Chapter 34
I’d considered enteringus in the Sweetheart Showdown, but I didn’t want to push my luck with AJ. This was our first public event and essentially our first date. It didn’t matter to me what we did, as long as she was with me and having fun.
Hopefully, Tillie’s stunt wouldn’t ruin that for us.
I held tightly to AJ’s hand, trying to reassure her. We could do this. A month ago, this kind of public display would have worried me, assuming people would see right through our charade. But I wasn’t pretending anymore.
The thought of a long-term relationship would have previously had me breaking out in hives and running for the hills. I’d never wanted to be tied to one thing or one person, especially not for the rest of my life. I couldn’t have imagined anything worse. My adventurous spirit would have withered away and died in that kind of prison.
But with AJ, I thought of her every second of every day. And when we were together, like we were today, I couldn’t stop touching her; I had to have her close to me at all times. I was completely addicted to her and constantly looking for my next fix.
For the first time in my life, I could imagine what it would be like to have a life with her. To laugh and joke with her. Work together to make all our dreams come true. To have a family.
Yeah. I could totally see it, and there was nothing I wanted more.
I squeezed her hand and gave her a wink. “We’ve got this, princess. Don’t worry.”
“But, what if?—”
I placed a finger on her lips to stop her from saying another word. “If I thought there was even the remotest chance we shouldn’t do this, or that it would put the restaurant in jeopardy, I’d find a way to get us out of this. But this is actually the perfect way to show everyone what a solid couple and partnership we are.” I saw anxiety and no small amount of skepticism in her emerald eyes. “If I remember right, these games are all about cooperation and trust. We’ve gotten really good at that, and we’ve had a lot more practice at it than most couples. We can do this. I swear we can.”
She sighed and nodded. “If you say so. I just have a bad feeling about this. I don’t know why. But I trust you, Jasper. If you say we can do it and that it will all be fine, I’ll believe you and give it my best.”
I lifted her hand to my lips. “That’s all I ask.”
We signed in at the registration tent. Raven and Nash were there, too, along with four other couples. “See, AJ. I told you this would be a piece of cake.”
“The cake’ll be all over your face when we win, little bro.” Raven smirked and patted Nash on his chest. “We’ve got this thing in the bag. Don’t we, Nash?”
“Whatever you say, Tweet.” Nash slung his arm around Raven’s shoulders.
A voice boomed over the loudspeaker. Local event planner, Gina Morales, was the emcee of the showdown. “Alright, everyone. Sweethearts, take your places at the starting line and let the games begin.”
A crowd gathered around the first event, shouting and cheering. My family members alternated between cheering and heckling me and AJ, and Raven and Nash. It might sound weird to say they cheered and heckled, but that’s my family.
The first event was bobbing for marshmallows in a tub of whipped cream. “One person in each team will be blindfolded and the other person is their guide. The guide will lead their partner to the tub of marshmallows and help them find the marshmallows inside the tub. The guide cannot reach into the tub or touch the whipped cream. When the bobber finds the marshmallows, they spit them into a bowl next to the tub. The first team to get all ten marshmallows in the bowl wins this round.”
AJ had a horrified look on her face. “You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no way I’m putting my face in whipped cream.”
“We used to do this one when we were kids. I’ll be the bobber. You guide me.” I tied the blindfold around my head.
I heard Raven call out, “Don’t worry, Jasper. If you can’t find any marshmallows, we’ll save some for you—in the bottom of our victory bowl.”
“In your dreams, sis. But don’t worry, I’ll buy you a bag of marshmallows to take home, so you don’t feel left out.”
The starting bell sounded, and AJ took my arm and led me to the table with the tub of whipped cream. The surrounding crowd hollered and cheered us all on. I grasped the edge and dunked my head in. Nothing. “Help me out here, princess.”
“I saw one about two inches to the left.”
I dunked again and got one this time. She placed her hands on the sides of my head and guided me to the bowl where I could spit. Then, when I was ready to search for the next one, she asked, “Is it okay if I guide your head for that, too?”
“Yeah. Go for it. I’m ready.”
