Chapter 11 #3
I close my eyes and breathe a sigh of relief.
I am not interested in killing living things, but I need reassurance that a spider is not still in my vicinity, and Aiden knows it.
“Thank you,” I say. “You always came running when we were kids and I was shrieking about a spider.” I smile, remembering more than one occasion when Aiden saved me from spiders.
It’s beyond sweet that he remembers. I mean, I may be twenty-nine, but I’m still not a fan of the little devils.
Now that the bug is gone, though, all I can think about is how awkward it was that I clearly thought Aiden was going to kiss me. He has to know it. I was staring at him with stars in my eyes like he was my prom date.
It didn’t happen, I quickly remind myself. Which is good. It’s great. Thank God it didn’t happen. We’d surely be all over the Harvest Hollow Hot Sheet tomorrow with that sort of behavior. It was a close call.
After the spider incident, I keep my eyes trained to the screen and watch as Rory and Lorelei slog through an awkward dinner with Emily. The whole time, I can’t help but think about what Aiden is thinking about.
Did he know I’d been about to lean into a kiss? Was he horrified? It was gentlemanly of him not to mention it.
Now, it’s just starting to seem silly. I mean, a kiss ?
That would’ve been ridiculous. Not only would it be mixing business with pleasure, but it would also have been wrong.
I’m only going to be here for two weeks.
Just long enough to pull off the festival, get a new job, and get back to town.
A kiss would be cruel. Like I was leading Aiden on.
Of course, I have no indication that he wanted to kiss me.
Other than his admission that he thinks I’m hot.
Which, I admitted to feeling the same. But we are not animals.
We can have a mutual attraction without kissing or touching or any sort of physical interaction. Can’t we?
I am crunching my popcorn and still thinking about this when leaves begin falling on the windshield. And not just a few leaves, like a lot of them. It’s almost as if... someone is on top of the truck showering them on the windshield.
“Donny!” Aiden calls just before he bangs his palm against the truck ceiling.
I press my lips together. Oh my God. This isn’t happening.
Aiden rolls down the window and sticks out his head. “Donny, get off of my truck.”
“This is part of what you pay for,” comes Donny’s insistent voice.
“I don’t care. Get off.”
I look out my window to see Donny jumping out of the back of the truck with a ten-gallon plastic bucket in his hands. Presumably the bucket had been filled with leaves. Now they are on Aiden’s windshield, partially blocking our view of the screen.
“Hi, Donny,” I say, waving at him through the leaf pile.
“Aiden never lets me do my job,” Donny says, clearly perturbed.
“Your job is stupid,” Aiden shoots back. “You’re literally blocking the screen.”
“I’m paid to bring the fall vibes,” Donny argues.
“I’ll pay you another twenty to never do this again,” Aiden tells him.
Donny lifts his chin as if he’s affronted. “How dare you, sir. I am a professional. I cannot be bought.”
Aiden retrieves another twenty-dollar bill from his wallet and waves it out the window, holding it between his index and middle finger.
Donny comes around slowly and stands there as if in indecision for a few moments before he snatches it.
“For the record,” Donny says, holding the front of his coat like he’s Washington crossing the Delaware, “I don’t appreciate your attitude, Parker. And I—”
Donny’s phone beeps, and he immediately stops talking and looks down at it. “I’ve got to pick someone up from the train station,” he says. “Can you take Billy and Amber?” he says to Aiden.
“No, we can’t—” Aiden is saying.
But Donny has already opened the back door to his hatchback that is parked next to us. “I’ve got a call. I’ll be back soon. You can sit in Aiden’s car while I’m gone,” he says to the car’s occupants.
A young man and a young woman emerge from the hatchback and without a moment’s hesitation climb into Aiden’s back seat. Argos promptly rearranges himself to make room for his new friends. He sits in between them, smiling.
Aiden groans and lowers his forehead to his hand.
“What is happening?” I mouth.
“Donny takes people who don’t drive to the drive-in, but sometimes he has to leave if he has to do rideshare,” Aiden explains. This is all said as if it’s perfectly normal. Annoying, but normal.
“You’re joking.” I am horrified and fascinated.
“I am not,” Aiden replies.
“Hey, thanks, Aiden,” says the young man, who is already nestled into the back seat. “I got into a fender bender last week, and my car is still in the shop.”
“No problem, Billy,” Aiden replies.
Okay, of course they know each other. In the city, you can’t just climb into anyone’s car, but out here, it’s fair game.
Billy actually looks familiar to me. I think he’s the son of one of the teachers at the high school.
He was a lot younger last time I saw him.
I’m not sure I know the girl, though. She must be from another town.
“Yeah, thanks, Aiden,” the young woman says next. She presses a hand to my shoulder. “Hi, I’m Amber. Who are you?”
Again, behavior that is only acceptable in places where people know each other and apparently have no fears. If Maria was here, I can’t even imagine her expression. It would be something akin to an anthropologist stumbling upon an unknown civilization.
Because I grew up here, however, I’m gonna roll with this whole kooky thing. “I’m Ellie.” I turn and shake Amber’s hand. I also nod and wave to Billy, who smiles at me.
