“Ah.”
“And I don’t think it’s going to work out.”
“Well, maybe if you go on one date with me, you’ll see what a handsome, upstanding guy I am.”
“I don’t think getting girls to go ononedate with you is the problem here,” she said sweetly.
Oof. Direct hit. “So, you can see why it was a big blow to my ego when the girl who’s loved me the longest rejected me in front of all the guys.”
I glanced at Jake and felt my stomach drop. Somewhere in the middle of our exchange, Jake the Snake had been released. He watched us with a wide, calculating grin, his arms folded and looking deeply entertained. This had to end now.
“Hey.” I waved my hand in front of Jake’s face. Slowly, his eyes focused on me.
“You alright?”
He pursed his lips, his eyes flicking over to Tessa and then back at me. He opened his mouth to say something before shutting it again. Something must have resolved in his brain, because a look of satisfaction planted itself on his face.
“I’ve got a working theory I need to test.” He walked backward toward the door, rubbing the imaginary whiskers on his chin. Tessa and I were rooted to our spots on the floor, on high alert.
“What?” Tessa asked.
When he reached the handle, he stopped, staring at us until Tessa and I were glancing at each other uneasily. Satisfied with whatever he saw, he smiled. “Go on about your business.” Giving us each a look, he added, “Whatever that may be. And I’ll be right back.” He muttered a few more unintelligible things before exiting the greenhouse. We watched from the window as he started up his old truck and pulled away.
“Looks like your ride left you,” she said.
“I’m not sure I want him to come back, either.” He had left me in Tessa’s lair. Alone. Well done, Jake. If that was his plan all along, he had surprised me. It lacked a certain finesse. But something in me knew he would be back which explained the cold feeling of dread that washed over me.
Tessa recruited me to help pick raspberries. When she realized I was eating more than I was saving she smacked my arms with her gloves and shooed me over to a chair. I grinned, stealing a few out of her bucket before she could stop me.
Tires crunched ominously on the gravel outside. Tessa stood beside me as we peered out the window. A brand-new, slick, black Chevy Silverado with a Duramax Diesel engine and a lift was parked out front. After admiring the truck for a long moment, I nearly sat back down before the door opened and Jake stepped down from the truck.
Our mouths dropped open.
“What in the…?” Tessa started, her voice trailing off. My thoughts exactly.
We stepped outside and crept cautiously toward Jake and his extra-wide smile.
“Are the cops on their way?” I asked.
“I think I outran ‘em.”
“Whose truck is this?” I asked as I approached the glistening beast before me. It was the truck of every man’s dreams right in front of me, and I couldn’t figure out why it was here.
Jake stood back from the truck, watching me. “I’ve had it for a few months. It’s my first time driving it.”
I stared at him in horror. “Why?”
“It was a birthday present from Daddy.” Though he still smiled, he spat the last word out somewhat bitterly for an eternal optimist like Jake.
I knew some passing bits about Jake’s family life. In a town as small as Eugene, you couldn’t hide much, even if you wanted to. Jake’s dad had struck it big as a professional bull rider. I hardly remembered him living here. Soon after he made it big, he divorced his wife and left her and Jake. I hadn’t realized there was any contact between them at all.
“How does it drive?” I asked.
Jake grinned. “Not bad, if you’re into the kind of truck that starts up when you first turn the key, or a gas gauge that shows you how much gas is left, or if you like driving with a windshield that isn’t cracked a thousand different ways—which I don’t.”
“Why aren’t you driving it?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t want it.”
