Page 105 of Fall Fake-Out

She’s interested.

I might as well capitalize on that.

I split another log, just to see if she’ll watch again. Once the wood cracks in half, I lift the axe, letting it rest on my shoulder behind me—a real lumberjack position. I turn my eyes to her. This time, she smiles, something guilty, like she knows she got busted watching me.

Interesting for someone who hasn’t said anything about our kiss last night. Not only has she not said anything about it, but she’s acting normal, as if it never happened at all. Or maybe she knows it happened, but she’s acting like it didn’t affect her.

I’m affected, in the toss-and-turn-all-night-can’t-stop-thinking-about-it kind of way.

“Careful,” Jaxon says.

“What?”

“You keep smiling at Ari like that and Barb’s going to think you’re proposing to her daughter tonight.”

My smile immediately disappears.

Right. Barb. The entire reason I’m here.

Or at least the original reason.

When Ari invited me yesterday, she’d said, “My mom needs to see you being normal.”

Which felt unfair. Because I am normal. Mostly.

The goal tonight was simple: convince Barb Langford that I am not the human equivalent of a poor life choice for her daughter. A difficult assignment, considering she’s disliked me since high school.

I glance toward the kitchen window. As if summoned by my thoughts, Barb is standing there, watching. But the moment I look her way, she disappears. She’s avoiding me, which makes it pretty difficult to get on her good side.

“I think that’s enough logs,” Dusty says, taking the axe from my hands. “Why don’t you two go get some cider and make a s’more?”

Jaxon and I walk to the table just as Landrie and Ari head toward the fire with their marshmallows on roasting sticks.

“If you don’t get to work soon, Stevenson”—she smirks as she passes me—“you’ll leave here tonight even further behind in the bet than when you came.”

Something about that makes me frown, but it has nothing to do with the bet.

Jaxon waits until they’re gone to slap me on the back. “You okay, buddy?”

“I kissed Ari,” I blurt without any coercion.

His expression doesn’t change. “I know. I saw you kiss in the kitchen, remember?”

“That was different.” My head bobs back and forth. “Kind of. But also kind of similar to the kiss last night.”

“Well, kissing is to be expected when you’re dating someone.” He shoots me a pointed stare. “Unless you’re not really dating.”

I can read him like an open book. “How did you know?”

“That it was all fake? It was easy to tell.”

“How?”

“Mayor’s birthday party. Nobody acts like that for real.”

“We were pretty obnoxious.”

“The worst.” Jaxon laughs.