“Ellie?” Amber repeats. She points between me and Aiden. “Are you two dating?”
“No! No.” I hurry to say. “We work together. My parents own the Honeycrisp Orchard Inn.”
“Oh, that Ellie,” says Amber.
Huh. “You know me?” I can’t help but ask.
“I’ve heard of you. You’re the one who left Aiden.”
Wait. What? I left Aiden?
“She left the inn ,” Aiden says apparently to clarify, but even in the dim light, I can tell his cheeks are turning red.
“Okay,” Amber says, but her tone indicates she’s not buying it. Apparently she doesn’t want to argue with the guy who’s letting her sit in his back seat, though.
We all settle in to watch the rest of the show.
First, Aiden has to get out and wipe the leaves off the windshield while I stifle a laugh.
I’m not about to admit it to him, but I kinda liked the fall-leaves-on-the-windshield touch.
Does Donny do that for all the cars? Or is that only for the ones who slip Mrs. Lawrence a twenty?
Billy and Amber help themselves to our big bag of popcorn without asking, and it cracks me up that Aiden doesn’t seem to care at all.
They shake some out into their hands, so they aren’t sticking them in the bag, but it’s still pretty surreal to have strangers in the back seat sharing your snacks.
They also provide some to Argos without prompting, which I like.
My eyes are trained on the screen, but I am not paying attention.
Instead, I am obsessed with wondering what Amber meant when she said I “left Aiden.” I mean, that’s pretty loaded.
I admit I left the inn. I definitely left town.
You might even make the argument that I “left” my parents. But Aiden? How did I leave Aiden?
The only good thing about being obsessed with those thoughts is that at least I am no longer obsessively thinking about Aiden’s abs.
Or the way he was looking at me when I thought he was going to kiss me.
Because honestly, that was really the way he was looking at a spider, but somehow it seemed kinda hot to me, and now I’m wondering what’s wrong with me.
I am no closer to figuring that out or what Amber meant, when the first episode ends and Donny’s hatchback comes rolling back into the spot next to us.
Billy and Amber mutter their thanks. I say a quick, “Nice to meet you,” and invite them to the festival. They say they’ll come, before scootching out of the back seat and returning to Donny’s car. Donny has more leaves and is soon off to shake them over other windshields.
“I take it that happens often?” I ask Aiden when we’re alone again, pointing toward the back seat.
“More often than it should,” Aiden grumbles. “Hey, I’m sorry about what Amber said. About you leaving. I hope you don’t—”
“I guess I never realized that I’m kinda famous for leaving,” I say, frowning.
“Only because of the inn,” Aiden hastens to explain.
“Plenty of other people leave this town every year,” I point out.
“Most of us from our high school moved to the city.” We’ve covered this before, but it feels different tonight.
Amber’s words hover in the air. There is more to say.
“Do you blame me for leaving, Aiden?” I ask.
There. I said it. The question is out there.
“No!” But his answer is far too quick. He groans and expels his breath. “I mean... maybe,” he admits. He’s quiet for several seconds and rubs the back of his head. “Don’t you remember when we were kids and we used to talk about running the business together?”
I catch my breath. That was completely unexpected. But he’s right. We did used to talk about running the businesses together. But... “That was a long time ago,” I say, but I can already tell that it mattered to him. And obviously still does. I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat.
I am still watching him when he says, “I know. Look. I get it. I do. And like I said last night, I’m sorry if I seemed like I was judging you.
I just...” He bites the inside of his cheek and looks away.
“I don’t know. The family business and all.
” He takes a deep breath. “I kinda always thought we would be partners one day. The way we talked about.”
In that moment, the air is sucked from my lungs and the cab of the truck. Aiden held on to those talks we had when we were children? “What?” is all I can manage in a loud whisper.
Aiden shakes his head. His forearm is braced on the door. He’s looking straight ahead as he speaks. “I just... This town... The orchard. It’s everything to me. I guess I didn’t realize you didn’t feel the same way until...”
A few moments of silence tick past. I know what he was going to say.
“I left?” My whisper is low this time.
“Yeah.” He turns to meet my eyes. His are filled with a little hurt and some other emotion I can’t quite name. “Look,” he says, blowing out a breath. “Let’s start over. I’ll stop giving you hell about leaving, and you stop...”
“Stop what?” I’m giving him side-eye now. What do I need to stop?
“Stop sidestepping the question when I ask how much the festival is gonna cost,” he finishes, with a sly smile.
Oooh. That. “I can live with that,” I say. “But let me show you the overall budget tomorrow.” Because I spent some time earlier plugging in all the numbers, and we seriously will make money if all goes according to plan.
“Okay,” Aiden agrees.
“Now let’s watch some Gilmore Girls .” I settle back into my seat and grab a handful of popcorn just as the theme song starts again.
I sing it loudly with zero regrets. Aiden sings more softly.
It’s still cute, though. When the song is over, I notice that the occupants of more than one car near us are staring.
Oh, right, I forgot they were here. “Hopefully we won’t be on the blog tomorrow. ”
Aiden tosses a piece of popcorn to Argos, then he tosses another piece in the air and catches it in his own mouth. “Don’t count on it.”