Page 3 of Cozy Girl Fall

“So what did you think of Jake?”

Penny choked on her tea and her dad thumped her on the back in between turning the pages of his newspaper. “Well, mostly I thought that I was meant to be taking a very important business meeting and that surely my mother would have told me if she was trying to fix me up with someone.”

Her mom turned, hands on her hips above her frilly-edged apron, her hair starting to curl around her temples from the heat of the stove.

“Then I was mostly thinking that I wouldn’t be able to replace the jeans that were a casualty of my mother’s meddling.”

A quiet chuckle emerged from behind the paper and Angie Larkin speared her husband with an equally sharp look as the one she’d just leveled on her daughter.

“Jake is such a nice boy,” she mused, as if Penny had said nothing at all. “You could do a lot worse, honey.”

Penny rolled her eyes and opted not to respond. If she gave her mom an inch, she’d take a mile. Instead, she placed a palm into the center of her dad’s paper and pressed lightly so he lowered it. “Did you know about her scheming?”

Philip Larkin was a kind man, but he was not a strong-willed man. At least, not when the whims of his wife were involved.

His green eyes, a reflection of Penny’s own, crinkled at the corners as he gulped his own steaming-hot tea and Penny couldn’t help the twitch of her lips at the sight of his large hands cradling the delicate teacup. “I plead the fifth.”

“Of course you do.” She snorted, her stomach grumbling when she forcefully inhaled a large whiff of the spiced apples her mom was prodding on the stove.

Her mom may have her flaws, but there wasn’t much Penny couldn’t forgive in exchange for a slice or two of her mom’s famed apple pie—freshly made with apples from their orchard.

It was nice being back in her parents’ cottage; it felt more comforting than nostalgic, unlike the rest of the town. Maybe that was because it had looked pretty much the same for her whole life … barring the fiery drape incident of ’05 that had prompted a swap to blinds in the kitchen windows.

Her parents were the one constant in her life, like rocks the waves of life parted around, and their cottage felt the same, too.

Like a place out of time. The floor was the same aged wood it had always been, though the ornately patterned mint-and-pink rug that sat in the middle of the kitchen floor was new, as was the matching rug in gray that sat under the large coffee table in the living room.

Sunlight streamed in through the open blinds, touching the cream and wooden cabinets and countertops.

The beams of light caught in the crystals of the suncatcher that hung from the open shelves near the fridge, sending a pastel rainbow over the white walls and wooden ceiling beams. Her dad had actually built and fitted all of the cabinets himself before Penny had even been born.

In fact, he’d done most of the decorating in the cottage—under her mom’s strict direction and oversight, of course.

But, as much as Penny might wish it, her parents weren’t invincible.

In fact, part of the reason she’d felt a little better about coming back to Magnolia Springs was that she could help with the apple boom that this time of year presented.

Her parents couldn’t manage it by themselves any more, and they couldn’t afford to hire more help than they already had, so Penny had come to the rescue.

Well, that was how she preferred to think about it anyway.

The alternative was admitting that she’d crashed and burned at her job in the city after finally snapping and screaming at her pig of a boss, which had left her no choice but to come running back to mommy with her tail tucked between her legs.

Oh yeah, Penny to the rescue , she thought, eyes twitching as she fought the urge to roll them. It was one of her mom’s biggest pet peeves and if she caught Penny doing it there’d be no peace at the kitchen table. And Penny really wanted some of the pie her mom was making.

Besides, with everything that had happened to her recently, she deserved pie.

She’d been trying hard to focus on the positives, to keep busy helping her parents, since she’d been back in her hometown, but whenever she sat still for longer than a minute the doubts came creeping in.

Being back here would mean being judged by people she’d known for most of her life, and she couldn’t help but feel like they would be disappointed.

Or worse, pitying, that she’d failed in the city and had to come back to the place she’d been so desperate to leave.

If she was being realistic, she knew that people probably weren’t thinking about her one way or the other.

Still, though, she couldn’t help feeling like returning to Magnolia Springs was a massive step backwards, especially after she’d worked so hard to leave and pursue her dreams in San Francisco.

“You ready for your big day tomorrow?” Philip folded his paper and grinned at her, his smile making him look ten years younger than his graying hair would have you believe.

“Been a while since we had you out there pickin’.

Pretty sure the last time you were at the orchard you dragged along that boyfriend of yours. It’ll be just like old times.”

She laughed. It was true, the last time she’d been out on the orchard she’d been seventeen and her biggest problem had been worrying whether her high-school boyfriend, Ethan Blake, was going to ask her to prom. Spoiler alert: he did.

At the same time, though, Penny couldn’t help a little pang of guilt at the reminder that she’d left her parents on their own for so long to run everything. Even though there’d been no reproach in her dad’s words and her parents had never complained, she felt shitty about it nonetheless.

“I’m excited for it,” she said and her dad nodded while Angie stirred the apples and added in cinnamon and other spices. “It’ll be good to be out in the fresh air, using my muscles. Like you say, it’ll be just like old times.”

