Page 21 of Cozy Girl Fall
He dropped his hands and retreated several steps. “I see.”
“Ethan, it’s not—”
“I think the rain stopped,” he said, giving her a tight smile as he grabbed his shoes and strode to the door, taking her heart with him. He closed it without looking back, calling behind him, “Drive safe, Penny.”
10
The art of avoidance was harder than Penny had thought. Yet for a full week she had managed just that. Sure, it had taken some creativity—Ethan somehow managed to beeverywhereat any given moment. Still, she’d persevered.
He’d taken to arriving at the orchard at the same time as her. At first she’d thought this was a coincidence, so she’d pretended to be on a call in her car until he’d left, but after two days she’d instead opted to arrive later in the morning—only to find him on a coffee break, laughing with her mom in the shop hut where she was working the cash register. Ethan had watched her pull in and park and had wordlessly handed her a pumpkin spice latte, still hot.
She’d tried leaving late to avoid seeing him and had thought she’d been successful until she saw the note on her windshield.Drive safe. E.So even when he wasn’t physically there, he was still finding ways to stay present in her mind and it infuriated her. Why did he have to make this so hard for her? She wastryingto do right by him, and Tasha.
Dodging him? He was somehow one step ahead. Ignoring him? He made it impossible to do so when they were in front of her mom and he was beingcharming. At one point she’d even climbed upintoan apple tree to avoid a passing Ethan, but it wasn’t like she could stay up there forever.
… Could she?
Fed up, she’d even decided to forgo a shift in favor of relaxing in town, grabbing a coffee and a cake. The triumph had been sweet—and short. Because who was waiting inside Crumbs & Co? Ethan. Blake.
Penny was trying to hold on to the promise she’d made to Tasha and yet it was like the whole world was making it as difficult as possible, like some kind of face-your-ex conspiracy.
Avoiding Tasha wasn’t exactlynecessary, but it helped Penny feel a little better. How was she supposed to look her friend in the face when she’d sworn to steer clear of Ethan and had, instead, kissed him? Maybe it would have been easier if the kiss had been horrible, or even justfine, but it hadn’t—it had been …everything. And she hadn’t stopped thinking about it for the past week. She’d only just resolved the lingering tension between her and Tasha and now …
Ugh. Why did Ethan have to put his stupid, warm, full mouth on mine?
Maybe if Penny told Tasha, she would understand. It wasn’t like Penny had orchestrated the kiss, or evengone looking for it. It had been an accident.A really hot accident.
Penny had just grabbed her morning pumpkin spice latte from Coffee Affair on Saturday when a flash of blonde hair made her freeze like a deer caught in headlights. Surely Ethan hadn’t tracked her down on the weekend?
“Pen!” Tasha waved and relief and anxiety curdled in Penny’s stomach at the prospect of facing Tasha. There was no way Penny could pretend she hadn’t seen her, not when half the cafe was looking Tash’s way. Did she tell her? Or did she just chalk what had happened up to the thunderstorm and the heat of the moment?
“Come and join me.”
Penny’s feet dragged a little as she walked over to the small wooden table Tasha had claimed and pulled out the chair opposite her. Her ass had barely hit the seat before Tasha was leaning in close and fixing Penny with a shrewd look.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
Penny choked on her sip of latte. “What?No!”
“Penny.” There it was again, that no-nonsense tone that Tasha only pulled out when she knew her best friend was bullshitting.
Unable to meet her gaze, she instead looked down at her to-go cup and the pale brown label that wrapped all the way around it. “I’ve just been super busy.”
“Too busy to answer my texts?”
She shrugged. “I lost my phone for a bit. Put it down and just couldn’t find it again, you know how it is.”
Tasha’s face said she did not, in fact,know how it is. The look only darkened when a buzzing erupted from Penny’s bag.
“Oh look,” she said weakly, “found it.”
“What’s going on?” Tasha reached over and placed one hand over Penny’s, stopping her nervously peeling the wrap off of her cup. “You can tell me anything.”
Except, no. Penny couldn’t. Tasha had asked forone thingand Penny had messed it up already. “It’s just been a lot moving back.” There, that was close enough to the truth. Ithadbeen a lot moving back home, especially with Ethan continuously muddying the waters between them despite Penny’s best efforts to stay away.
One eyebrow rose. “You’re moving back?”
“Oh. I—Well, I don’t know. Maybe? I haven’t exactly had restaurants beating down my door to get me to work for them.”
