When he turned sixteen and sprouted up a foot taller than Emily, she began to notice that the way she looked at Jake felt... different.
Because all of a sudden he had become hot—superhot.
His baby face was gone, and his cheekbones looked as if they’d been chiseled from fine granite. When Emily watched him work in the orchard, she couldn’t look away from his white T-shirt, soaked with sweat, clinging to the muscles rippling in his back, the way his biceps seemed to squeeze his sleeves. It didn’t take long for his physique to capture the attention of all the girls at school. And it didn’t take long for him to start returning their interest.
That’s when Emily realized... she wanted to be more than just Jake’s best friend.
Emily used to wonder: If she had asked Jake to the homecoming dance before Claire did, would she have snagged Jake’s heart first? But the past was the past, and there was no escaping it, no matter how much Emily’s stubborn heart pined for Jake—and he never noticed.
Still, as she watched him slip the scrambled eggs from the skillet onto a plate, she couldn’t help but notice that his shoulders seemed somehow broader than the last time she’d seen him. And her eyes were glued to the thick, ropy muscles wrapped around his forearm as he set the plate on the counter.
Had the air-conditioning stopped working in the large farmhouse? Because boy, was it hot in here!
Jake spun to face her as if he’d heard her thoughts, and she tried to ignore the heat crawling up her neck to her cheeks. He flashed his heart-stopping, boyish grin at her. “Well, look who finally crawled out of bed,” he joked. “We thought you’d sleep the day away.”
“Ha ha,” she retorted before sticking her tongue out at him.
Diane laughed. “You two have always acted like siblings.”
It took all of Emily’s strength to hold in the sigh building in her stomach.
Jake handed Emily a cup of coffee in a white mug sporting the Hughes Family Orchard logo. “Tons of sugar and more cream than coffee. Just the way you like it.”
She took a sip.Ahhh.He knew how to make the best cup of coffee. “Perfect.”
“I don’t know how you drink that. It tastes like coffee-flavored creamer.” Jake made a face and added the toast his mom had buttered onto the plate of eggs, along with a few pieces of bacon, before handing her the plate. “Have a seat.”
At the far end of the table, Leon flipped through theSplendid Lake Newswhile he continued to drink his coffee.
She sank down onto a chair, then took a bite of eggs. “My compliments to the chef.”
“Tips are lousy,” Jake teased before sitting beside her.
“What’s on the agenda for today?”
“Well, I thought we’d—”
Jake’s words were cut off by his ringing phone.
Emily tried to peek over at the name on the screen, but he answered it too fast. She assumed it was Claire and tried to shove away her jealousy.
After thirteen years, you should be used to it!
“Hi, Ms. Riley,” Jake said with a bright smile. “What’s up?” he asked and then he listened.
So it wasn’t Claire! Ms. Riley was their retired elementary school teacher who lived down the street. Relieved, Emily took a bite of toast before drinking more coffee.
Diane sat across from Emily. “Jake has been helping Linda since her husband passed away last year.”
“That sounds like Jake,” Emily said. He had always offered to mow lawns for their elderly neighbors, and she would tag along and help with the trimming and weeding. They always had fun together, whether they were doing yard work for someone else or cutting loose with a swim in the lake.
“Okay, Ms. Riley. I’ll see you soon.” He disconnected the call and swiped a piece of Emily’s bacon. “How about we run some errands and then help Ms. Riley?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Thirty minutes later, Emily climbed into the passenger side of Jake’s black, mid-nineties Dodge pickup. The diesel engine chattered to life, and she smiled at the familiar sound. She’d taken hundreds of rides in the truck since Jake got his license at sixteen.
“It’s so cool that you kept your grandpa’s truck.”
