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Chapter Seventeen Flick
October in the South is such a stinker—sunshine all warm on my shoulders like it’s still summer, but every patch of shade bites with that early fall chill. Just cool enough for a light jacket in the mornings, but it will have you sweating by the afternoon.
While I was waiting on Mrs. Alderidge at the bookstore to bring me intel from her mah-jongg friends, I took a chance and went to the movie theater a couple towns over where an employee said Cricket doesn’t work there anymore and moved to Colorado to help her stepdad out with his chronic back pain. So she gave me a number that “could be old,” which I have called three times and texted twice with no luck. So in the meantime, we are back to square one until I realized that there was one more picture of that same guy in that same jersey on the field with no name attached. But you could see his full body, minus his head (because of course I couldn’t see his face, that would be too easy) but there was something there to go off.
I just need to figure out whose jersey it was, and if this Cricket lady would answer the phone, it would be a whole lot quicker.
Surprisingly, Knox hasn’t brought the search up since we started today’s practice date. When his truck pulled into Riley’s driveway, I didn’t hop outside this time; I let him do his little game of knocking on my door like it was a real date, and honestly, I’m glad I did. Watching him look a little flustered as he handed—no, shoved—some flowers from the Bloom Barn fields into my hands and then start swiping the stray petals off my sweater was very cute.
“Who else is coming?” I ask as we walk down the pathway of little flags and signs directing past the pumpkin patch over to the corn maze. I glance around for any other couples coming our way, but it’s just the four of us—Knox, Walker, Lottie, and me.
Lottie hums. “Ada said she just parked, so she should be—”
“Wait.” Knox turns to his sister. “Ada was your pick for the group date?”
“Yeah.” She shrugs. “She didn’t have any plans except thrifting this morning, so I thought she’d like to do it too. Why?”
“Hey, guys.” Lawson pops up out of nowhere behind Walker and my heart sinks. Well, that would be why Knox sounded nervous.
Lawson and Ada are…quite the pair…to say the least. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the two speak on normal terms without some kind of jab at one another. Even last Christmas, when we all went on a road trip to the Alabama Theater, they spent so much of the Rudolph showing arguing about the dynamics of reindeers being able to fly that we literally all got kicked out and banned for a year. I’m still counting down the days.
“Where’s this Mission Impossible maze I heard about?” Lawson asks.
A raspy feminine voice behind me scoffs. “Why is he here?”
“Ada.” Lottie turns on her heels and smiles. “He is here to be your date.”
“No, I’m not,” comes out of Lawson just as Ada snaps, “No, he’s not.”
Knox coughs into his fist. “Yes, you are, because this is a group date and”—he points at each of us with two fingers—“this is a group.”
He and Lawson share this little back-and-forth staredown that says more than words can before Lawson mutters a “Fine.” “I have a girlfriend, but sure, a group date seems like a great idea. Come on, date, let’s go.”
“Ew. I am not holding hands with you, who knows where they’ve been.”
“Not anywhere near you, that’s for sure.”
“Thank God.”
Lottie claps. “Anyway! Let’s do the corn maze first.” She points to the massive maze in the distance and we start walking that way, everyone else in front of us with Knox and I in the back.
“I feel like we’re about to be in a Children of the Corn-type of situation,” I joke.
Knox grimaces. “I wouldn’t know, considering I spent half the movie hiding under a blanket.”
My elbow pokes his side. “I thought you were my protector.”
“The line had to be drawn somewhere, Felicity.”
We get about twenty minutes into the maze with Lottie making 90 percent of the decisions while Walker follows anywhere she wants to go, and Ada and Lawson argue the whole way. Knox and I hang back and follow the rest, and while it’s not…awkward, per se, we’re not being our usual selves either.
I think both of us are trying to find this line between practice and reality, and whereas Knox might naturally have a talent for this, I have no clue what I’m doing. Sometimes we’re far enough away from everyone else that I think about reaching over to his hand and letting our fingers tangle together, but then Lottie will yell at us to catch up—she’s really determined to win this, and to be clear, there is no prize for getting out—and the nerve will leave me entirely.
We come to a fork in the road, or in the maze, I guess, and squint, heads tilted.
“That way?” I point to the right, and Ada shakes her head.
“No, we already were there. Remember, there was a piece of corn that fell and looked like the shape of a Darth Vader mask?”
