Skye’s eyes twinkled as she grabbed hold of the front door. “You nailed it.”
So there it was. Luke was Skye’s attempt at a bit of revenge.
Theo grinned.
The doors jingled as they entered and slipped past rows of chips and chocolate bars, ATM machines, and quarter slots for M&M’s. They walked toward the man behind the register. He was holding something up to a customer, and as the customer stepped aside, Theo saw all of him. The gas station’s logo on the lime green T-shirt was stretched across his chest almost to the point of being unreadable. The chiseled jaw was gone, replaced with baby-face cheeks, victim of a recent sunburn. The bowl cut was gone, replaced with much fewer, tender-looking hairs. A single gust of wind could cause them to fly off like dandelions in spring. But the most startling change of all was his face.
His wide, positively buoyant face.
Luke caught their eyes and stretched out his arms. “Theo! You came just in time.”
Chapter 8
Skye
If Skye’s confusion grew any stronger, the contortions of her forehead would seal her eyes shut. As it was, she barely managed to follow Theo as he walked up to the register.
“Luke,” Theo said, reaching across the glass and giving him a shoulder pat. “It’s good to see you.”
Luke beckoned to Skye. “Come see this. I need both of your opinions.”
It took a few moments, but Skye forced herself to shuffle forward to form the strange triangle of people. Luke rested his elbows on the counter and leaned forward. He tapped the envelope as he spoke in hushed tones. “I have . . . in my hand . . . at this very moment . . . the secret to the baby’s gender.”
Well, it wasn’t the super, ultrasecret, undercover plan to save the world, but it was still something.
Skye’s eyes widened. “I thought Tracy didn’t want to know.”
Luke waggled his eyebrows. “She doesn’t. Just got back from the doctor yesterday. She had him write it on a piece of paper and seal it up so we could take it to Blackbird Bakery and get a cake made for the shower, you know, pink in the center if it’s a girl, blue if it’s a boy.” (To his credit, Luke looked like he was about to burst out of his shirt with excitement.) “Anyway, she forgot she had a highlighting appointment for one of her clients, so she gave this to me and made me promise I wouldn’t look.” He looked at the envelope in his hand like it was a treasure map. His blue eyes shone like a baby’s. “And I’m keeping my word.” He pushed it in Skye’s face. “Read it.”
“No way.” Skye threw up her hands and took a step back. “Your wife would kill me.”
“C’mon,” Luke urged, leaning farther over the counter to push the envelope her way. “Read it.”
“Absolutely not,” Skye said, moving behind a row of candy bars for good measure.
“Aw, c’mon, Skye, I can’t read it myself. I made an oath.”
“So you give it to everyone else who comes in here and try to figure it out by their reactions? Heck no. I’ve experienced the wrath of a pregnant woman. And that was over the one time I accidentally threw away her yogurt. Can you imagine what she’d do to you—to me—if she found out we knew the sex of her baby?”
Luke, who was looking more like the retired version of Mr. Incredible by the moment, put his fist on the counter and dropped his head. But a moment later, he was popping back up, smile back in place. “Theo. I know I can count on you.”
Theo put up both hands. “You know I’d love to—”
“You won’t even have to say it out loud,” Luke pressed. “Just read it to yourself.”
The corner of Theo’s mouth tugged upward until it formed a wry smile. “Why? To see if you can guess by my expression?”
Luke pointed to Theo. “Exactly.” He looked down at the scribbled back of a receipt. “So far I have three eyebrow raises and two winks.”
“Which leads you to believe . . . ?” Theo said.
“It’s a girl. Naturally.”
Theo shook his head. “Well, a fifth girl would be eyebrow raising for sure. I look forward to hearing the official word in due time. But in the meantime, I believe we are here for a reason.” Theo glanced toward Skye. “Right, Skye?”
What was going on? Who were these people? In what parallel universe had she landed?
She shook herself back to the matter at hand. “Right. We’re here to pick up the tractor.”
Luke reached beneath the register and tossed her the key.
“Thanks, Luke,” Skye said, closing her fingers around it. “It’ll be back by dinnertime.”
“Take your time,” Luke said, already back to staring at the tally marks on the back of the receipt.
They had just reached the door and opened it when Luke called out, “And Skye?”
Skye turned at the sound of her name. “Yes?”
Luke grinned. “Good to see the Evergreen Twins back together again.”
Chapter 9
Theo
Theo couldn’t help smiling as he reached out to catch Skye stumbling off the curb. They walked toward the tractor parked beside two dumpsters.
For Luke to have called them by the name they’d been tagged with two decades before was the perfect finale to the perfect conversation.
“I don’t . . . how does he—know you?” Skye said, shuffling her words as poorly as her feet.
Theo shrugged. “It’s Luke. It’s also the only gas station in town. I’m up here a lot.”
“And . . . you just became friends.”
“Well, he hasn’t invited me over to grill out in his backyard . . .”
Skye nodded as though this was obvious.
“Since last year,” Theo continued, “but sure, I’d say we’re friends.” He tipped his head thoughtfully. “He is, after all, one of the only people to appreciate my lasagna.”
“You make him lasagna,” Skye mumbled, more to herself it seemed than to him. She stepped up to the tractor. “Sure you do. Sure you do.”
Theo tried to slip his hands into his pockets, but the insides of both felt like the outside—sandpaper. “So.” He looked up to the tractor behind her. “What’s next?”
Skye popped open the glass door and took a step up. “You take the Prius. I take the tractor.”
As she settled inside, she tossed a set of keys at him.
Theo caught them. Looked at them. “Ah. See, I believe I forgot to mention I’ve never driven a stick shift before—”
“You’ll be fine.” Skye put the key in the ignition. “Just be sure to press the clutch all the way to the floorboard with the gear shift in neutral first.”
“The clutch,” Theo said uncertainly. “Right. And that is the . . .”
Skye’s brow creased as though she both could, and couldn’t, believe the man before her. “Left. The little pedal on the left.”
“Right.” Theo nodded.
Skye pointed up the road. “We only have to take it those five or six miles, but the road will be steep, so you’re going to have to keep it firm in second and be careful not to let it stall out.”