Chapter 3 #2
I took a deep breath as my car crept toward the buildings until a cardboard sign nailed to a tree caught my attention. Squinting closer, I made out the word SHOTGUNS scrawled across the sign.
I craned my neck as I passed, making sure I had deciphered the correct word.
I kept driving until I came upon a second sign, smaller than the first, but with two scrawling letters spelling out the word OR.
By the time I came upon the next sign, twenty yards up, that stated PISTOLS with an arrow pointing toward the right side of the road, a smile had spread wide across my face.
I pulled into the gravel parking lot. It looked like a construction zone of sorts, or at least the place where they parked their equipment. Loaders and dump trucks and piles of gravel spanned the parking lot, where a group of people stood a hundred yards away, their backs to me as I parked.
I tucked my straight hair behind my ear, not sure I’d ever be used to the feel of it, and stepped out of the car. I had dressed in a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a green striped shirt that had been approved by Tessa.
The group hadn’t seen me yet, though it looked like most were sporting noise-cancelling ear protection and probably hadn’t even heard me. I shut the car door quietly.
A tall, broad-shouldered man with his back toward me and a lazy confidence in his movements snatched my gaze immediately.
I walked closer, still unseen by the crowd.
A shot rang out from Jake’s rifle, along with the sound of a tin can being blown off a log.
In the opposite direction of the guns, a group of small kids was building a fort on a pile of gravel.
I’d been around Cade and Kelsey’s children enough to recognize them, but a blonde-haired little girl soon caught my gaze.
I’d seen pictures of Sophie a couple of years ago, via text, but I’d never met her.
Tessa spied me first as I picked my way through the weeds toward the crowd.
She was about to shout a hello before I shushed her and motioned to Jake.
Her eyes widened with delight as she understood my meaning.
Pretty soon, the eyes of the entire crowd were on me as I crept my way toward an unassuming Jake, deaf to all underneath his black ear protection and checking something on his gun.
Logan grinned and handed me a loaded rifle before plopping his earmuffs on my head.
I inched forward, to the side and only slightly behind Jake, and carefully took the gun off of safety.
I waited until Jake had raised his rifle again before I made my move.
There were four cans left on the log. The feeling of the old days blasted through me as I shot off four rounds in quick succession, knocking over three cans.
Jake whipped his head around in surprise and found me with a delighted smile on my face, even though the one remaining can on the log would haunt my dreams forever.
For a moment, we just smiled at each other.
Before long, however, his brow furrowed as he took me in from the straight hair all the way down to my cutoff shorts and flip-flops.
Nothing was fancy, but none of it was anything like what I used to wear, and I couldn’t help the satisfaction as Jake’s eyes skittered down my legs before he yanked them back up to my face.
With his eyebrows scrunched, he reached out and lifted one side of my earmuff. “Tuck? Is that you in there?”
I gave a laughing Jake a slight push before I pulled him back for a side hug, both of us still clutching our rifles in the other hand.
The moment his arm wound its way behind my back, something relaxed inside of me.
I maneuvered closer, inhaling deeply. He smelled like hay and gunpowder, and his body immediately felt familiar to me.
His mannerisms. The friendly teasing in his eyes.
It was Jake. My Jake. I had just spent the past few weeks feeling displaced in a house that had always been mine.
My dad’s marriage, though happy, had left me unsure of where I fit in my own family.
So, I was a little shocked to feel the wave of home hitting me with such nostalgia that I probably clung to him longer than I should have.
He was broader in the shoulders than I remembered, and more filled out, maybe a few more crinkles around his eyes, but he was still Jake.
Right down to the sun-kissed brown hair and mischievous smile.
He wore his boots, loose-fitting jeans, a short-sleeved plaid button-down shirt, the top two buttons undone, showing a peek of tan skin underneath.
He pulled away first. That also felt normal.
“Did Evans just get smoked by a girl?” Cade Williams called out from behind us. He was leaning against a truck with his wife, Kelsey, tucked in his arms, watching us.
“Don’t be distracted by this.” Jake pointed at my outfit. “She’s not a girl. She’s Shelby.” Jake pointed at the log toward the can that was still standing. “You missed one.”
“I didn’t want to embarrass you too badly on my first day.”
“Rematch. Right now. I can’t have this on my conscience.”
“Nah, I should go.”
“Tuck.”
“Nancy.”
I only mouthed the word, but Jake’s eyes grew wide and panicked as he shot me a look that only made me smile obnoxiously.
“Rematch. Now,” he demanded again.
I sighed, pretending to examine my nails, though they were chipped and in desperate need of a file. Tessa’s help had only gotten me so far on my quest.
“Why would I do that? I already won.”
“I thought you were Tessa, and I was preparing to go easy on her.”
“Hey!” Tessa called out somewhere behind us.
“Would you two get on with it?!” Logan drawled impatiently. “Some of us are just on lunch break over here.”
“Alright.” Jake turned to me. “We each get five shots to hit the five cans. Whoever shoots the most on their next turn and does it in the fastest time wins.”
“What’s on the table?” I asked, loading my gun with the bullets Cade handed me.
“I want a milkshake, extra Oreo with fudge, when I win. Homemade.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help feeling delighted that he still remembered. We had a shared love of the double-Oreo milkshake.
“And when I win, I want the same thing.”
We shook on it, and I chatted with Tessa and Kelsey while Jake and the guys set up the cans again.
“You look amazing,” Kelsey said to me, eyeing my clothes.
“Thank you,” Tessa inserted proudly, rubbing her pregnant belly with fondness. “She’s always been a beauty, but her clothes and hair were all me.”
Jake let me go first, which I was glad for.
I would definitely be losing. I had no doubt of that and was already planning for a trip to the store to grab ice cream.
It had been a long time since I’d held a gun, but the possibility of Jake making and delivering me a milkshake was too good to pass up.
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, settling my sight perfectly centered on the can. I took aim and pulled the trigger. When all five shots had been fired, all but one of the cans had been hit.
I wrinkled my nose at Jake, who only smiled before jogging back to the cans and setting them up again.
When it was his turn, all I could do was pray he missed one.
He didn’t. This was Jake Evans holding a gun, after all.
After he took out all five cans, he casually turned and smiled at me. “Welcome home, Tuck. Looking forward to taking all your lunch money this summer.”