Give Em Pumpkin To Talk About (Pumpkin Patch Mysteries Book 1) by Joyce Lavene, Jim Lavene Page A

the grass then?” she asked. “Wouldn’t that have been easier?”
    “You can’t use a cart to cut grass,” he yelled back. “This is the only equipment that’s left. I’ll meet you in the pumpkin patch.”
    Sarah stood aside as he went by. The awful smell of diesel made her put her hand over her nose. She didn’t remember that part either. She took a quick glance inside the barn at Jack’s living quarters. It looked like the same old blanket on a bale of straw that she’d seen sixteen years ago.
    He drove the tractor and cart down the wide path between the areas where the pumpkins grew. Some of the vines were in the way, but he rolled over them. Most were trained off the path to allow easy access to the pumpkins.
    The biggest ones were at the top of the hill where they received plenty of sunlight and shade from a few large trees. Jack stopped the tractor there and got down. Sarah sighed as she looked over the large pumpkins that were dark orange in the sun.
    “Here.” He handed her a wide knife and a pair of gloves. “You cut the ones you want. I’ll put them in the cart.”
    “Really?” It was hard for her to believe that he actually meant to help.
    “Sure. How else would we do it? I didn’t think you’d been gone that long.”
    Sarah started to explain what she’d meant but gave up and headed toward the biggest pumpkin she saw. She had to keep from running to it as she had when she was a child. It was still exciting seeing that first enormous pumpkin and knowing it was for her.
    Who knew it would still be that way?
    Jack was as good as his word. She used the knife to cut the thick vine that held each pumpkin in place. He picked it up and took it to the cart. It wasn’t long until they had a big stack of them in the back.
    She smiled when she saw them heaped up. “That’s a lot of pumpkins.”
    “Yes it is. Is that how many you want to take?”
    “Probably. I don’t want to overwhelm them with pumpkins.” She forgot who she was talking to for a moment and grinned in the joy of the moment. Her face was hot and sweaty, and her tennis shoes were full of mud. But she’d had a good time.
    “You had that front tooth fixed, didn’t you?” he observed.
    How could he have noticed so much about her and she barely remembered him—except for that stupid kiss?
    “I actually lost that tooth that was chipped,” she said. “It was still a baby tooth.”
    She looked at his face—or tried to. It was difficult to see around the thick beard. She wondered what he really looked like under there.
    “Looking for my baby teeth?” he asked.
    “Sorry.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t looking at your teeth.” Sarah gave up trying to figure out what he really looked like. Why did she care?
    “What then?”
    “I don’t know. Just wondering what you looked like without the beard, I guess. I can’t remember what you looked like when I saw you last.”
    He didn’t say anything, just got on the tractor and pulled the wagon out of the pumpkin patch.
    Sarah felt like an idiot and hoped she hadn’t given him the wrong idea. He wasn’t exactly the kind of man she was used to being around. She took off her gloves and followed the tractor back to the barn.
    He stopped and looked down at her. “I’ll take these over to Gray.”
    “Okay. Thanks.”
    “Well?”
    “What?”
    “Aren’t you coming?”
    “I, uh…”
    “You can ride up here with me,” he offered. “There’s plenty of room.”
    “No. That’s okay. I’ll ride back here with the pumpkins.” She smiled up at him.
    “Suit yourself.”
    She climbed up over the pumpkins. Their skins were thick—she didn’t have to worry about damaging them. Finally she found a perch and settled back for the ride after signaling Jack that she was ready.
    Sarah remembered doing this plenty of times as a kid. Sometimes Kathy was with her. They’d take the pumpkins down to the stand by the road where they sold them to people who couldn’t make the trek out to