She pushed my head into the cream, where I found another marshmallow with my mouth. We now had a system and worked together like we did this every day. When I spit the tenth one into the bowl, AJ lifted our hands and screamed. I yanked the covering from my eyes and looked around. We won that round. I wanted to kiss her but didn’t want to get her face full of this sticky stuff. I could be a gentleman when I wanted to be.
Her face lit with excitement. She ran a finger across my face to collect some whipped cream, then licked it off of her finger. “Mmm…that’s not too bad.”
“Want more?” I pulled her to me and planted a kiss on her lips, effectively smearing whipped cream onto her face. So much for being a gentleman.
“Eww. You just had to do that, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I tried to behave myself, but I couldn’t resist.”
“Your resistance lasted what, five seconds?”
“Pretty much. I have no resistance when it comes to you.”
“Congrats on your win, you two,” Raven sneered, her words at odds with her sarcasm. “It was all part of our plan. We were just scoping out the competition in the first round. It’s all about the strategy, you know. And you played right into our hands, Jas.”
“Here, Rave. We have plenty of marshmallows to share, if you didn’t get enough.”
The next event was a wheelbarrow scavenger hunt. One person was inside the wheelbarrow, and the other pushed them to collect all the items on the list. Pumpkin, squash, cornstalks, apples, scarecrow, and hay bale. All the items were scattered around the park. There was enough for every team to get one of each. But they weren’t all easy to locate.
With AJ in the wheelbarrow, I dashed off to find our items. Everything we found was placed on top of AJ in the wheelbarrow. By the time we got everything, it was stacked so high that I could hardly see over the stack.
Running toward the finish line, the wheelbarrow wobbled, and the squash fell out. I hurried and tossed it back onto AJ’s lap. We crossed the finish line right behind Raven and Nash.
“How’d my dust taste, Jasper?” Raven jeered, strutting around like she was all that. Even did a little celebration dance like she was in the end zone.
“I don’t know, Rave.” I patted my belly. “I’m still full from all those marshmallows.”
Raven put her arms around Nash. “They say it’s not about the destination, but I sure did enjoy crossing that finish line first. Didn’t you, Nash?”
Gina summoned us over the speaker again. “The second event in this showdown is a cross-dressing relay. Each couple has two baskets of clothes. The men will be donning women’s clothes, and the women will be putting on men’s clothes. After you both have put on everything in the baskets, one of you will carry the other by piggyback to the finish line.”
“This doesn’t seem so bad,” AJ said after receiving our instructions.
“Yeah, I’m a pretty fast runner. We got this.”
When the starting bell sounded again, we hurried to pull out clothes from our respective bins and dressed as fast as we could. My bin had a long dress with spaghetti straps and a zipper up the back, a cardigan, a feather boa, and high heels.
AJ had to wear a man’s suit. Which seems pretty easy, but the suit must have belonged to a linebacker. It was huge and tall. The pants were about a foot too long, and could have fit four of her inside the waistband. The worst part was the shoes, which were probably size fourteen. They looked like clown shoes on AJ.
Once we had everything on, I bent my knees. “Hop on, princess. Your chariot awaits.”
She reached up for my shoulders but nearly lost her pants. She hiked her pants up and tried the jump again. This time she made it and kept her clothes from falling down. “I’m on. Go, go, go!”
I tried to take a step, but my heels sunk into the dirt and kept me anchored. “How do women walk in these things? If I don’t roll an ankle, it’ll be a miracle.”
“Try walking just on your tiptoes.”
I tried that, but my big feet barely fit inside the shoes. I fell to my knees, causing AJ to roll onto the ground next to me. “Sorry. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Wanna switch and I’ll carry you?” AJ asked.
I looked over at my sister and Nash. They were having the same struggles with Nash trying to stand and walk in heels. But Nash had to deal with my sister, so he was at a disadvantage as far as I was concerned.
Raven slapped Nash on the shoulder. “I said I could carry you, Nash. I’ve done it before. And at least this time you’ll be conscious.”
Nash disagreed and kept struggling with the heels. “I’d like to stay conscious, so I’ll be carrying you, Tweet.”
At least they weren’t ahead of us. Yet. “You think you can carry me?” I asked AJ. “I’m pretty heavy.”
“I’m tougher than I look.” She rose to her feet and stood with her legs apart in a solid stance. “Let’s do this.”
