The Great Peach Experiment 1, Erin Downing [books to read romance .TXT] 📗

Freddy caught Lucy glaring at their dad from across the table, but Dad was totally oblivious. He nudged Herb’s fork and nodded. “Come on, Herbie. We all need to do our part.”

“Mmmnnn,” Herb muttered. He poked his fork into the slice of five-layer chocolate pie and scowled. “Pie is poopy.”

“Dad,” Lucy said calmly, nibbling a chunk of crust, “don’t forget about Herb’s sensitive stomach. He always gets sick when he has too much sugar.”

“Only one way a sensitive stomach will get stronger: challenge it,” Dad said, plopping a chunk of Old-Fashioned Apple into his mouth. “Put your belly to the test, Herb. Ignore the pain. Shove in a little more pie and force your tummy to tolerate it!”

“But—” Lucy began.

Before she could finish her sentence, Herb jumped up from the table. He raced across the restaurant, holding a fist in front of his face as he beelined for the bathroom.

“I think Herb’s gonna lose it,” Freddy said. Then he grabbed Herb’s half-full plate and drove his fork into the five-layer chocolate pie. With a shrug, he scooped up a huge bite. “More for me.”

From the Sketchbook of Freddy Peach:

PIES TO TRY

7

  TRUCK TROUBLE

Though riding in the bright peach truck was hot (no air-conditioning) and deeply embarrassing (especially after their dad put on his giant, brimmed sun hat), Lucy found herself actually enjoying the drive from Betty’s Pies to Minneapolis. She was the only Peach kid tall enough to sit up front next to Dad, while her brothers had to wedge their bodies into the strange and uncomfortable-looking passenger seats behind them. Herb’s new pet mice were nestled into the only leftover space between the two back seats, looking confused and miserable inside their little glass fish tank enclosure.

Lucy had already decided she liked road trips. It wasn’t often that she got four and a half hours to sit and read without having to deal with one of her brothers’ messes or listening to them bicker about which shape of noodles she should cook for lunch. And this was the first summer since their mom got sick that Dad was making any kind of effort to spend quality time together as a family. Even though the time off had been forced on him, Dad had chosen to spend the time with them…and that was something.

For the past two summers, Lucy had been tasked with taking care of her brothers while their dad disappeared. But this summer, whether he’d realized it yet or not, Dad had become part of the equation again. And Lucy planned to make the most of her newfound free time while pursuing her summer reading goal.

Two hours into their journey, she was completely immersed in her third novel of summer break—A Night Divided—when the truck lurched and began to make a disturbing thump thump thump thump sound. Based on the way the truck was bouncing along at an odd slant, Lucy had a pretty good feeling one of the tires on the “good as new” truck had gone flat.

“Whoa, Nelly,” Dad said, slowing the truck. He held the wheel steady, guiding their giant vehicle toward the side of the road. Lucy glanced out the window and saw that they were in the middle of nowhere. There was a billboard advertising a corn maze—COME BY FOR SOME GOOD, CORNY FUN IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!—but other than that, there was nothing but fields for as far as the eye could see. Dad eased the truck onto the shoulder and came to a stop. Then he climbed out of the truck to investigate. “Back in a jiffy!” he called out to the kids with a quick tip of his hat.

Freddy and Herb both scrambled into the front seat, then hopped over Lucy to get to the truck’s passenger-side door. Both boys spilled out onto the shoulder, jumping and playing happily in the tall grass along the side of the highway. “Can I let my mice out to run for a little bit?” Herb called out to Lucy.

“Do you have a leash?” she asked in reply. She had no intention of actually letting her brother release the mice in the grass on the side of the road. That experiment certainly wouldn’t end well, and Herb would have a full-on meltdown if he lost them—or anything else he considered a prized possession. His collections were very important to him; ever since Mom had died, he’d refused to throw anything away. Lucy knew letting go was hard, so she tried to be patient with her little brother. “Or maybe one of those plastic hamster balls, to keep them contained?”

Herb looked confused for a second, but then he shrugged. “I forgot,” he said sadly. “Oh well, they can just stay in the truck with you.”

While her brothers stomped and danced in the long grass on the side of the highway, Lucy took a deep breath, considering her next move. On the one hand, she could be a good team player and get out of the truck to help her dad. She and her best friend, Maren, had taught themselves how to change a tire the previous summer. It was one of those things they believed a person should know how to do, so they’d taken it upon themselves to learn.

On the other hand, she was curious to see how her dad would handle the situation. Walter Peach was incredibly smart and had achieved great success in his career. But when it came to the puzzle of life’s basic challenges, he sometimes seemed to be missing a few key pieces. Lucy already took care of her siblings most of the time; she couldn’t babysit her dad, too.

Lucy rolled the window down the rest of the way and settled into her seat, resting her feet on the dash. She decided to see how things would play out without her getting involved, for once. Through the open window, she could hear her brothers chatting away while