Page 4 of Fall Fake-Out

“Does empty flirtation and over-the-top charm still work for you?”

“You tell me?”

“It doesn’t work on me.” Wade’s fun to talk to, but he’s not a man a woman can take seriously. I yank my hand out of his grasp, looking past him to the door. “So where do you think your dad is?”

“It’s good to have you home.” He ignores my question, countering with one of his own. “What made you move back to Autumn Ridge?” He sets the first-aid kit on the desk and scoots deeper into the leather chair like he’s settling in for a long conversation. “You always said that you hated it here and wanted to live by the beach.”

I can’t tell him that my fiancé, Andy, broke up with me and left me broke. In a humiliating turn of events, I couldn’t afford to live in Florida anymore.

Moving back home seemed like the last thing I’d ever do, but then you get desperate, and suddenly everything falls in line. For one, I can live rent-free at my parents’ house. Secondly, this teaching job opened up. Autumn Ridge High has had the same faculty and staff for years, so when Mr. Jeppson announced his retirement one week into the brand-new school year, it felt like a window was opening when all the doors had been closed. And lastly, my little sister is getting married next month. Being here for Landrie felt like the right thing to do. Plus, my mom begged…repeatedly. Which is surprising since half the time she seems disappointed with my life choices.

“I just needed a change of scenery and wanted to be here for Landrie’s wedding,” I answer somewhat honestly.

“Darn. Here, I was hoping you’d come back for me.” There’s teasing in Wade’s eyes but always enough truth in his words to make you doubt yourself.

One brow lifts. “Don’t tell me Wade Stevenson is single.”

“I’ve just been waiting around for you. Pining all these years.”

“Yeah, right.” I suppress my smile. “You don’t pine.”

“I invented pining.” His smile ticks higher. “It’s true. I’ve been telling people for years, ‘Ari Langford is the one that got away. Man, I wish she’d move back home and give me another chance.’”

This makes me laugh. “I can’t be the one that got away because you never had me in the first place.”

He rests his elbow on the back of the leather chair, all casually, as if this conversation is light work for him. “And why is that?”

Teenage me used to ask myself that all the time. Adult me sees I dodged a bullet.

“Why did you and I never date?” My shoulders lift. “Probably because you were too busy dating every other girl within a one-hundred-mile radius.”

“You’re in luck, then.” The suggestiveness in his expression is mildly impressive. “The well has run dry. I’ve dated them all, and I’m ready for you.”

“I’ve sworn off men,” I say flatly.

“As you’ve stated, I’m more boy than man, so it’s fine if you’ve sworn off men.”

Same old Wade.

Same old games.

“When I said that I’ve sworn off men, what I really meant is that I swore off men who act like boys.”

He laughs good-naturedly, and in a different world, where I hadn’t just been played by another man-child in a different state, I might’ve considered Wade Stevenson a fun possibility. Not for anything serious, just for a distraction. Heck, he’s dated everyone else. Why not take a turn myself? But not anymore.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

And man, did my fiancé, Andy, fool me.

From now on, I’m only dating stable, mature men who are boring. But first, I need some time being single before that ever happens, like a personality reboot.

“So I’ll pick you up tonight at seven?”

I laugh. “No.”

“Oh, come on. Just to catch up. You need friends in Autumn Ridge, don’t you? And if the night ends with a kiss, then so be it.”

“It’s never going to happen. Besides, what would your dad say about that?”