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In fact, it was my worst nightmare already. I had to spend the next forty-eight hours in close quarters with Preston getting everything set up, then more days listening to him smooching with people.
I didn’t know what was worse.
Being around him, or the kissing thing.
He was hard work. Not because he was annoying in a general sense, but because of how I felt about him. The frustrating way I felt about him was the bane of my existence, and no matter how hard I tried, I’d never been able to turn it off.
My attraction to him just simmered beneath the surface with feelings that I knew would never be requited.
Mayor’s daughter or not—I was still who I was, and that was far removed from his little world. His world consisted of sports bars and pretty dates and flashy watches and cars. My world was made of books and the Dewey decimal system and peanut butter sandwich eating raccoons.
The flashiest thing in my life was my grocery bill.
Now, I wasn’t putting myself down; I was being realistic. I was, in fact, a catch.
As long as you didn’t mind your catch coming with wild animals for pets, that was.
Ha.
Any man who wasn’t a fan of my little trash pandas wasn’t the man for me.
I shook off all the thoughts of my crush on Preston and looked around the tent. There was still so much to do to get set up, and it was just like him to come by, eat a sandwich, and fuck off again.
I ran my fingers through my loosely curled blonde bob and blew out a long breath. I’d knocked my glasses off-kilter with my thumb, so I straightened them and clicked my tongue.
I had no idea where to start.
A shadow came over the doorway, and a tall figure ducked his head to step into the tent.
Preston.
He was dressed casually in jean shorts and a red polo shirt. In his hands he held two coffees from one of the nearby stalls, and he held one out when he saw me. “Coffee?”
I studied him for a moment before looking at the cup.
“It’s not poisoned, I swear.”
“Well, that’s reassuring. I’m sure that’s what murderers assure their victims.”
He snorted and set both cups down on the table next to my purse. “I won’t be killing you today, Halley. I can’t beat you if I kill you.”
“Technically, you could beat me, but you’d probably leave behind DNA.”
“And orange isn’t really my color.”
“Neither is red, but here you are wearing it.”
“Ouch. You’re in a good mood.”
I shot him a look as I walked over to my purse. I picked up the coffee and sniffed it. The rich scent of vanilla wafted out of the hot cup, and I groaned internally. He’d remembered the coffee I drank, and he’d somehow gotten it from one of the stalls.
“That’s the look of defeat right there,” Preston said with a smirk tugging at his lips. “Vanilla with low-fat cream and no sugar.”
I made a non-committal sound. “Did you text your sister just to bug me?”
“It bugs you that I know what coffee you drink?”
“You bug me in general, so what do you think?”
“Are you on your period? You’re hostile today.”
I froze, my body going so rigid that I almost crushed the coffee cup. “If I am on my period, do you think it’s a good idea to piss me off?”
“No, but that didn’t stop me doing it to Reagan for all the years we lived together.”
I put the coffee back down and decided to move on. He had an answer for everything, and since I did, too, it meant we weren’t going to get anywhere with this conversation.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, turning around.
He met my gaze. “Helping you set up. That’s what I’m supposed to do, right?”
“I don’t mean here, right now. I mean here in general.”
“I assumed it was fairly obvious.”
I hit him with what I hoped was a withering look. “You know what I mean. You’ve never been involved with the fair. Even when we were kids. You avoided it until it was open. You ignored your parents’ stall forever. Only Reagan worked it. Why are you here now?”
Preston sighed and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. “I told you. I was asked to be your competition by your dad. He thinks that having two young, attractive people in the booth will raise more money for the playground.”
Did he just—
“Did you just say my dad asked you?”
“Yeah. I thought you knew until yesterday, but then I thought you were just playing dumb. Now I see you really didn’t know.”
“Of course I didn’t know. I don’t want to see your harem lining up out of the tent and giggling while they touch up their lipstick to see who can kiss you the longest. If I’d known about this shit, I would have found someone to compete against me myself.”