“Ok, here goes. But if I’m too heavy, let me know and we can switch again.”
Careful not to hurt her, I climbed onto AJ’s back and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. She wavered at first, but then grasped my legs and started moving. One deliberate step at a time. It was slow going, but we were making progress toward the finish line.
I looked over and saw Raven and Nash were behind us. Raven kicked her heels into Nash’s side like he was a horse she was trying to spur on. “Pick up the plow, Nash. They’re winning.”
Chuckling to myself, I gave AJ a gentle squeeze. “You’re doing great, Princess. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. We’re in the lead.” There was another team that was pretty much even with us, but I didn’t mention that. AJ was doing the best that she could. And as long as we beat Raven, I didn’t care about the rest.
Turns out, we beat the other couple by a hair. “Woohoo!” I did a celebration dance of my own, kicked off the heels and picked AJ up to twirl her around. I set her back down and rubbed her shoulders. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll probably be cursing your name tomorrow when I can’t get out of bed. I think you owe me a massage after we’re done. But first… let’s win this thing.”
“That’s my girl.”
The last event was called “Donut on a string.” Each couple stood with a donut hanging on a string between them. It was an enormous, raised apple cinnamon donut with caramel drizzled on it. Almost the size of my face.
Gina’s voice crackled over the speaker with the instructions for the final round. “In this event, both contestants will have their hands tied behind their backs. You both take bites of the donut and work together to get it eaten. The first team to finish their donut wins. Enjoy every bite, sweethearts.”
The pastry hung at a height that was even with AJ’s mouth, but I had to bend my knees to reach it. As soon as the bell rang, we pressed our faces to the donut to keep it from swinging and took bites at the same time. If one of us moved away, the donut would get away from us.
Our eyes locked, and we moved in sync as we nibbled away at the donut. Caramel smeared around our mouths, noses and cheeks, but we continued on. The electricity arcing between us had me on fire. It’s a good thing we couldn’t touch each other. I could easily forget all about the contest.
I heard Raven yell somewhere to our left. “We’re almost done, Nash. Come on, eat faster.”
AJ smiled, and we went after the last bits of our donut. Our lips touched when the last of it disappeared. Maybe it was the caramel on her lips or the adrenaline of the games, but the restraint I’d held onto the entire day went up in flames. Even though my arms were still behind my back, I leaned in and pressed my body to hers. She mirrored me, and all awareness of the competition or crowd around us disappeared. No longer caring if we won or lost, I cared only for the feel of her lips on mine.
I vaguely felt the ties around my hands being removed, and then someone raised my arm. “The winners.”
When I finally pulled my lips away from AJ’s, she smiled softly. Everything was right in the world. And as soon as we got out of here, I’d be kissing those lips again.
“And this year’s Harvest Moon Sweethearts are Jasper and AJ.” Gina held out a pumpkin shaped trophy for us. “Congratulations!”
The crowd cheered and clapped for us. Raven and the rest of my family heckled and whistled. I chuckled and proudly held AJ to my side.
Another voice cut through the noise. “But they’re faking.” The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I heard that shrill voice. And the crowd went silent. “These two are not a couple. They’re just pretending. It’s all an act.”
I turned to face my stalker, while protectively stepping in front of AJ. “Suzette? What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing, but I already know the answer. You’re here to show off your fake fiancée. Pulling one over on the entire town while you’re at it.” She sneered and gestured toward the crowd, watching with their mouths agape. “And I have to say you’re pretty convincing. Especially with winning the whole Sweetheart Showdown. You deserve an Oscar, not a pumpkin trophy. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were actually a couple in love. But I do know better.”
“You don’t know anything about us.” I put my arm around AJ and tried to lead her away from this spectacle. Surely the town would ignore this ranting lunatic.
But no such luck. Whispers from the spectators showed they were completely taken in by the drama.
Suzette shouted above the noise of the crowd. “Oh, I know more than you think.” She paused for dramatic effect. We were now surrounded by even more townspeople, wanting a front-row seat to the latest gossip as it happened. “I know you and AJ staged this whole thing as a way to fool the owners of the Moonstruck Steakhouse, so you could both take over. This whole relationship is nothing but a sham.”