But Naomi forces a smile.“How fun.”
Jack glares at them both, and then he grabs his pumpkin and his change and heads for his car.“I’ll see you later.”He waves at me before driving away.I wonder how we missed seeing him pull up.I guess we were all pretty distracted by Naomi being a jerk.
I dread having to make conversation after he leaves, but it’s my lucky day apparently.It stopped raining, finally, and as Jack heads down the drive, three more cars pull down it.Naomi barely has time to say anything at all before we’re helping customers pick pumpkins, warty or smooth, round or lopsided, and making change.
Naomi’s helping a very irritating child who keeps kicking at the pumpkins we’ve pre-picked, when Maeve taps my shoulder.“I’m sorry,” she says.
“Excuse me?”That’s the last thing I thought she’d say.
“Naomi’s had a thing for Jack for a long time, and you don’t want to be on her bad side, so—” She shakes her head.“I knew better than to be such a witch to ye, and I’m ashamed of myself.Can we start over?”
I glance at Naomi.“You can pretend to hate me when she’s around.I won’t hold it against you.”
Maeve’s expression darkens.“I’m really not that weak a person.I guess I just needed Jack to remind me of it.”It’s started to rain again, but she doesn’t move to get under the small awning.She just stares at me as the rain plasters her cute, reddish blonde curls to her forehead.“Can we please start over?”
“Sure.”Because it would be nice to have a friend, and...“I’ve been scared before, too.”I’m not proud of it, but I’ve been the person who didn’t say something when I should have.I’ve always wanted to be more like Sam or Natalie, but when push comes to shove, I’m just mousy old Vanessa.
Maeve’s smiling as Naomi walks back.
I panic for a moment, expecting her to issue some kind of horrible ultimatum, but Naomi doesn’t.She just goes about checking the cash box to make sure we can still make change while the horrible kid’s mother pays for their tiny greenish pumpkin.
A moment later, two more cars show up, and then two more, and we’re all scrambling again to help the people in them.Naomi and Maeve seem to somehow get the pickiest people ever, including a woman who keeps complaining about how muddy it is—it’s actively raining, and it’s a pumpkin patch!—so I’m alone when the last woman comes to buy her large, perfectly round pumpkin.
“That’s a beautiful one,” I say brightly.“In fact, that may be the nicest one I’ve seen all day.”
“Then I’ll pay double.”The woman plops down a fifty euro note.
“Oh.”My eyes widen as I try to take it.“Thank you.That’s so generous.The kids will really—” As my eyes finally rise to meet hers, I realize I’ve met her before.
It’s Jack’s mother.
I spent a lot of time talking to Sam about her, after our run-in, and we ran through exactly what I could say to her when we met again.We even talked about some ways I could bring it up to Jack.After all, he’d be the best one to advise me on how to handle his own mother.But in that moment, as she glares at me, her long, perfectly polished fingernail still pinning her fifty euro note to the counter, every single word I practiced evaporates.
“I—you’re Mrs.Calihan.”
She arches one eyebrow.“Shanahan.”
I cough.“Right, duh.Sorry.I’m a little nervous.”
“Nervous?”She arches one perfect eyebrow, finally releasing the bill she practically punctured.“Why on earth would you be nervous to sell a pumpkin to yourboyfriend’s mother?”
My cough turns into a fit.I sound like I’m about to die of tuberculosis.Maeve rushes toward me, patting me on the back.“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
“Keep the change,” Mrs.Shanahan says.“But why don’t you help me get this to the car.”She clicks a button and the lights on a massive, shiny black Range Rover flash.
“Right.”Maeve’s eyes widen.“Happy to.”
“Not you.”Mrs.Shanahan doesn’t even glance at her.“That one.”She points one finger at me.
I swallow, and straighten, and I grab the perfect pumpkin.“Sure, yes, of course.”
I struggle through the rain, lugging her huge, perfect pumpkin, and once we reach the car, I find that she’s simply standing beside it, an umbrella over her head, staring at me.
“Can you open the back?”
“I thought you would do that.”She tilts her head.
