Page 127 of Fall Fake-Out

Five minutes later, Edna Two corners me beside the dessert table. “I always said he’d come around eventually.”

“Carson, the new dentist? Has he been trying for a long time to get back to Autumn Ridge?”

“Wade.” She pats my hand. “I suppose you two are cute together.”

Then she walks away too, smiling like she knows something.

It’s unsettling how involved everyone in this town is.

“When’s the wedding?” Mayor Monroe asks when he’s beside me at the dessert table.

“Oh, it’s next week. Juliet should’ve gotten an invitation for your family.”

Mayor Monroe smiles. “I meant you and Wade.”

My forehead crinkles with lines.

It’s bad when the mayor is weighing in. I mean, when it comes to his love life, I voted for Sharon Price over at the library, but it seems wrong for the mayor to comment on mine. I see the double standard, and I do not care.

By the time Liv finds me, I’m hiding beside a folding table, pretending to be very interested in a bowl of potato salad, just to avoid more unsolicited relationship comments.

“I’ve been looking all over for you,” she says.

I immediately know where this is going. “The fake-relationship thing.”

Liv folds her arms. “Uh, nothing about you and Wade looks fake.”

My stomach does a weird little cartwheel. “Liv⁠—”

“I don’t want to hear it. I've been watching you two all week. The face painting, the pumpkin weigh-in, and then that ridiculous display of public affection at the flag football game.”

“You’re one to talk. What about you and Tate?”

“That’s different. I’ve been ordered by the police to go undercover.”

“It doesn’t seem that different to me.”

“It is. So, tell me what’s really going on with you and Wade.”

I glance across the parking lot. Wade is helping Mr. Heath unload coolers from a truck. He sees me watching him and gives a cute little wave.

“See?” Liv points to him. “He’s constantly looking for you, and when you’re around, he doesn’t pay attention to anyone else.”

“He’s friendly with everybody, you know that.”

“He isn’t acting friendly with you.”

She’s right.

Friendly Wade is loud. Confident. Charming. The Wade who’s been following me around fall festival week feels...different. Like, tender and sweet but also sincerely flirtatious.

I turn to her, ready to face the facts. “He literally volunteered for every activity I was overseeing this week. He remembers random things I say. He keeps finding reasons to touch me when no one is around. Last week, I thought he was going to kiss me when there was definitely no fake dating on the table.”

Her eyes widen. “He’s in it for real.”

“You think?”

“Ari, you just listed a few things he’s done off the top of your head. I’m sure there’s a hundred other little pieces you could add to the puzzle.”