Page 98 of Ever With Me

“Don’t play it cool with me, buddy. Cormac told me you two already slept together. Maddie tried to deny it, too, don’t worry, but then I heard you two were caught fooling around in some storage room in town.”

“That’s . . . false. Cormac got the wrong idea because of a few incidents.”

“You know, actually, I don’t need the details of your sex life. It’s one of the worst parts of being related to a celebrity—everyone speculating and talking about you in a way that just is super gross to me.”

He couldn’t even imagine what it might be like if the roles were reversed. He’d probably be in jail by now. “Either way, I’m leaving tomorrow. I have to call Ava and figure out a rental car situation because I never made it to the mechanic, but I don’t think my car is fixed yet.”

“That all sounds like a thrilling way to spend a Saturday and like stuff that would take a few minutes. You should still come. It could be fun for us to go out with you—we rarely get the chance.”

Brooks scratched the stubble on his jawline. “You really want me to go?”

“I really do. I want you around all the time, you buffoon. But you keep running away. Skipping holidays with the worst excuses and then acting like a giant delivery of presents is the same thing as yourpresence.”

He smirked. “I see what you did there.” But her words hit him deeply.

Have I been doing that?

When did I become okay with allowing my schedule to impede seeing the only people I love?

Kayla blinked prettily at him. “Please come today. For me? And Audrey? You can even wear your sunglasses and baseball cap. Wear a burqa for all I care, but just come and be with us.It’s what family does.”

A small-town apple festival sounded like one of those functions he’d avoid. But he sighed and stood. “Only if you promise to stop being so mad at me.”

“Only ifyoupromise to try to have fun. No one likes a stick-in-the-mud.”

He got the feeling she was trying to ask for as much as she could out of him right now while she had the upper hand. And he was fine with letting her have it, too.

She deserved that and far more.As always.

“All right, fine. Lead the way.”

27

MADDIE

“Dammit, Jake!”Maddie cried as her brother stumbled in the apple orchard. To keep himself from falling, he had grabbed her sweatshirt, almost causing her to fall over.

Usually, that wouldn’t be a problem. But the apple-picking contest involved picking as many apples as they could from one orchard at the Pearsons’ farm, where Applepalooza was held, and then racing them over to dump in a barrel before the five-minute timer went off.

Because the contestants could only take what they could carry, Jake insisted they both stuff their sweatpants and sweatshirts with apples to maximize each run into and out of the orchard.

A little trip would mean that Maddie, who could barely move from the apples stuffed into her clothes, wouldn’t get back up again.

“Come on, Mad, we’re almost there.” Jake braced onto her elbow, sweat dripping down his temple. “Only like fifty feet to go.”

“Thirty seconds!” Ben Pearson called out from his lifeguard chair into a megaphone.

Shit.“Oh God, we’re never going to make it.” Maddie pumped her arms as she tried to push forward, the weight of the apples holding her back. They had to get the apples into the barrels for them to count, and each barrel was on top of a scale, so every single apple counted toward the final weight.

“Come on, Maddie and Jake!” Lindsay cried from the spectator line. She and the rest of their friends and family who weren’t in the race were gathered in a group near the end of their orchard lane.

Jake linked arms with her as best he could, hauling her forward. They were so close, but would they have time to transfer all the apples in?

Jake reached the apple barrel milliseconds before Maddie, then yanked his sweatshirt off, revealing his bare chest. He fought to keep as many apples as he could inside, but many fell out. “Come on, strip! Pants first, it’ll be easier.”

“Twenty . . . nineteen . . .”the crowd chanted.

Oh my God.Her sweatshirt was one thing, but her sweatpants?

---