Page 99 of Ever With Me

She was going to kill Jake for this.

Maddie wiggled out of her pants, cursing the day she’d ever let Jake talk her into this—and her damn competitiveness—as the crowd hollered. She’d even worn apple-red panties, never expecting that all Brandywood would see them.

Still, she kept most of the apples in her pants. Cinching the waist, she sprang to her feet and dumped the apples from the pants into the barrel.

“Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . .”

She yanked the sweatshirt off as apples tumbled onto the ground. No time to think about how cold it was or the fact that all the spectators were staring at her in a T-shirt and underwear. She dumped the apples from the sweatshirt, then gathered some of the fallen ones from the ground.

“Time’s up!” Ben called as the buzzer sounded.

The crowd cheered wildly. Maddie heaved deep breaths, her skin sticky, her clothes discarded somewhere on the grass. Before she could find them, Jake nearly toppled her with a bear hug. “You were awesome!”

She laughed into his chest. He still had apples in his pants—he hadn’t been able to get his pants off as fast as she had—but somehow, they’d picked almost three hundred pounds of apples.

Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t help but take a quick peek at Josh and Gina’s score, since they were only two lanes away.

One hundred twenty-seven.

Gina looked pissed.

She’d flat-out glared at Maddie earlier, clearly angry about that interaction with Brooks and her father.

“And the winners of the apple-picking race are Maddie and Josh Yaaaarddley!” Ben called out from the lifeguard chair.

Lindsay’s whoop broke through as the spectators left their roped-off section and raced toward them. Travis was only a couple of feet behind them, as well as Mom and Dad. “You guys were incredible,” Lindsay said, wrapping them both in a hug.

Mom found Maddie’s sweatpants and draped them behind her. “Great job, you two,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not sure it was worth flashing the whole town for, but still. Very creative.”

Dad shook his head. “You couldn’t pay me enough money to do that nonsense.” But his blue eyes shone with amusement, regardless of his words.

“Maybe next year, you and I should sign up. Give these two a run for their money,” Lindsay said to Travis with a wink.

He draped his arm around her. “Maybe. I don’t know if I have the same level of dedication as they do, though. Also, can we make sure they wash these apples before they make them into cider? Somehow Jake’s sweaty apples don’t have a ton of appeal.”

“I resent that,” Jake said, feigning offense. “I give them extra flavor.”

“Ben’syourfriend. Talk to him about it,” Lindsay answered with a shrug. “I still believe half the reason the Pearsons started Applepalooza is for all the free labor picking apples.”

Maddie took the sweatpants from her mom, then wrinkled her nose at the streaks of dirt and smooshed rotten apples she’d stepped on while plunging into the orchard without care. “You have my backpack?” she asked Lindsay. “I don’t think I feel like putting these back on again.”

Lindsay nudged Travis, who lifted it. “The whole sweatpants look isn’t the right vibe for Applepalooza anyway.”

“Vibe or no vibe, put something on, for God’s sake,” Dad muttered. He frowned at Jake. “You, too.”

“I didn’t want my shirt to get dirty,” Jake said. “You packed it in there, right, Mads?”

She pulled it out and handed it over. As she straightened, she glanced back toward the spectators. “Naomi and Logan didn’t make it to see the race?”

She’d been keeping both eyes open for her older sister. They wouldn’t go a whole weekend with this sort of tension between them, would they?

Then again, Maddie wasn’t entirely sure she even knew what to say to Naomi at this point.

“Naomi’s helping Pops and Bunny set up for the pie competition, and I’m not sure where Logan is. Haven’t seen him all day,” Dad said.

“I think he was heading for some of the kids’ activities with Kayla and her daughter,” Mom said with a smile. “I might go over there and join them for a bit. It’s a little less crazy than all this.”

“Don’t forget we’ve got Auction-a-Peck in ten minutes.” Jake tugged his shirt on. “Don’t you want to see if Milton Hirsh steals a kiss from Maddie?”

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