Jessica Keller - Apple Orchard Bride

“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 fountain and then located a vending machine at the end of the hall. Score. It had chocolate-covered peanuts, Jenna’s favorite. After getting a pack, he reclaimed his seat and eased the cup into her hands.

She took a long drag of water and then cradled the cup on her lap. “That helped. Thank you.” At some point during their dash to the hospital, some of her curls had worked their way out of her ponytail so that they hung around her face. It made her look vulnerable. Protectiveness flooded his heart. Unsure of how she’d respond, he fought the desire to offer her a hug like the old days.

“Here.” He passed the chocolate-covered peanuts her way.

Jenna looked up from the cup of water and accepted the bag of treats. “Oh. These are my favorite.”

“I know,” he said warmly.

“You remembered.” Her voice sounded breathless.

“I...” He reached over and tucked her loose curls behind her ear. “I remember almost everything about you.”

Her eyebrows pinched together, and she rubbed the heel of her palm against her collarbone.

Toby angled his body toward her. Now was probably the worst time to ask, but he had to know, had to understand why she wasn’t happy to see him. Why she’d wanted him off their property. He tried to find a diplomatic way to start. “What are you thinking right now?”

“Sorry.” She dropped her hand from her chest. “Sometimes it feels like I’m having a heart attack.”

Concern for her dad. Anger at him for taking a job at the orchard. He’d expected one of those answers. Not...heart attack. Wait. Was Jenna ill, too? His gut tightened. “Should I get you a doctor?”

“Please don’t. I’m fine.”

“Is that a real fine, or like when your dad said he was fine?”

“I don’t need a doctor.”

“Jenn-nna.” He dragged out her name, the way he used to when he was bugging her to tell him something when they were kids.

“I...” She sighed loudly. “You might as well know if you’re going to be sticking around...”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“I have anxiety. It’s not terrible. And not all the time.” She continued, speaking rapidly, almost as if her words might vanish if she didn’t get them out fast enough. “But I have attacks—episodes.” She shrugged. “Sometimes they’re really bad. I’m okay though. Right now. I’m fine.”

“You said that.” Toby let her words sink in. Jenna hadn’t suffered from panic attacks in the past, that he knew of, anyway. Were these new? What caused them? He’d have to do some more research about anxiety before probing further. One thing he understood from having lived with his brother was that where health conditions were concerned, people could unknowingly hurt with poorly phrased questions or assumptions, even when they had good intentions. He wouldn’t do that to Jenna.