Page 134 of The Apple Tree

Kyle frowned. “My son’s upstairs with burns all down his arm. Do you think I’m happy?”

Everything hurt, and everything was my fault.

I pushed off the counter and marched to the door, shoving my feet into my sneakers.

“Eve …”

I hurried out the door, pounding my feet along the wood planks, down the stairs and toward the hill.

“Eve?” He followed me.

I picked up my pace.

“Stop, Eve! My fucking arm hurts. I’m not running after you.”

I didn’t want him to run after me. I just wanted to go home and be alone with my feelings and as many sad songs as I could find on the radio.

“Dammit!” he grumbled.

I could hear his footsteps getting closer. He was running.

“Stop!” I yelled when he hooked his fingers into the waist of my jeans. I swung around, arms flailing to get him to let go of me.

“Ouch! Fuck!” He hugged his slinged arm and buckled at the waist after I accidentally hit it.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled behind the hand I cupped at my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

“You’re so stubborn and infuriating,” he seethed while standing straight.

Just as I opened my mouth to protest what was probably the truth, he grabbed the back of my head with his right hand, my hair gripped in his fist, and he smashed his mouth to mine.

It was a long kiss. Hard and punishing.

Considering everyone called me stubborn, I melted at his feet every time. I loved his hand in my hair, his tongue in my mouth,and the way he stepped so close to me that his leg wedged between mine.

He ended the kiss as abruptly as it started. “Now you can go home and be mad,” he said, turning one-eighty and making his way up the hill to his house.

After I caught my breath, I sprinted home to call Erin and tell her everything.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

PATRICK SWAYZE, “SHE’S LIKE THE WIND”

Eve

I wasn’t shockedwhen Kyle and Josh weren’t at church the following morning, but Erin wasn’t there either. I needed her more than I had ever needed my best friend. After church, Gabby and I picked up Grandma Bonnie for dinner, and I couldn’t tell her, either, because I wasn’t ready for Gabby to know about Josh’s burns.

“Hey,” I said to Kyle and Josh sitting on the sofa while Mom and Gabby set the table for dinner. I didn’t expect to see them since they hadn’t been at church.

They were quite the pair: Kyle with his sling (because of my dad) and Josh with his arm bandaged (because of me). Did they tell my parents that I was responsible for Josh’s injury?

Kyle smiled.

“Eve, you didn’t mention the pizza accident,” Mom said, placing the pot roast in the center of the table.

“Uh …” My eyes ping-ponged between Kyle and my mom.

“I told her how I accidentally bumped you, which made you bump into Josh, and it was all just an unfortunate accident,” Kyle said.

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