AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll tell you what I think. He likes you.” Avery grins.
“What I think is you need to burn some sage and rid his aura from your house,” Juliet says, and we all laugh.
“You do realize, if I did that, it would be just my luck to have an allergy attack. Meaning I’m the evil spirit here, not him.”
Juliet laughs.
“So what happened to him? Why did he come over?” Avery asks as we start walking again.
“I can’t make this up. You’re going to die. He said he was at a meeting and then went to his brother’s house, where his brother announced he is getting married. To. Briggs’s. Ex-girlfriend.”
“What?”
“That’s horrible.”
They both speak at the same time.
“How long did he date her?” Juliet asks.
“Over three years.”
Three years. I’ve thought a lot about this, and even though he says he doesn’t love her anymore, and I do believe that, three years is a long time. I’ve never met anyone I wanted to be with longer than three weeks, but he chose her. This has to hurt him at least a little on some level. Of course all of this makes me wonder what kind of woman she is. What was it that he originally fell for? Is she the same now, or is she different? He’s obviously different based on what he’s told me, but do people really change who they are? I don’t think I’ve changed from who I am on the inside, even if on the outside I’ve made decisions for me that appear different. Like buying this house.
“No. Just no.” She shakes her head.
“I don’t understand,” Avery says, still looking at me with confusion.
“From what I gather, I think his family is a lot like mine.”
What is it about wealthy people caring more about appearances than they do about being genuine?
“Not possible.” Avery frowns.
“I don’t know,” I tell them, each of us lost in our own thoughts as we weave through the trees.
This trail is really nice. Now that we’re out here, and I see that it isn’t difficult or in any way dangerous, I feel better about Avery. We’ve exited the tree line and have come upon a small field. It’s full of white, yellow, and purple wildflowers. I pull out my phone to take a picture. These would look lovely spread between the trees in the bare patches back on the mountain. Those patches must have been crops for the family that lived in my house before me, but these would be a nice addition.
“I should have known you’d be taking pictures of plants while we’re out here,” Avery teases.
“I can’t help myself.”
“What are you going to do about Briggs? Do you think he’ll come over again? Is this going to become a thing?” Avery asks, adjusting the hat on her head, long curly blonde hair pulled into a ponytail out the back.
“He hasn’t come back since last weekend. There’s been a lot of activity over at the orchard. He’s got workers out collecting apples. In addition, customers are coming to pick the apples and taste the ciders. I hear cars coming and going all day long.”
“Do you want him to come back?”
“I don’t know. It was kind of nice having him there. I didn’t feel like my space was being invaded, which is how I’ve felt with other people. We did kind of make a deal with each other.”
“And what is that?”
“I offered to go with him to his brother’s engagement party, and in return, he’ll go home with me in October to my parents’ event.”
“You’re going to take him to New York?” Avery asks, shocked.
“Yep.”
“Oh, to be a fly on the wall when he walks in and meets the rest of the Rhodes family.” She grimaces.
