“Sorry about that,” the town mayor, Julia Pappas, says into the mic. “Hello, Still Spriiiings!” she calls out like a rockstar greeting Madison Square Garden.
A couple of muttered greetings sound around us as a few spectators gather.
“It’s time for the Third Annual Still Springs Fall Fest Talent Show!” the mayor announces. I grimace around my funnel cake. Given the quality of the talent show’s acts last year, I suspect its days are numbered.
Mayor Pappas pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. “Everybody put your hands together for Frank Goldsmith!”
Frank, a close friend of Ruby’s ex, steps up to the microphone and snaps it off its stand. He nods at the long-haired teen behind the sound desk, and a moment later, the song “Baby Got Back (I Like Big Butts)” assaults the air. I hold my hand over my mouth with horror while Frank mimes to the track, complete with rapper-style hand waves.
When the song is mercifully over, I shoot Nate a smirk. “Your turn. Which song are you gonna mime? ‘Too Many Dicks (On the Dance Floor)’?”
He barks a laugh like that’s way funnier than it is and bends to press a lingering kiss against the nape of my neck. My skin breaks out in goosebumps, and not in a good way.
“Should we go?” he suggests, smacking his lips like I taste better than his funnel cake. “We can check out the hayrides?”
Before I can reply, a tiny, musical voice shouts from behind me. “Look, Uncle Pickle. That man has a puppet!”
Dylan’s niece, Ella, scampers right past me toward where Mr. Chen is hovering on the side of the stage, clutching a ventriloquist dummy.Mr. Chen! You’re a dark horse.The dummy’s eyes roll back in its head as it hangs upside down. Looks like the start of an excellent horror film.
Dylan casually strides in a few feet away, and my stomach flips over. He crouches beside Ella to say something in her ear, but the second he stands back up, his eyes fly straight to mine. My cheeks heat, and our gazes cling together for a long moment before he returns his attention to Ella.
“Oh,shit,” Nate grumbles when he spots Dylan. He takes hold of my arm. “Let’s go.”
“No, wait.” My feet suddenly feel rooted to the spot. “Maybe we should see one more act. It looks like it’s Mr. Chen and his dummy.”
Nate shakes his head. “I’m ready for a hayride.”
“And I’m ready to stay here.” I unhook my arm from his grip.
He huffs but doesn’t push me again to leave. Instead, he stands with his arms crossed, scowling at the stage.
The truth is, I’m hardly on the edge of my seat with anticipation over Mr. Chen and his puppet show. But this is the first time I’ve run into Dylan since he turned up at my house and said all that stuff about Nate’s cousin, and I’ve been kind of itching to see him ever since. He’d left so quickly when Nate called that I hadn’t even had a chance to respond to what he’d told me. To thank him for trusting me with something so personal and private. To ask himthe reasonhe’d wanted me to know. Is it because I’m close to Hayley?
I know he’s still staying next door to the store because his motorcycle has been parked down the street, but he hasn’t come into the shop to buy anything all week. Is he avoiding me because he’s embarrassed about opening up like that?
“Honestly, why can’t that guy just fuck off out of town,” Nate mutters, shooting dagger eyes at Dylan behind his back.
Enough is enough. I frown at Nate. “That guy is my best friend’s brother, so you might want to tone it down a notch.”
His jaw falls open. “Are you kidding me?” He leans closer, speaking through his teeth. “You’ve already forgotten everything I told you about him? About what he did to Miranda?”
“Of course not.” My tone softens because I can see how badly Nate is still hurting over his cousin. “But are you really sure you have the full story about what happened? Because Dylan told me that—”
“Dylan told you what?” Nate’s cheeks whiten. “What the hell are you talking about?”
I glance back at Dylan, relieved to find him standing far enough away that he can’t possibly hear this. He and Ella are watching the ventriloquist show; I can see Mr. Chen’s mouth moving from here every time the puppet speaks.
“I can’t believe you,” Nate spits before I can answer. “I told you in confidence about what that deadbeat did to my cousin, and you’ve beentalkingto him about it.”
Tension chews up the air between us as we watch Mr. Chen try to get his dummy to perform a magic trick, but all the cards collapse onto the ground.
“I didn’t tell Dylan what you told me,” I say carefully. “In fact, he did most of the talking. But if I’m honest, his story wasn’t exactly the same as yours.”
Nate’s fingers tighten at his side. “Oh, yeah? How so?”
“He said that he never gave your cousin any drugs.” Repeating Dylan’s words to Nate makes me feel strangely disloyal, but I can’t let Nate continue slandering the guy if he has some wrong information here. It’s exactly what happened to Ruby with her ex: the whole town believed the worst of her without knowing the true story. And while Nate was Miranda’s cousin, Dylan was the one directly involved in this situation. He was there.
“Dylan said that your cousin got hooked on painkillers when she went to hospital with a broken arm,” I continue shakily. “That he tried to help her, but he couldn’t. That she—”
