please everyone else. It was my turn. I wanted someone to care for me, even for only a few amazing minutes.