He rested his left arm on the door and drove out of his gravel driveway, steering with his right hand. “Claire thinks it’s time to retire it and buy a new one.”
“Don’t listen to her.” Emily waved off the suggestion. “This truck is so fun, and it sounds like a train too.”
The truck bounced onto the paved road, and Emily looked out the window toward the orchard, taking in the ancient red barnthat Jake’s grandfather and possibly great-grandfather had once used to store equipment. It now featured peeling red paint and seemed lonely where it faced the orchard entrance. Emily and Jake had spent hours playing hide-and-seek in that barn back when they were kids. They’d also discovered litters of kittens tucked into a corner of the barn every spring.
She pivoted to face Jake again. “I haven’t seen Dusty since I got here. Is she okay?” She always enjoyed seeing the black cat that had adopted the Hughes family a few years ago—and not the other way around!
“Oh yeah. She decided she likes sleeping on my sofa more than prowling around the orchard. You’ll have to visit her later.” He flipped on the radio. “I guess you want oldies, huh?”
She grinned. “Yes, please.”
He found her favorite station, and The Turtles began to sing “Happy Together.”
“I love this song!” she exclaimed before singing along at the top of her lungs.
Jake grinned and shook his head before switching on the air-conditioning. While she sang, she took in his profile—that blond scruff lining his jaw and his messy sandy-blond hair sticking out from under that old Mets baseball cap. She noticed the way his dark blue shirt hugged his biceps, and clearly his legs got an impressive workout lifting barrels of apples and heavy equipment in the orchard. Good grief, the man was nothing but muscle!
She shifted in the seat and turned her attention to the road ahead. She had to stop ogling him. He’d friend-zoned her years ago.
Now she just had to remind her heart and her head that they were better off as friends.
The song ended, and Emily turned down the volume as the DJ began talking about the hot and humid mid-August weather.
“Does Ms. Riley call you for help often?”
He slowed to a stop at a red light and rested his right arm on the steering wheel. “I do little jobs for her whenever she needs me.”
“What’s the job today?”
“Changing a lightbulb.”
“Uh-oh,” she sang. “Think you can handle it?”
He gave her arm a push and accelerated through the intersection.
“Hey!” She snatched his hat and set it on her head before pulling her long ponytail through the back. She flipped the visor down and checked her reflection. “Looks good on me, huh?”
“That’s because it’s broken in.” While keeping his eyes glued to the road, Jake shoved his free hand through his thick mane. With his hair sticking up at odd angles, he looked somehow younger than twenty-nine and even more adorable.
Ugh! Stop obsessing!
Jake steered into the driveway leading to Ms. Riley’s modest brick ranch. A happy scarecrow sat on her porch next to a large pumpkin and a hanging basket full of cheerful orange mums.
After killing the engine, Jake pinned Emily with a look that was supposed to be serious, but his twitching lips and the sparkle in his blue eyes gave him away. “Gimme my hat.”
“Nope.”
She shifted away from him. He reached for her, and she yelped as he reclaimed the hat and pushed it onto his head.
Emily rolled her eyes. “You have to admit it looks better on me.”
“Get your own hat,” he quipped, and with his lips curvinginto the devastating smile she knew by heart, he climbed out of the truck.
They headed up the front path just as Ms. Riley appeared on the porch.
“Well, would you look at that? Emily Carmichael is back in Splendid Lake. Get over here and let me hug you, dear.” The petite lady wrapped her arms around Emily’s waist, and the top of her head came to Emily’s shoulder. It was funny to think that Ms. Riley had seemed ten feet tall when they were in second grade.
“It’s great to see you.” Emily basked in the elderly lady’s familiar scent of freshly baked cookies and lilac. It astounded her that Ms. Riley also had the same gray pixie cut that she’d had when Emily and Jake sat in her classroom at Splendid Lake Elementary. Had Ms. Riley been born with gray hair, or was she frozen in time?
