Chapter 2 #2
“You guys do kind of act like you’re in a rom-com.” Natalie is smiling over the rim of her teacup at me.
I roll my eyes. Then roll my eyes again when Wes takes the table right behind me.
I don’t turn to look, but I know it’s him. I can feel him and smell him just a little—he always smells clean and fresh, like soap and laundry detergent. He sits in the chair directly behind me so we’re back-to-back.
A quick glance confirms it. He’s sitting right there, setting up his laptop to work.
Ever since he moved back, he’s been living in the spare room of his father’s cottage and he leases a small, inexpensive space behind the town treasurer’s office to work in.
But I see him working elsewhere all the time.
Here at Rooster’s. At Bella’s Diner. Once I saw him at a picnic table by the duck pond.
I don’t blame him. Who’d want to work in a small, windowless room furnished with nothing but a desk and chair all day long if there were other options?
“Good morning to you too,” he murmurs. He sounds even more superior than normal.
“I waved,” I say without turning to look at him again. I’m frowning down at the floor to the side of my chair. “I figured that was greeting enough.”
“I think you could probably dare to meet my eyes without everyone reading it as a sign that you’re passionately in love with me.”
I suck in a sharp breath and scowl down at the floor. “The story goes that you’re just as in love with me! It’s not one-sided.”
“Are you seriously all worked up with indignation over someone misreading our fictional feelings for each other?”
It does sound ridiculous. The whole thing is a heartless joke.
“I’m not worried about other people misreading. I’m annoyed because you were acting like you were above it all when you’re right down in the muck of this with me.”
He makes a huffing noise. Maybe a soft, breathy laugh.
Natalie clears her throat. “If you’d like to continue this back-to-back conversation in private, I can take another table.”
“Sorry,” I say. “Wes is here to work, so we’re going to pretend he’s not there.”
Natalie’s eyes are laughing. “Good luck with that. I’m just saying, if you don’t want to continue this farce, you might try to stay away from each other. Look what just got posted.”
My heart jumps as I reach over to take her phone and study the screen.
Shit.
Someone here must have just now filmed me and Wes having our back-to-back conversation.
It’s just a few seconds before I pass the phone back to Natalie, but it’s long enough to see the short video in a flash of objectivity.
And I can suddenly understand what everyone else sees. Both our heads were angled toward each other but resolutely not looking behind. And our mouths were moving in turn as we talked.
It did look like a scene from a romantic comedy.
“Who filmed that?” I ask. “Did you notice?”
“What?” Wes asks from behind me in a different tone. This one is gruff. Defensive. “Did someone here just get us on camera again? Who the hell—?”
I reach back to grab his arm to keep him from standing up. “Don’t make a scene. You’ll just draw more attention to us.”
Wes has never appeared prone to listen to what I say, but he does this time. He sits back down with a resigned sigh. “A new, ridiculous interest needs to catch people’s attention online. Fast.”
“It will,” Natalie says, smiling at me sympathetically. “These things come and go quickly.”
“Hopefully. How did you find that so fast?”
“I set up alerts on keywords and am following hashtags so I can track what’s happening. The whole thing is snowballing.”
“Well, it needs to snowball right over a cliff.” I slump, still flushed and embarrassed. Exposed.
Like everyone is seeing me when I’ve spent my entire life mostly unseen.
“It probably will. Although…” Natalie trails off again, this time intentionally. Her beautifully manicured eyebrows arch at me.
“What?”
“I had an idea. Since the notoriety is helping business, and the refinancing isn’t going through, and we really need this kind of boost… I had an idea.”
“What idea?” I’m getting frustrated because I’m nervous again. Not just fluttery and excited. Deeply, immediately anxious.
“We could… If you agree, we could string this along more. Hold on to public interest for longer than just a few days.”
“How?”
“You guys could… play along.”
I gulp. “Play along how?”
“You could keep doing this sort of thing. And if the interest continues, you could act like you do end up together. You could even plan a wedding at Blossom Park so we could show off the gardens and all the event spaces. I don’t know for sure if the world is going to care about this thing for that long, but they might.
And can you imagine a better opportunity to build back our business?
Already we can increase our prices. If it blows up even more, we can increase them a lot.
I know it won’t last forever, but we don’t need forever.
We just need enough time for everyone in this region to remember how special Blossom Park is.
So maybe you could… play along. Act like you’re falling in love. ”
I swallow hard again since my mouth and throat have gone dry. My heart is pounding so loud I’m sure Wes must be able to hear it. “But… But…”
“I’ll do it.” Wes stands up and pulls his chair over so it’s at our table instead of his. “I agree if Ella does.”
I make a choked sound. “You… you do?”
“Yes.” He’s dead sober and speaking softly. “It’s a good idea. We’ve already seen an artificial boost in business from this, and we need for it to continue long enough to make headway on the debt. This might do it. I agree if Ella does.”
My cheeks are hot, and my hands and feet are freezing. I stare blankly between Wes and Natalie. “But… why would you…”
He frowns at me. “Why must you constantly doubt my commitment to Blossom Park? You think it’s not important to me too?
I don’t want to sell off parts of it if we don’t have to, and the last thing I want is for it to fold.
I’d like to save it, and right now this is our best option. But you have to be okay with it too.”
“I’m not… I mean, I don’t know if I’m okay with it, but Blossom Park is the most important thing. So if you both think this is… is worth a try, I’ll agree. But it’s going to be awkward as hell, isn’t it?”
“Yes. But you’re awkward around me anyway.
” He talks over my gasp of indignation. “You are. You don’t like me, and you’re a person who usually likes everyone, so you don’t know exactly how to deal with the feeling.
It’s fine. I’m used to it. It doesn’t have to get in the way of this.
So I’ll agree to this plan as long as you’re genuinely willing to play along.
And as long as we agree that all the extra income we earn this year goes directly to paying off debt. ”
“Yes.” My throat is still tight, but there are flutters in my chest and belly again.
That excitement I felt this morning—the entire world being made new—is filling me again.
“Yes, of course. We’re not going to start splurging because extra money comes in.
We’ve lived without a lot for years now.
We can do it for long enough to get us out of this hole. Then maybe…”
I meet Natalie’s eyes and see the same aching hope I’m experiencing.
Maybe Blossom Park will be safe again, and we won’t have to spend the rest of our lives fighting an undertow that’s forever threatening to sweep us all into the ocean to drown.
Maybe this can save us.
“I agree,” I say, meeting Wes’s sober gray eyes. “So let’s make a plan.”