“Um,” Mari hummed softly. “Jenna’s over there trying to get Jones’ attention.”
I subconsciously glanced over at the starting line. There was Jenna, doing her best to get Jones to engage her. Unfortunately, when I looked over there, he was already looking at me. We stared at each other for a few seconds. Finally, he said a few words to her. She grinned real big, then climbed on the back of his ATV.
Music started blasting through the speakers.
“Okay. I guess the rumors are true,” Mari spoke over the volume of the music.
“What rumors?” I asked. I didn’t keep up with the Jackson Falls gossip. First of all, I had only lived in Jackson Falls for five years. I didn’t know the town’s residents enough to care abouttheir business. Secondly, I minded my own. I was too focused on Apple Head to even have time to worry about others.
The volume of the music lowered by one decibel, and the sound of the MC’s voice came through the speakers, announcing that the racers needed to take their marks.
“People are saying that Jenna got caught giving Jones head behind a barn over off Wilson Road.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh, wow. Okay.” Before I could say more, the starting pistol went off, and engines started to rev. The crowd cheered as the vehicles took off toward the course. Vehicles sped across the terrain, dipping into trenches filled with watery mud. Wheels spun, unable to find traction, throwing the wet dirt behind them as they finally freed themselves. Sticky, thick mud landed on different vehicles and their passengers.
I shook my head. “Gross,” I muttered.
Mari laughed. “It’s actually fun. I love mudding.”
“How do you get your ATV clean . . . or your body?”
She shrugged. “Mud does get everywhere. In your face, in your bra, down your booty crack.”
“That sounds like a mess.”
“It is, but it’s a fun mess. I mean, clean-up is hell, but it’s a fun time.”
I watched wet mud rain down on top of an ATV and grimaced. “Hard pass.” Mud was flying as tires moved through it. Almost every vehicle on the course had been doused, and so had some of the spectators. I was so glad that Mari and I weren’t in a place to have mud land on us.
When everything was said and done, Beckham came out victorious. Somebody that I didn’t know came in second place, and Jones came in third. Even while Jenna threw her arms around his neck for a hug, his eyes watched me.
I sighed. “Let’s go find Collins and tell her that her man won the mudding competition,” I told Mari.
“Cool.”
Mariand I were supposed to vend at Manor Days on both Saturday and Sunday. Since we sold out of products on Saturday afternoon, I spent Sunday going in between family members at their booths.
After attending church, I started my morning at my sister, Collins’ booth. Collins co-owned and operated the on-site salon at the lodge. It was called Posh Moments at the Resort. She was the person who inspired me to start a hair care business—she and Mrs. Strong.
When I discovered the small apple orchard on my property, my first thought was to start baking apple products—apple cake, apple pie, apple Danish, and so on and so forth. I’d even gone to Mari, who had a background in food chemistry to help me out. She was very knowledgeable. She discouraged me against it by telling me about all the food licensure and stuff that I would need. The whole process seemed demanding and involved. I wasn’t passionate enough about baking to jump through all of the necessary hoops.
Mari inspired me to look into doing skin care with the apples. I wasn’t passionate about that either. I was messing around when I asked the internet if I could use the apples to make hair care products. When I realized I could, I went straight to Collins and Mrs. Strong. They were super helpful, and then Mari agreed to come on as the chemist. She agreed to be responsible for handling the formulations, and we were off to the races.
“I hope you didn’t sell all your inventory yesterday,” Collins said to me as we set up the booth. “I’m almost out of clarifying shampoo, deep conditioner, and the serum.”
“Yes, on the shampoo and deep conditioner. I’ll drop some off on Tuesday. No, on the serum. I’m completely out. I’ll be working on making a couple of batches of that tomorrow.”
She glanced over at me. “How is progress coming on your production space at the house?”
I moved my gaze to Bright’s booth. Jonah was over there, setting things up for the day. “It’s going. After I told him off for being late on day one, he managed to get there on time for the rest of the week.”
Collins followed my gaze. “He’s cute, Churchy.”
“He is,” I admitted. And he was. “But his reputation is trash. They say he’s a bop, you know? Community dick. Plus, there’s a rumor going around that he was getting head in public?—”
She let out a bark of laughter. “No lie?”
“Nah.” I shook my head.
