Page 34 of Call It Serendipity

“Yeah, she blew into town this past weekend. She’s having problems with our parents and needed a friendly place to lay low. I just don’t know for how long… anyway when I told her I was going out, she pressed me for details.”

I listen intently, as that knot in my stomach loosens for the first time since Jitters this morning. That was his sister we saw. He doesn’t need to be the bad guy in my story after all, maybe.

“And when I mentioned that we were going to a pumpkin patch, she couldn’t believe it. I figured with Claire and Levi being there… I wouldn’t ask if it was just us.”

“Jake,” I interrupt his endearing rambling.

“Yeah?”

“Of course she can come, I’m looking forward to meeting…”

“Taylor.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting Taylor, and hearing all your most embarrassing stories that only a sister would know.”

His groan sounds like it rumbles from deep in his chest. “Never mind. This was a horrible idea.”

“See you two soon,” I say cheerfully.

“Yeah, alright. Be there in a few.”

I hang up the phone feeling ten times lighter than I did only minutes ago. “Claire,” I call upstairs as I head to find her.

“Yeah?” Her voice sounds like it’s coming from my room.

I take the stairs two at a time. “You won’t believe what I just learned.”

20

Pumpkinville is the epitome of autumn. About five miles outside of town, it’s all sprawling fields nestled beneath rolling mountains. The only buildings in sight are the weathered brown structures that make up the farm, sprinkled about the pumpkin patch and corn maze and beer garden.

There is an old pick-up truck parked out front, painted in robin egg blue, with the farm’s logo in faded white on the door. Its bed overflowing with plump, orange pumpkins and hay bales at the wheels.

Jake’s truck bumps over the uneven gravel as we pull in, sending me sliding from the middle of the bench seat until I settle against him. My knee presses to his thigh, my shoulder to his bicep. And I feel his body soften to the contact, welcoming it.

“This place is adorable. It feels like we’re in a postcard,” his sister gasps from the passenger seat to my right.

I quickly shift back to center and smile at her. The time it took to get here was filled with Taylor’s eager questions about everything we passed. If Jake is steady warmth, Taylor is bursts and flares.

“It’s a town institution,” I assure her. “And my favorite place to visit each fall.”

“Are those… goats?” Jake asks, squinting through the parking lot to the petting zoo shelter.

“They are—Claire won the chance to name the kid two years ago.”

He pulls into a spot, climbs from the truck, and reaches out to help me slide across the seat. It would have been easier to go out Taylor’s side, but I accept his offer, placing my hand in his upturned palm. His fingers curl gently around mine, his touch sending subtle currents through me.

“What did she name it?” Taylor asks. She walks around the truck, seemingly oblivious to the way we’re standing together, my hand still delicately draped over his like a regency couple ready to go promenade.

“Um.” My mind blanks as I continue to look into his deep brown eyes. They have me transfixed, especially when paired with the way his thumb is gently brushing over my knuckles.

In this moment, my own name is escaping me.

“Hey, there you are.” Claire’s familiar voice breaks through my trance, and I look up to find her and Levi weaving through the parked vehicles to reach us. “We secured a table at the beer garden.”

Jake lowers our joined hands, his fingertips trailing light as a feather across mine until they slowly slip away. But instead of pulling back completely, he moves so the backs of our hands graze one another, dangling between us.

“Anything good on tap?” he asks as we follow them back to the prized table.