“We were kids. It was funny.”
“Funny for you, maybe.”
“Pretty sure you got your payback. Even though I think, in the long run, those sheer baseball pants you swapped in my bag before the championship game probably helped me land that underwear campaign I starred in last year.”
Ignoring his chuckles, I attempted to turn on the car for the third time, and the answering click let me know my car wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and Owen stood there with one of those sexy trademark smirks of his. He stayed on the other side of it, probably to protect himself, waiting patiently for me to exit.
Eyes downcast, because I didn’t have any other choice besides call one of my family members, I grabbed the loaf of bread and my bag before stepping out of the car. Without looking up at him, I shoved my keys into my bag, then rolled up the window, giving him my own smirk when he barely moved his fingers in time to not be pinched. With as much haughtiness as I could muster, I yanked the door from his hold, then shut and locked it.
Before submitting to his offer, I looked across the way, noticing our old science teacher from high school. Ms. Glenvar had the unfortunate luck of having both me and Owen in her eleventh-grade chemistry class during the same period. After one disastrous lab session, where Owen and I had to partner up, and our assignment caught the table on fire, Ms. Glenvar took a leave of absence for the rest of the year.
I still didn’t believe it was our fault. It wasn’t us who placed ourselves in a class together, and everyone in Ashfield knew the chaos we tended to cause when we were in close proximity. So whose bright idea was it to put us together in, of all things, Chemistry? They were just asking for it.
Ms. Glenvar must have felt my stare. Her beady eyes met mine, and her steps faltered as she took in the large body behind my much, much smaller one. As if witnessing a crime in action, she took a slow step backward, then another, until she was running to her car parked at the far end of the lot.
“What was that about?” Owen asked as he opened the door of a plain-looking sedan parked directly beside mine. I would have expected to see him driving an exotic car like one of my brothers-in-law owned, since the news made it well known how much Owen’s recently signed contract was for.
With wide eyes, I spun around and looked at him in bewilderment. “Seriously?”
Owen gestured with an outstretched hand for me to enter the vehicle. I was still apprehensive, but I noticed the receipt from the rental company was resting on the center console, so I figured my pants were fairly safe.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I settled into the seat, grabbing my cell to text my family about my car. Of course, my phone’s battery was hanging on for dear life, with only three percent left. Before it died completely, I shot off a message letting them know I was on my way home, then powered off the device.
“You’re welcome.”
I watched him close my door, then jog around the front of the sedan toward the driver side. Even compared to last year, when I saw him for only a quick moment, he seemed to fill out even more. He was both lean and muscular, the cotton of his T-shirt stretched around his bicep as if it would give way at any moment. I didn’t recall his arms looking like that in high school. He also didn’t have any of the ink that now swirled in bright colors and shades of black and gray.
My eyes focused on the intricate design as he settled into his own seat. They appeared to be landscapes and words, nothing I could determine without a closer look. And getting any closer to Owen wouldn’t ever be a safe bet I’d take.
As he started the car and began pulling out of the parking spot, the people milling in and out of the store peered through our windows. The alarm was palpable as they darted away.
“Why is everyone running like the apocalypse is coming?”
Giggling, I said, “Because they probably think it is.”
Owen glanced over at me as he pulled onto Main Street. The skin between his eyebrows wrinkled. When our eyes met, there was electricity there that forced me to turn my head away and stare out the window. I didn’t have the time or energy to figure out what was going on.
“I don’t understand,” he mumbled.
“Really, Owen?” I didn’t elaborate further, not only because he couldn’t recall our tumultuous childhood with each other, but because I didn’t have the energy.
We made it ten minutes into the drive before another word was spoken. During that time, I wondered what kind of posts were being made in the town’s Facebook group. Not that I cared what was said about me, but I’d never been the topic of discussion before. At least not in this capacity.
Glancing at the clock, I noticed it was nearing four o’clock, and I knew my sister, Autumn, would be set to start dinner at the bed-and-breakfast soon. She roped me into the grocery store errand when she found me in our parents’ barn. Normally, I’d have declined, but right now, she was so pregnant that she looked as if she swallowed a watermelon.
“So… what’s new with you?” Owen asked, flexing his fingers along the steering wheel.
“Um… nothing really.”
“Did you… uh… go away to college or anything?”
I faced him again. Cocking my head to the side, I wondered if he truly didn’t keep up with anyone from town. I figured his mom would have at least kept him up-to-date on their land and our farm, since we signed the paperwork for the purchase last week.
“Are you joking right now?”
“What?”
“Your head is so far up your own ass that you have no idea whether or not I went to college? Pretty sure there was a listing at our graduation of where people were going, and my name was not on it.”
“Oh. Sorry,” he said with an unapologetic shrug. “My mind was elsewhere at graduation. Actually, it was elsewhere our entire senior year.”
With a resounding huff, I mumbled, “It’s fine. I took online classes to get an Associate’s in Business, but the farm dictates most of my time.”
“You’re still working for your fami—”
I interrupted him and pointed toward the road leading to the Crawfords’ bed-and-breakfast, where I was headed. “My sister, Autumn, and her husband, Colton, fixed up the old, worn-down farmhouse at the top of the hill and turned it into a B&B.”
“Yeah? Didn’t she move to New York or something like that?”
I was surprised he remembered that much but didn’t know whether I went to college or not. But then again, the majority of my male classmates and a few females had a major crush on my older sisters, even memorizing their school and work schedules. So, him knowing what they did after graduation shouldn’t have surprised me. But it did nonetheless.
“She did. She married someone you might recognize. Colton Crawford? He played professional hockey.”
“I think I remember hearing that. I don’t get a lot of downtime. Usually in the offseason, I’m training from sunup to sundown. So, unless it directly affects me or the team, I don’t really know what’s going on.”
Knowing I only had a few seconds before we crested the hill, I wanted to ask about the gossip burning in the back of my mind. “What happened with the fiancée?”
