Page 8 of Cozy Girl Fall
Heat flared in her cheeks and she knew she had to be the same shade as a tomato when Ethan backed up out of the space and lifted his hand in farewell, the growl of the engine growing fainter the further away he drove back into town.
The only thing more irritating than her absolute mortification was that, on top of everything else, she was also wrong about the truck and its owner. Ethan Blake wasn’t compensating foranything.
“Stupid,” she reprimanded herself as she finally climbed into her car and caught a glimpse of her still-flushed face in the rearview mirror.
Well, as far as avoiding Ethan Blake went, Penny was off to astellarstart.
5
Penny’s second shift at the orchard had proved much less eventful than her first—a lot less embarrassing too. She wished her parents had provided a little more warning that Ethan was working for them before she’d found out by bumping into him unexpectedly. She’d managed to avoid him during her shift today, and most of her was relieved because it meant she wouldn’t have to face an awkward confrontation any time soon. The smaller, more traitorous, part of her was a little disappointed not to have caught another glimpse of her ex.
Back when they were younger, things with Ethan had always been comfortable, easy as breathing, so it felt strange now to be so torn in two about his presence at the orchard. Inevitably, she would come face to face with him again and while on the surface that didn’t seem so bad, the truth was that she was scared of what he might say to her. The accusations he might level. Or worse, maybe he’d moved on completely and hadn’t thought about her at all in the ten years she’d been gone. For some reason, the last possibility stung more than any other.
She’d had a lot of time to think while working in the orchard today—a littletoomuch time, really, because now her thoughts were a swirling mass so heavy they sat on top of her like a perpetual rain cloud. So much for enjoying the peace and quiet that came with picking.
Her mom had dinner waiting when she got home, and Penny was grateful. The second shift had been even more tiring than the first, especially when her thoughts had been running in circles all day and her body had been on edge, jumping at every small noise in case it proved to be an approaching Ethan. He’d never appeared, saving her from any further embarrassment but not the stiff muscles her constant tension and hypervigilance had caused.
Though, naturally, the universe made up for her lack of humiliation that day by instead forcing her to endure an interrogation by her mother.
“How did you find it today, honey?”
Swallowing a too-large mouthful of lasagna, Penny nodded. “Fine.” Her parents exchanged a look and Penny braced herself.
“Only fine?”
Penny sighed and set down her cutlery. “What do you want to know?”
Angie lit up, eyes taking on a feverish gleam that indicated only one thing: gossip. “I heard that you had coffee with Tasha the other day.”
“And I heard you bumped into Ethan,” her dad added and Penny nodded calmly even as she foughtthe urge to scream. Goddamn the gossip mill of small towns and perpetually nosy parents.
“Yes to both,” she said and her parents eyed each other again in a way they probably thought was subtle. It wasn’t. At all. “I’m actually getting drinks with Tasha this Friday,” she offered and her mom beamed, happy for the new information. Or maybe that Penny was getting out of the house for something other than apple picking.
“Oh, that’s wonderful. Where are you girls going?”
“I don’t know, I think Tasha said it was called Cocktail Club?”
Angie sipped her red wine and nodded. “Yes, I hear that’s where all the youngsters hang out these days. Of course, when your father and I were young the Last Call was the hopping place to be. It’s a shame it closed down.”
Penny’s eyes twitched from the effort of not rolling them skyward.Hopping, really?“Where are you hearing all this?”
A wave of the hand was the only answer Penny got. “Tell us what happened with Ethan.” In sync, her parents leant forward, piercing her with their eyes from across the small table, like her life was the latest episode of her mom’s favorite reality show.
“Nothing,” she replied honestly. And she was lucky that was really what had happened. He would have been perfectly entitled to be mad at her, instead he’d acted like seeing her was no big deal. She wished shecould say the same, but Ethan Blake had always had a way of getting under her skin.
Their shoulders slumped, but Angie soon recovered. “Well, I hear that he’s very in demand these days.”
What was that supposed to mean? In demand how?
As if she could see the questions brewing in Penny’s mind, her mom continued, “He works in design, or architecture, right, Phil?” She didn’t wait for an answer before plowing on. “Of course, the poor boy can’t seem to sit still for more than a second. That’s why we took him on at the orchard—”
Penny grimaced, the lasagna turning to paste in her mouth as she washed it down with a large gulp of her wine and tuned out her mom’s mooning over Penny’s ex-boyfriend. Hiring him at the orchard was one thing, they’d needed the help and of course they shouldn’t have turned it down just because it was coming from her ex. But still, Penny thought, the adoration was a bit much. Then again, Ethan was the only boyfriend of Penny’s that they’d met, and they’d been together for nearly four years, so she couldn’t blame them for being attached to him. Even if it did make things harder for her.
Her dad nodded along, murmuring his agreement with a glazed look in his eyes, and Penny was right there with him until something Angie said caught her attention.
“—terrible business, we were all so sad when the news broke.”
“Sorry, what was that?” Penny blinked her mom back into focus and pushed her plate away, appetite gone.
