He quickly knocked on the screen door before he lost his nerve and fled. After letting Gil tag along for the past couple of days, Pollyanna had called and insisted that he let her cook him supper. Nate had finally agreed to the invitation, however reluctantly. When Gil had come by after school, the boy had been over-the-top excited, and that had done away with any thoughts Nate had toyed with about reneging.Pinching the bridge of his nose, he willed his insides to settle down. The very idea of sitting at another woman’s table had him feeling as nauseated as he’d been the first time he’d been kicked in the gut by a disgruntled heifer. He told himself it had nothing to do with the silky way Pollyanna’s voice had pleaded with him over the phone. Or the way he kept remembering how her eyes practically talked out loud, they were so expressive.Nate knocked again. No one came but he knew by the soft laughter drifting from somewhere inside the house that they were home and just hadn’t heard him.Swiping his hat from his head, he tried another route.
