Free After I Fall by Amity Hope

hard?” he guessed.
    “Yeah, that sums it up nicely,” I agreed. I turned onto the winding driveway. The house couldn’t be seen from the road. Shrubbery lined the edges. Each one of those shrubs needed pruning and trimming. We rounded the curve in the drive, passed my mother’s gardens—at least the ones at the front of the house—and I pulled the car into the garage.
    Eric still hadn’t said anything else.
    Maybe he had nothing left to say. I turned to him as soon as I shut the car off.
    “Thanks for going to lunch with me,” I said.
    He scoffed. “Hey, I’m the one that got a free lunch out of the deal.” He reached for the door handle. “So, uh, I should probably be getting back to work.”
    He got out of the car and I followed. I caught him glancing at his phone.
    “Are you late?”
    “No, right on time. But I’ve got to run,” he said.
    “Okay, well, maybe I’ll see you next week?”
    “What? Oh, right. When we come back here. Yeah, I guess if you’re around I’ll see you then. Bye, EmLynn.”
    I watched as he jogged away. It seemed like he was always running off. As I wandered toward the house I found myself wishing that just once, our time together wasn’t so rushed.
    I decided to pass along Eric’s thanks to Phillip. Instead of going inside I followed the brick walkway to the backside of the house. They were probably all finished with lunch by now. Most likely the girls were outside playing, wearing off a bit of energy before Mom attempted to make them take naps. My suspicion was confirmed when I heard the girls’ laughter float to me from the backyard.
    Their laughter wasn’t the only thing that floated my way. I stopped short of rounding the house when I heard Mom and Phillip’s irritated voices. It sounded as if they were talking about me.
    Again.
    “How many times in the last few months have you said that you wished she’d start going out more? That she’d start dating?” Phillip asked.
    Judging by his exasperated tone, this argument had been going on for a while.
    “I do want her to start dating. But that does not mean I want her dating the gardener! He’s the hired help for crying out loud!” Mom sounded even more exasperated than Phillip.
    “Then you have nothing to worry about,” I said as I breezed around the corner. “Because we’re not dating, we’re barely even friends.”
    “Thank heavens,” Mom muttered.
    Then, just because I felt like saying it, I added, “We’re not dating yet .” I flashed her a smile and headed for the French doors that led into the house. I hadn’t made my way inside before I heard her mutter to Phillip.
    “Now look what you’ve done!”
    I laughed to myself, surprised when Phillip chose to laugh too. I glanced over my shoulder, taken aback that he’d been defending me to Mom yet again. He caught my eye and winked. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back. I closed the door, sealing off whatever remained of their little tiff.
    Maybe there was hope for Phillip and me after all.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7
    “Eric!”
    He stopped just short of the work truck he’d arrived in. He shot a questioning glance at Tom, his boss.
    “Go ahead,” Tom said. “I need to make a quick call to my wife, anyway.”
    “Thanks,” Eric told him. He walked toward me as Tom got into the truck. “What’s up?”
    “I was just wondering, I mean, I know you’ll be back here next week, but I thought maybe…would you want to, I mean, before then…” I stopped talking when I realized I was rambling and not really getting anywhere. What I was about to do was so far out of the perimeter of my comfort zone.
    “Would I want to what?” Eric asked.
    “Do you want to get together before then? Like maybe this weekend? I know you haven’t been in town all that long, and neither have I, but,” I pulled in a breath and mentally told myself to get it together, “maybe we could find something to do?”
    “This