Page 34 of Cozy Girl Fall
Philip nodded. “Of course, dear.”
“Well, apparently our daughter was in there with a boy yesterday.”
Penny bit her lip to bury her smirk, suddenly remembering all too well how it had felt to be fourteen with her first proper crush. “Yes, I had coffee with Ethan.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so when I asked?”
A shrug in response made her mom’s frown deepen. “It was just coffee.”
“And dinner,” her dad added and she shook her head at him.
“Whose side are you on here, Dad?” Penny turned to him, shocked at the betrayal.
“What? I want the details too,” he said, mouth twitching.
“Fine, yes, and dinner.”
“So?”
Penny pushed the meat loaf around with her fork, glancing up to find her parents watching her intently. “What?”
“What does this mean? Are you together? Dating?” Angie fired the questions one after the other and Penny took a long sip of her wine before she replied.
“I don’t know yet.”
Angie threw her hands up, napkin fluttering in theair as she pushed back from the table. “Talk to her, Philip. I’m not getting any younger here, Penny, and I want grandchildren.”
Her mom huffed and left the room, and Penny met her dad’s eyes across the table, finding a warm amusement in his as they set their silverware down at the same time, meat loaf largely untouched.
“Shall we order pizza?” he asked and she laughed.
“Only if we can get cheesy garlic bread too.”
“Done.” He hesitated as he stood up to clear their plates. “Did you think about what I said?”
She nodded. “Tasha and I talked. It’s all good. I just don’t know where I’m at with Ethan. He’s so …” She sighed, searching for the words. “He knows what he wants, has done for a long time apparently, and his life is so together and I—Well, I just got back in town after screwing things up in San Francisco. I don’t know how long I’m staying here or where I’m going next.”
“Does he need you to know those things?” Philip scraped the last of the meat loaf into the garbage with a satisfied look on his face before rinsing the plates and placing them in the sink.
“Well, no.”
Her dad shrugged. “Then maybe you just cross that bridge when you come to it.”
Was it really that simple?
“I guess,” she muttered, pulling up the website for the local pizza place in town to scroll through their deals.
“Besides,” Philip added, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes that made Penny sit up and pay attention, “maybe Magnolia Springs will surprise you if you give it another chance. Maybe you’ll want to stay after all.”
The chances of that happening still seemed slim, but she could also admit that it hadn’t been absolutely terrible being back here for the last month or so. In fact, compared to being in the city where everything was constantly changing, it had been a nice change to stay somewhere that was so familiar.
She sighed, deciding to take her dad’s advice and think about it later. “OK. Hit me with your toppings, Pops.”
14
It had been all hands on deck at the orchard lately to try to clear as much of the remaining harvest before the Halloween Orchard Fest. The annual bonfire was next week, and the festival would be upon them soon after. Penny couldn’t deny how excited she was for her first Orchard Fest in ten years. It was the perfect mix between cozy and spooky fun, with apple bobbing, an apple pie bake-off, apple carving, and so much more.
Ethan still hadn’t heard back from Nicky, and while there was a small part of Penny that had been holding out hope that he might be able to offer her an escape from Magnolia Springs, she found that she actually didn’t mind as much as she’d expected to. Working with Ethan had been a lot more enjoyable since things between them had started feeling more comfortable, especially now that she knew Tasha wasn’t going to murder her for hanging out with her brother. She liked the easy routine she’d settled into with Ethan on the days that they shared shifts. He brought her a pumpkin spice latte in the morning and usually worked a couplerows away from her (at her request, because otherwise she’d found she had a tendency to get distracted by the sight of him between the trees). Then, they’d take a short lunch break in town before getting back to the orchard to finish their shifts.