“You’ll be a pro in no time,” he said, standing from the table and pressing a hand to her shoulder as he passed her chair on his way to the fridge. “By next year’s season, it’ll be like you never left.” With his back to her, he didn’t see how her face dropped.

She was happy to help out, but she’d promised herself when she came back to Magnolia Springs that it was temporary .

She’d help her parents during their busy period and figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life after that.

One thing was certain—staying in Magnolia Springs wasn’t on the cards.

Not if she wanted to follow her dreams of being a chef for a big restaurant in the city.

Although, technically she had done that already.

It just hadn’t worked out like she’d imagined—and she definitely hadn’t predicted she’d be back sleeping in her childhood bedroom, even if it did look different now.

“If you start flagging out there tomorrow, you can always ask Ethan—”

Penny shushed her dad. “That definitely won’t be happening.” With any luck, she wouldn’t bump into Ethan at all while she was home for the next few months. Especially after the way she’d left things—she couldn’t imagine he’d be happy to see her. Better to steer clear of him as much as possible.

“Honey, quick, taste this for me.” Angie didn’t wait for an answer, just shoved a wooden spoon at Penny until she was forced to open her mouth or end up with apple-pie filling all over her face.

It was tart and tangy, with the right balance of sweetness that made her mouth water.

It was the flavor of her childhood and fall, of warm summer evenings spent in the garden with her parents or her friends.

It tasted like her first kiss with Ethan Blake and hope and regret all wrapped up in a complicated swirl of sticky sauce.

“It’s perfect,” she said, voice tight with emotion, and her mom beamed.

“Good enough to outsell Ellen’s lemon loaf at the Halloween Orchard Fest?”

Penny smiled to herself at the thought of the festival.

She’d missed a lot of the small-town events that ran every year in Magnolia Springs, particularly because there was no real equivalent in the city.

The Halloween Orchard Fest was Penny’s favorite, had been since her parents started it up when she was seven and she’d discovered the joy of candied apples, but the bonfire in mid-October and the Christmas markets were a close second and third in her book.

There was just something about being out in the cold evening air with a warm drink in hand, surrounded by people she knew, that made her feel at ease.

The pace of the city didn’t leave much room for languid evenings sipping cider by the bonfire.

“Your apple pie eats Ellen’s lemon loaf for breakfast,” she reassured her mom and then frowned. Try saying that three times fast. “Or doesn’t eat it for breakfast? I don’t know. Basically, Ellen’s lemon loaf sucks.”

Angie waved Penny off, a pleased gleam in her eye even as she said, “Oh, honey, let’s not be cruel. Ellen tries her best, I’m sure.”

Only Angie Larkin could make a compliment sound like the opposite.

Fresh cup of tea in hand, Philip sat back down and glanced between the two of them before shaking his head. “I had no idea the competition was so intense. I’d have thought it would be a piece of cake. Get it? Piece of cake?”

Penny shared a look with her mom before forcing out a weak laugh. She’d been home for just over forty-eight hours and the dad jokes had already started. Though, if she was being honest, she’d missed hearing them when she’d been living on her own in San Fran. Not that she’d ever tell her dad that.

“Oh! You’ll never guess who I ran into at the grocery store.” When Penny waited in silence her mom sighed before continuing, “Tasha! You remember Tasha, don’t you, Phil? Such a nice girl. You should call her. Let her know you’re back.”

Penny hid her grimace behind a gulp of her tea and bit her tongue so she wouldn’t yell out I’m not back! This is temporary.

Instead, she nodded vaguely and tried to remember the last time she’d seen Tasha.

Ethan wasn’t the only one she’d left behind when she’d rushed out of Magnolia Springs like her hair was on fire.

Tasha had been a good friend and they’d been virtually inseparable during high school; Penny had often found herself thinking about her former best friend and what she might have made of her life while Penny had been gone.

But, much like Ethan, she wasn’t sure Tasha would want to see her after all this time.

It was one of the biggest regrets she had, leaving the way she did ten years ago, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it now.

Besides, the last thing she wanted was to reopen old wounds.

Now, Penny wasn’t sure she even had Tasha’s number.

Or what she’d say even if she could call.

Would Tasha want to talk to her? Ten years was a long time to go between phone calls and, where girlfriends were involved, Penny was out of practice.

Sure, she’d had work friends that she sometimes went for drinks or food with, but with the way she’d left things in the city she couldn’t see any of them picking up her calls either.

It seemed like she had a gift for poor departures.

She could only hope that when it came to leaving Magnolia Springs this time around, she would do it right.

Maybe it was the distance she’d now gained after leaving San Fran, but, in retrospect, she couldn’t help thinking the life she’d built for herself sounded awfully lonely, with work eating up all her time and leaving little room for friends.

At the very least, if there was one thing you could count on in Magnolia Springs, it was that you were never alone—whether you wanted to be or not.