“Ezra Rawlings, are you ...laughing?”
I stop, my smile flipping into a frown, my eyes thinning. “No.”
“Shut up! Yes, you were!”
“I was not. Noah, tell your girlfriend she’s being annoying.”
“Fiancée,” he corrects. “And she’s right. You were laughing. It was weird.”
“I laugh.”
“Yeah, but not often.” Noah takes a sip of his cider. “Though now that Odette mentions it, you’ve been laughing a lot more lately. Smiling too.”
“I have not.”
Except I have. I know it, and he knows it.
I can trace right back to where it started, too—Summer.
She’s been so giddy all day, running around the cidery, buzzing with excitement as she works in our new state-of-the-art kitchen. The crew officially wrapped up yesterday, which was perfect timing for a “friends and family night” tonight. We can try out the menu and give the kitchen a mini–test run before Summer begins training the new staff we’ve hired for our grand reopening.
“You’re doing it again,” Odette points out, poking at my face.
I pretend to try to bite her, and she swats at me.
I’ve never had a little sister, but I imagine if I did, we’d be a lot like this, always picking at each other.
“Would you two grow up?”
“Oh, sorry,old man. Are we bothering you?” Odette sasses her fiancé.
He might scowl at her, but it’s clear she amuses him.
Is that ... Is that what I could have if I let myself? With Summer? Is it even something I want?
I don’t have time to analyze that more, as Summer chooses that moment to stop hiding out in the kitchen.
“Oh my gosh, food!” Odette cheers as our chef rounds the corner with two trays stacked tall with grub.
I rush off my stool to help her—and this time, when my hip aches, I don’t let the anger set in like it usually would. That moment in the chicken coop yesterday changed something in me.
You’re enough, Ezra. For me, you’re enough.
“Here, let me take that,” I say, grabbing one of the plates.
“Aw, look. Ezracanbe nice,” Odette comments.
Summer giggles. “Ezra’s always nice.”
Odette scoffs, and while Noah says nothing, I can still feel his eyes on me.
I pretend I don’t and help set the spread of various foods on the counter.
“This looks amazing,” I say, taking everything in. “Are those pork belly bites?”
“Yes.” Summer smacks my hand away as I go to grab one. “And you need to wait. I have another tray in the kitchen. Can you grab it?”
On instinct, I move in to kiss her. Her eyes widen, and she steps back, playing it off like nothing happened.
