Chasing Jupiter Read Online Free Page B

street. “No one would come.”
    “Yes, they would.” Cliff nodded firmly. “You bake good pies.”
    A smile tugged at my lips. He was so sure, completely confident we would make enough money to build a rocket to travel to Jupiter, and sure that rocket would work. My shoulders slumped, defeated. “Okay. Tonight I’ll ask Dad if he can bring home some peaches.”
    Cliff jumped up. “Why wait? Let’s go find him and ask if we can help bring them home!”
    I relished a few more seconds of lying on the grass, the last I might get all summer, then shrugged. “Fine with me.”
    I followed behind Cliff as he ran into the house yelling, “Mama! Mama! Ma
-ma
!”
    “What?” Her voice was slightly muffled, which meant she must have been in the kitchen.
    I ran in to find her pulling her hair back into a loose bun; her work clothes were spread over the ironing board. I halted to a stop. “Are you going to the plantation?”
    “In a few hours or so. They’re ramping up the bed and breakfast for the tourists again. Their first big customer came yesterday, and I wasn’t there. So guess what I got?” She made a face. “A talking to, that’s what. I swear, they treat me like a child. Or a slave. A slave in their plantation house.” She rolled her eyes and picked up a lotion bottle off the counter, pausing to pump lotion onto her smooth white hands. She rubbed her palms together and sighed while reaching for a rag to hold the iron.
    Once, when I was hardly five years old, I’d asked Mama why she always put lotion on her hands. She told me that soft, supple hands were a woman’s crowning glory.
    I looked down at my grass-stained knuckles and hid them behindmy back. “Can we go to the peach farm and see Dad? We want to ask for some peaches.”
    She frowned, a tiny crease appearing on her forehead. “Will you be back in time to make supper? I won’t have time to get anything started before I leave.”
    “Yes, ma’am, I will. I promise.”
    Since my promises were as good as gold, she let us go, and we raced all the way to the peach farm.
    Our feet pounded on the gravel driveway, and I enjoyed the warm, breezy air kissing my windblown cheeks. The houses of our neighborhood whizzed past. By the time we reached the peach farm, our chests were heaving and we kneeled over, gasping for air.
    “I beat you,” Cliff wheezed.
    I rolled my eyes. “Please.”
    Dad was standing in the middle of the orchard with a pair of pliers in his hands. He looked up, wiping sweat off his forehead, and frowned when he saw us. “What are y’all doing here?”
    We ran toward him and swung our legs over the fence, climbing into the orchard. I placed a hand over my brow to shield off the sun. “We wanted to know if we could have some peaches. We’re going to use them to make pies and sell the pies for money to build a rocket.”
    “To Jupiter,” Cliff added.
    “Yeah.” I gave him my best smile, wrapping my arm around Cliff for added sweetness. I tried to read Dad’s eyes—would he see how much this crazy plan meant to his son? “Please?”
    Dad frowned again and turned back to his work. “I can’t give y’all peaches.”
    Cliff’s face fell. “Why not?”
    “Well, first off, they’re not my peaches. They’re Luke Leggett’s. And second off, you two don’t need to be building rockets and causing trouble. We have enough trouble in the family already,” he muttered.
    My chest began to swell with disappointment and anger. “It’s not causing trouble! I’m a good cook! I know people would buy my pies.”
    Dad sighed and turned, cupping my cheek. “Scarlett, baby, I know you’re a good cook. I just don’t need the trouble this summer. If you want to buy the peaches yourself or make money some other way, that’s fine. But I can’t be troubling Mr. Leggett about it right now.” He glanced at his watch and set down the pliers. “Now, I’m heading home. You two run along, okay?” He started for his truck.
    “Wait!” Cliff