Page 21 of Fall Fake-Out

I glance at my mother. She went from finding me a husband to fall plants in the blink of an eye.

“Yeah, I like the yellow ones.”

“I can never keep them alive. Am I watering them too much? Too little?” She shakes her head. “I need you to Google it for me.”

“You act like you don’t have access to the internet.”

“No, it’s more that I don’t have time to look.”

“You have two weeks off from work right now.”

“That’s all taken up with wedding stuff.”

She nudges me again. “Oh, look presentable.”

“I do look presentable.” I smooth my dress over my legs. It’s red with tiny royal-blue flowers. The perfect choice for September. Red just represents this time of year, like a bright-red apple that someone picks from a tree and gives to their new school teacher. You can’t convince me otherwise.

“Yes, but there are the Walkers.” My mother sits up taller, giving them a little wave as they file into a wooden pew on the other side of the aisle and sit down in front of Wade’s family.

Not that Wade’s here. I doubt he’s graced these pews with his presence since he graduated from high school and no longer had to come to church to please his parents.

“Bennett, Tate, Luke.” My mom ticks off each Walker boy as if she’s lining them up for me in her mind.

“Mom, I know who the Walkers are. Landrie’s marrying one. Remember?”

Right on cue, Landrie and Jaxon appear, opting to scoot into our row instead of sitting with his family.

“I’m just laying out your options. You’ve been gone for so long you might not know the choices in front of you.”

No wonder she insisted on getting to church fifteen minutes early.

I lean around her, meeting my dad’s gaze. “Are you hearing this?”

His broad shoulders lift and come back down as if he has no opinion on his wife’s antics. Dusty Langford has perfected the nonchalance of staying out of his all-female family fights.

“If you don’t intervene, Mom will have me sold by the end of church to the first available bachelor who hands her a twenty-dollar bill.”

It’s hard to see my dad’s grin from under his thick, graying beard, but it’s there. “I hope you fetch a lot more than twenty dollars.”

“Very funny,” I say without any real bite.

My mom pushes me back into my seat as another overdone smile spreads across her lips. This time, the smile is for the Harper family as they shuffle into the row in front of us. I know she’s about to force a conversation between Dom and me, so I start a conversation of my own.

“Hey, Rosie.” I lean forward, choosing to talk to Dom’s twin sister instead of him. “How did the Ednas like the game Friday night?”

Rosie laughs. “They were more interested in gathering gossip than watching the football game.” She turns to the woman beside her with shoulder-length auburn hair. “You remember my sister, Emma, right?”

I was never friends with Emma Harper. She was three years older, and where Rosie and I were on the cheer team, Emma was behind a book. But she was always really nice.

“Yeah, of course.” I nod with a smile. “Good to see you again.”

Emma twists her body to talk. “You took the English teacher position at the high school, right?”

“Just started last week.”

“I work at the library and do class visits and field trips all the time. Maybe we could set something up.”

“I would love that! I’m all for whatever we can do to introduce teens to reading.”