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

bed for a few long moments, listening to the gulls outside and thinking about some of the best parts of the past two days.

Kure Beach was amazing: wide and soft, and the waves were perfect—not too big, not too small. During their first afternoon at the beach, as the tide went out, all four Peaches had worked together to build a sandcastle village with a moat and towers that Herb had declared “the best sandcastle on earth.” Then Freddy had spotted a pod of dolphins swimming by, right off shore by their house! Early Saturday evening, Dad had wandered down the road to a surf store and bought a few boogie boards. Then they spent all day Sunday trying to catch waves—as it turned out, boogie boarding was another thing Freddy excelled at. Maybe he didn’t have math mastered, but at least he had a few solid backup plans. After they’d gotten tired of riding waves, they had built more sandcastles and played soccer on the beach. It had been one of the best weekends of Freddy’s life.

After a bit of discussion during dinner the night before, the Peaches had all agreed they should spend the rest of the week doing a whole lot of nothing at the beach, and then they would head back to Ohio—rested and relaxed—in time for the Food Truck Festival. Freddy had been the one to propose this plan, and the others had been more than willing to go along with his idea. Freddy was excited they’d still get the chance to compete and try to succeed, but they’d also get some much-needed time together to practice being a new kind of family first. This plan brought together the best of both worlds.

Now, eager to get a start on another day of relaxing, Freddy padded down the hall of their rental house in his bare feet, heading toward the kitchen. He could hear his dad talking quietly on the phone. As he neared the big archway leading into the main dining area, he heard Dad say, “I can come back and figure it out. Just hold tight, and I’ll be there as soon as possible.” There was a short pause, then Dad went on, “There’s a flight back to Minneapolis at four. If we hurry, I can catch it.”

Freddy stopped short. He didn’t like to eavesdrop, but his feet simply wouldn’t move. He didn’t know what he was hearing, but he knew he didn’t like it. When he finally willed his legs to move, Freddy stepped through the archway into the kitchen and stared accusingly at Dad, who was staring down at his phone. “We’re leaving?” he asked.

Lucy stumbled into the kitchen behind him, rubbing her eyes. “Who’s leaving?”

“I got a call early this morning,” Dad said. “They’ve found a massive error in some of our lab data, and a few of my graduate students need me to help them sort things out for an article that’s due this week.”

“Why do you need to go now?” Lucy asked. “Don’t you study soil that’s, like, thousands of years old? What’s the big rush? You’re supposed to be on sabbatical. You’re taking a break from work, remember?”

“One of my colleagues is already at the lab, trying to weed through the data. Honestly, I don’t know if there’s much I can do,” Dad said. “But I feel like I have to try. If I don’t go back, the whole project will fall apart.” He sighed. “This is everything I’ve been working toward for the past two years, Lucy. It’s important.”

Lucy muttered, “Obviously.”

“And you have to leave now?” Freddy asked. His throat felt thick, the way it sometimes did when he was getting sick. “Can’t we go back after the Ohio Food Truck Festival, at least?” He whispered, “This is important, too, right? We were going to spend the week hanging out together, and then finish with a bang selling a lot of pies. You promised we wouldn’t just give up. Trust me, Dad, we could win the Food Truck Festival, and then—”

“They need me,” Dad said, cutting him off.

“But we need you, too,” Lucy said. Freddy had never, ever heard his sister say something like that. The look on Lucy’s face made him feel even worse than he already did.

Dad sighed. “Look, we can figure out some way to get the food truck back to Ohio in time for the festival. Then we can fly down from Minneapolis and meet up with it there, if it’s that important to you.”

“It’s not just the festival,” Freddy said, shaking his head. But it was clear Dad wasn’t planning to change his mind. He just didn’t get it.

Lucy muttered, “I was stupid to ever let anyone get their hopes up.” Then, with a huff, she turned and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving Freddy alone with Dad.

Freddy knew there was very little chance of Dad earning Lucy’s forgiveness or trust—ever—if he chose to bail on them now. “Dad,” Freddy said, trying to keep his tone even, “are you sure there isn’t anyone else who can take care of this? You have a whole team that works with you at the university, and I just wonder if—”

Dad shook his head. “I need to be there. This is important.”

“I know it is,” Freddy said patiently. “I get that work is really important to you, and I think that’s cool. I hope I love my job that much someday, too.” He paused, trying to figure out how he could get Dad to change his mind. How he could convince him to pick them instead of work. How he could get him to see that they were important, too.

But in this moment, Dad was acting a lot like Lucy had at home for the past few years—trying to be the one who fixed everything, instead of trusting others to help when it made more sense. “This past month,” Freddy began slowly, “our food truck has been the most successful when we all worked together, focusing