Sweet Hill Temptation (A Short Story) Read Free

go around assaulting a Jacobs man and not expect it to affect your business,” Maggie Thompson, Annie’s grandmother, said, shuffling behind the counter from the back room. “Makes for hostility. No matter how much they may deserve it.”
    It wasn’t a secret that her nana didn’t like Andrew Jacobs, Luke’s grandfather. She never shared the details, but apparently they had dated right after high school and the breakup was messy. Soon after, Old Man Jacobs ended up marrying a city girl.
    “For God’s sake, I punched one guy in a bar and now I’m considered hostile?”
    “Yes, dear,” Nana said as the café’s phone rang. She dusted off her hands on the front of her apron and answered it.
    Annie rolled her eyes and went back to stocking the muffins. “The man isn’t here twenty-four hours and already he’s affecting my business.”
    “Maybe you should settle things with him,” Jen said. Which only made Annie want to roll her eyes again.
    Problem was, nothing about Luke or his being home settled her. Damn it! Why did she have to react to him the way she did? She shouldn’t have lost her control, but all the hurt and confusion and anger from the cold morning she’d woken up alone without Luke came flooding back the moment she saw him. And those weren’t the only feelings overflowing in her.
    She could still feel his lips on her skin. His hands sliding up her thighs—
    “Lunch order!” Nana said loudly, hanging up the phone and placing a sticky note in front of Annie.
    “Twelve turkey sandwiches?”
    Her grandmother nodded. Those rosy cheeks and that big smile made Annie wonder why she was suddenly so happy. “Yep, and that’ll be for delivery. So you’d better scoot.”
    “We don’t deliver, Nana.”
    “We do on orders of twelve or more. New rule. Just came up with it.”
    “Nana, that is not going to work.”
    “Well, unless you want our grand total today to be zero dollars and zero sandwiches”—she paused to look around the empty café—“then I suggest you take what you can get and hurry up.”
    That was all she said as she headed toward the back room, the smell of baking bread drifting through the swinging kitchen doors.
    Crap. Her grandmother was right. A few sales were better than none. Especially on a slow day like today.
    Jen peered over the counter and squinted at the scribbled piece of paper. “What kind of address is ‘Apple Heights Dock’?”
    The breath stuck in Annie’s throat. She looked at her grandmother’s writing, then glared at the door she’d just walked through.
    “That would be the loading dock up Apple Heights Road.”
    “So, the Jacobs property?” Now Jen was obviously trying to hide a smile.
    Not wanting to lose her only sale of the day, Annie stifled the urge to scream and started making twelve identical turkey sandwiches, wondering what gossip would arise after this encounter with Luke.
    As if reading her mind, Jen said, “I hope Luke is wearing a cup today.”

    “In and out,” Annie said to herself as she got out of her car and grabbed the box of sandwiches.
    Gravel crunched beneath her shoes as she walked around the parked forklift and toward the big rig, which was already laden with several crates of apples. The loading area was a patch of dirt right off the side of the road, and if there weren’t machinery and a massive shed, it’d look just like a turnout. The apple trees were planted right up to the road, endless rows taking up miles of the countryside. The smell of sunshine and Granny Smiths wafted through the air.
    There was no one in sight.
    She walked over to the shed and peeked inside. The doors were pulled open, and she called out.
    “Hello?”
    No response.
    She wove around the equipment, looking quickly for any sign of life. The low hum of the floor-to-ceiling cooler buzzed, and she tried not to think about what had happened at this place the last time she was there.
    But when she saw the stack of hay bales in the corner, a flash of