Page 25 of Let’s Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About

Sadie reached for it, but something in the cabinet made a small electronic beep and the door snapped itself shut. She jumped and let out a small shriek.

Josh winced while Sadie waited for her heart rate to return to normal.

“Why the fuck did that cabinet door shut on its own?”

“I’m so sorry,” Josh gushed. “I noticed some cabinets were left open yesterday morning. As I was coming home last night, I realized I could rig up a little system that would automatically close the cabinets and drawers. Then it wouldn’t matter whether you left them open. Problem solved.”

Sadie closed her eyes and exhaled sharply from her nose.

She wanted to tell him I know when I’m not wanted .

But she wasn’t her mother. And she wasn’t going to let him off that easily.

“Two nights,” Sadie said through her teeth.

“I’ve spent two nights on your property and it’s already so unbearable that you need electronic solutions for my absentmindedness? ”

“It took me no time. I had the supplies lying around. I was trying to make things easy on us both.”

“Will it be easy when this shit crushes my hand and makes it impossible for me to work?” Sadie said, gesturing to another open cabinet.

As if on cue, the cabinet snapped shut.

“It’s definitely more forceful than I meant,” Josh admitted.

Why did other people always make her feel so wrong just for existing? “I don’t need you optimizing me like I’m one of your squashes, Josh,” Sadie said.

“I wasn’t trying to do that,” Josh said. “I’m sorry. I was hoping you’d be happy to know that you could continue doing your own thing in the kitchen. You don’t have to change your habits for my sake. I can see that I did not achieve that goal. I’ll uninstall the motors.”

Like an actor with perfect comic timing, the other cupboard slammed shut, riffling her hair with the force of it.

“You think?” she said. “Best do it before someone gets decapitated.”

Josh pulled out his phone and tapped. “The sensors are deactivated,” he said. “I’ll rip out the hardware later.”

This was the last straw. No pumpkin victory was worth this string of calamities.

It was time to pack it in. She took a deep breath and steeled herself.

“You can have your pumpkin back. I’m going to stay with my sister until I can go home.

I’ll chalk all this up to tornado damage and some bad decisions. ”

“Please don’t go. Who would forage on your father’s land? What about his customers?”

Thankfully Esther was a text message away. “It’s handled.”

“What can I do to get you to stay? I’ll sign something asserting that I’ll never buy Stu’s property. I’ll withdraw from the market for the season if you don’t want me there.”

Josh’s offers were always genuine and generous. These were so extreme that they gave her pause. Would he truly give up the idea of ever owning Stu’s property for her sake? “Why do you care?”

“I hope you’re starting to like it here. I don’t want my half-cocked schemes driving you away.”

He paused, perhaps to give her time to respond, but she didn’t take the bait.

He continued. “I should have kept my big mouth shut about the tornado creating an opportunity for me. I shouldn’t have engineered a solution for open cabinet doors so soon after your father’s house was destroyed.

Of course you’re distracted. I’m thoughtless sometimes and I’m overeager always and I’m so sorry.

Stu likes to tell me I don’t have the sense God gave a goose, and he’s right. ”

Maybe it was cheating to invoke Stu’s constant ragging on Josh, but it helped.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt was never her inclination, as Josh himself pointed out to her.

Between the Growers Guild meeting and the World’s Second-Largest Ball of Paint, Josh utterly embodied sincerity and earnestness.

She could spot a phony, and a phony he was not.

Plus, if she really searched her heart, she still wanted to win the pumpkin weigh-off.

She checked out Josh’s pumpkins every time she was watering her own.

With her pumpkin’s foliage free of mildew, its pristine skin, and both stem and blossom end in fantastic shape, she had a winner growing.

So she counted to fifty in her head to make him sweat.

“I accept your apology,” she finally said. “But I’m still mad at you.”

He clapped his hands and stood up from the table.

“Could we start fresh? Let’s do something fun,” he offered.

“It’s not a market day, Bud has your father’s house under control, and you’ve been under a lot of stress.

It might be nice to do something that has nothing to do with farming or foraging or pumpkins or Go Hog Wild. ”

“Ugh, now I’m mad at you and Zach,” Sadie said.

“Stay angry at him,” Josh urged her. “It’ll be all the sweeter when we finally take him down.”

What she needed more than a fresh start with Josh was to get back to her art.

Picking plants out of the woods might be good for her soul, but she still needed to make a living.

Her agent had emailed her; if she wanted to weave more silk wallpaper, she was in business.

People wanted what Brynn Bianchini had: something extremely beautiful in a very specific color.

They didn’t want Sadie to dream up an original color or texture—they wanted her to manufacture their own desires.

More silk wallpaper sounded like artistic stagnation. It also sounded like a cash register. She needed to sort herself out.

The surest way to invite the muses back into her life was to look at art. She could bike into town and browse the local galleries, but Josh had a car. “I need to be mad at you for a week. But then we can go to the art museum in Indy. It’s been ages since I’ve been there.”