She held it out to him. “Try it.”
“I know what they taste like.”
“Please?” She stuck her lip out in what he’d always called her puppy dog look. “Pretty please with sugar on top?”
He laughed. He couldn’t resist her when she did that, and she knew it. “Fine.” He bit into it and enjoyed the sweet goodness. Then he gave it back to her. “Finish it.”
“I will.” She took another bite.
While he watched her eat, the evening sunlight was at the perfect angle to not only illuminate her golden-brown eyes but also highlight her dark hair with streaks of red. He’d never noticed the highlights in her thick, wavy mane until that moment, and an unexpected urge to touch her hair overcame him.
Yikes.
Jake shook his head.Uh, that was weird.
She finished the apple and then tossed it aside. “Now. Let’s find that fort!”
They continued past the line of trees until they came to the part of the orchard that was off-limits to customers. He unlocked the combination on the fence, and they continued walking to their wooden fort. It still sat on a high branch overlooking the lake.
She ran her fingers over the bark and found the initials they’d carved there when they were ten. “Our tree,” she said softly. She pointed to the scratches that read,JH + EC.
He touched his initials too. “Seems like it was yesterday.”
“Yeah, and you got in so much trouble for swiping your dad’s pocketknife off his dresser.”
He laughed. “Yeah. Well. I still don’t regret it.”
She grabbed the rope ladder and started to climb.
“What are you doing?” He grabbed her leg. “This thing isn’t stable, and we both weigh more than we did when we were kids. If you fall from that height, you’ll get seriously hurt.”
She made a face, shook off his hold, and continued to climb the ladder. “Don’t be such a Debbie Downer.” She stopped midway. “Come on! Are you chicken?”
“I don’t know if it can hold me.”
She rolled her eyes and shimmied upward. “Your dad made this solid. It’s survived windstorms and hail. We’re fine. Stop stalling and get your butt up here!”
He groaned. “You make me crazy.”
“That’s why you love me...” she sang.
He laughed. She’d always kept him on his toes, and although he could usually predict her reactions, sometimes she shocked him, like when she insisted on selling her parents’ house, moving to Charlotte, and leaving Splendid Lake and him in her rearview mirror. It had broken his heart. But he’d kept that little tidbit to himself.
But now that he’d convinced her to come back to visit, he wanted more than anything to persuade her to stay.
He took hold of the ladder and tried to judge whether the old wooden platform could actually hold his weight now that he was six-foot-three and close to two hundred pounds.
But if he sat in the fort with Emily, maybe she’d finally open up to him.
He slowly climbed up the rope ladder until he reached the top and managed to squeeze up through the entrance to the platform.The canvas tarp that served as their roof was riddled with holes, allowing him to see the sun begin to set above them. But the floor was solid, just as Emily had predicted. He crawled over to her and sank down beside her with his long legs dangling over the side.
Emily glanced around. “I remember it being bigger.”
He chuckled. “We were a lot smaller back then.”
She rested her arms on the wooden railing that lined the perimeter of the small fort.
“Whoa!” He grabbed her arm. “That might not be secure. Are you determined to fall off and break something?”
