Apple Orchard Bride. Jessica Keller

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      “Thank you,” she whispered so only Toby could hear. No need to stress her father out in his condition; he didn’t need to know that she and Toby had been arguing.

      “For?” Toby’s eyebrows rose.

      “Coming when I called...even after...” She swallowed hard and tried to make her voice even. “After what I said to you.”

      “Listen.” He angled his body so he was leaning over the middle control area and lowered his voice. “From what I’ve gathered, there’s some water under the bridge that you and I need to sort through. And we will. But no matter what—and hear me on this, Jenna—no matter what happens between us, I’ll always come if you call for me. Got that? Always.”

      She sucked in a shaky breath and nodded. Toby wanted to deal with their issues? Was that even possible? And if they did sort through everything...then what? They weren’t kids running through the apple orchard any longer—they could never go back to those carefree days. After everything that had happened in both of their lives, they could never go back to their old, easy friendship.

      She could accept his help on the orchard and with her father, but she couldn’t welcome him back as a friend. Not ever. Not after the way he—and every guy after him—had betrayed her.

      “Mr. Crest.” Toby opened his visor and used the mirror on it to keep an eye on her father. “I’m going to ask you some questions to help you stay alert, okay?”

      “Do your worst.” Her dad’s smile was soft, but his joking manner made Jenna ease her foot off the accelerator. It wouldn’t help them to get a speeding ticket on the way to the hospital.

      “Favorite food?”

      “Besides apple pie?”

      “Sure.”

      “Roast-beef sandwiches.”

      “Who’s the best football team?” Toby asked with a grin.

      Dad laughed. “Packers.”

      “You know that makes you a state traitor, right?” Toby shook his head as his grin widened.

      “Oh, please.” Her father crossed his arms. “Had they offered for you out of college, you would have accepted.”

      “You’re...you’re not wrong.”

      Had Toby flinched? Or had Jenna only imagined it?

      Toby cleared his throat. “Did Kasey give you any trouble this morning?”

      “Who’s Kasey?” Jenna glanced in Toby’s direction at the next stoplight. His pale blue eyes almost looked like they had a white electric circle in them. She forced herself to look back at the road.

      Her dad leaned toward the front of the car. “She’s only the cutest little girl I’ve ever met. Present company excluded.” He tapped Jenna’s shoulder and then rested his other hand on Toby’s shoulder. “She was nervous about her first day of school and starting after everyone else, so she and I prayed together before she got on the bus.”

      “Wait.” Jenna gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Who’s Kasey? She was at our house? I’m so confused.”

      “I helped her get on the bus so Toby could start working on the orchard.”

      Toby nodded and then pointed toward the entrance to the hospital parking lot. Like much of the Goose Harbor area, the small hospital was nestled in by the thick forest that lined much of the dune-covered areas of town. If there weren’t huge arrows and many signs for the hospital on the street leading up to the entryway, people would miss it all the time, especially when not thinking straight in an emergency.

      Jenna would have never missed the entrance though. She’d driven Dad here for one too many appointments in the past six months. She could probably sleepwalk to the hospital with no problem. Which was a good thing, because Dad and Toby’s discussion had distracted her.

      Did Toby have a daughter?

      “Wait, is Kasey yours?” She parked near the doorway for the ER.

      Toby unbuckled his seat belt and opened his door. “In a way, yes.” He closed the door and helped her father out of the back of the car. They made toward the hospital’s automatic front doors, leaving Jenna to trail behind them.

      “How old is she—Kasey?”

      “Seven,” Toby called back as he shuffled along with Dad.

      Jenna tried to wrap her mind around the fact that Toby had a daughter—a daughter the same age as Jenna’s child would have been if she’d carried to full-term.

      But she couldn’t process it all. Not right now. It was too much, the emotions that went with what she’d been through during college on top of her worries about her father.

      Shaken, she slumped into a chair beside Toby and curled her trembling hands over her stomach as Toby and her father answered the admitting nurse’s questions.

      * * *

      Toby ushered Jenna to a waiting area outside the doctor’s office. Jenna dragged her feet, her tennis shoes thumping against the polished floor. Mr. Crest had stated he preferred they let him be alone with the hospital staff first, with the promise that he’d call for them once he was ready. Jenna had balked until Toby pressed his hand to the small of her back and steered her out the door. Initially, he was afraid she would fight him, but she’d seemed almost grateful to be redirected.

      Now, if only she’d talk.

      Jenna rocked in her chair. Her already pale skin had turned ashen. She had her eyes closed tightly and was breathing hard through her nose. Toby dropped into the seat next to hers. Instinctively, he reached to take her hand but stopped himself before he made contact and grabbed the armrest instead.

      “Are you okay?”

      It was probably a dumb question. Her father was being examined in an emergency room. She’d been sitting in the same waiting room when she learned her mother had passed. This place—the hospital—was woven deeply into both Jenna’s and Toby’s lives. Not in a good way. Then again, when hospitals were needed, it was hardly ever good news. This was the same emergency room his family had rushed to many times with his brother. Although Toby had usually been sent to the Crests’ home, where Mrs. Crest distracted him with apple turnovers and the family included him in their evening board-game tournaments. Toby had spent many nights bunking in their guest room as a child so his parents didn’t have to split their time between him and his brother.

      “Water.” Jenna ran shaky hands down her cheeks. “Can you get water?”

      “I’ll get you anything you want.”

      Jenna finally stopped rocking. She tipped her head to the side and studied him for a moment. What did she see? An old friend she trusted? Or still the enemy she’d made him out to be in the orchard an hour ago? Toby feared the latter.

      “Water’s fine.” She looked away.

      Toby begged a plastic cup off the ladies at the nurses’ station, filled it at the water СКАЧАТЬ