“I had to think of something to take my mind off you being naked in my house.” Maggie shivers like she’s traumatized and despite the fact that I give less than zero fucks about what she thinks, it still kind of stings.
I’ll be damned if I will let her see it though, so I just roll my eyes. “Whatever. Delete the photos. Now.”
Maggie holds out the phone and I watch her delete the images. “But they’re staying in my email until the farmer’s market season is over, and then I will let you delete them yourself. I promise.”
“Your promise holds little value to me,” I reply because it’s the truth. “The Todd family is about as trustworthy as a snake in a tree in the Garden of Eden.”
“Yeah because the Adlers are a bunch of saints.” Daisy snorts and rolls her big brown eyes.
I pick up my mop and bucket. “I guess I have no choice but to say I’ll see you Sunday.”
“See you then!” Maggie grins and waves as I step out into the hall outside their apartment.
“Toodles!” Daisy calls out, a smile as equally fake and saccharine as her sister’s on her face.
“You two are my own personal version ofThe Shiningtwins, you know that?” I say. Their response is to slam the front door in my face.
What did I ever do to deserve this? It’s going to be the longest and worst semester of my life.
5
Maggie
Almost a week later and I’m still feeling great. It helps that the summer weather has wrapped its arms around September and refuses to let go. Midway through the month and we’re still in the midseventies with the sun down. I take a slow deep breath, filling my lungs with the smell of pine and grass that swirls in the night air, and smile.
“I didn’t think you’d come tonight, to be honest,” Jasmyn says as she links her arm with me and we climb the steps of the Alpha Zeta fraternity house. Her boyfriend, Rhys, is a member and they’re having a games night, which usually ends up with people dancing on the pool and ping-pong tables rather than playing on them.
“I need to celebrate my first hostile business takeover,” I say and wink. Daisy giggles as she and Caroline climb the stairs behind us.
“The first of many,” Daisy adds. “Only the next time we take something from the Adlers it won’t require half-naked blackmail pictures.”
Jasmyn reaches for the door handle. You can already hear the music pumping inside. “What are you going to take next?”
“Hopefully their farm when the bank forecloses,” Daisy replies and the door swings open and we step inside.
It’s a big, old, brown-brick two story. The rooms off the front hall are large and packed with people and games tables. Two ping-pong tables in the living room, an air hockey table in the dining room as well as beer pong set up on the table in the kitchen just beyond. The whole house smells like beer and sweat. It was midseventies outside but it’s mideighties inside thanks to all the bodies.
“I can’t believe you two are going to take over another farm,” Jasmyn says in awe. “I feel like I’ll be lucky to get a job at McDonald’s when I graduate.”
Daisy reaches over and wraps an arm around Jasmyn’s shoulders as we push our way toward the kitchen. There’s a loud cheer as a girl beats a guy on the ping-pong table to our left. “You can come and work for us when you graduate. If we can snag their farm, we’re turning it into an events venue.”
Jasmyn’s whole face lights up at the idea, which makes me smile. I love the idea too.
“They’ve got really beautiful land with a lake and yeah their barn is falling apart, but their farmhouse is huge and in good shape. It’s going to be a bed and breakfast and my uncles are going to make tiny container home-style suites and we’ll pepper them down by the lake and then add a gazebo for weddings and a barn we can turn into a hall for conferences and wedding receptions.”
“We’ll need more than one talented chef versed in farm-to-table food for the B and B,” I say, smiling, and Jasmyn smiles back.
“Don’t get my hopes up, but if you do take it over, I’m your girl,” Jasmyn replies as we enter the kitchen.
Caroline sighs and pouts as she leans on my shoulder. “My life is going to be so boring after college. You girls will all be working together and I’ll be in dental school staring at molars.”
I pat her head. “You can visit anytime.”
We’re about to turn left as we enter the kitchen but Caroline, who is leading the way, stops dead and we all bump into each other like dominos. She lifts a hand and points, but my eyes already see what she sees, what stopped her in her tracks. The two sets of French doors that lead out to the expansive, covered back porch are wide open and Tate Adler is playing ping-pong on the table out there—shirtless.
“That six pack looks familiar,” Jasmyn whispers in my ear. “I hate to say this, but he really is gorgeous.”
“He’s okay,” I mutter and wiggle past Daisy and Caroline to the kegs, which are on the other side of the kitchen island. I grab a red plastic cup off the island and start to pour a beer. A group watching the ping-pong match on the porch erupts in cheers and I can’t help but look.
