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Her eyebrows shot up. “You don’t know either?”
“Me, either,” Gavin added.
Abby turned around to ask Gen for more clarification, but she saw that her friend was gone. “Benedict Arnold,” she mumbled.
Just then, a magnified version of Gen’s voice rang out over the crowded square. “Good evening, everybody! Welcome to the first annual Valentine Bay Mistletoe Fest! The crowd here tonight has busted all of our attendance projections, which makes this a rousing success. Give yourselves a hand!”
Gen gave the crowd time to cheer before continuing. “We have some fun presentations for you tonight. Hopefully some things that will keep you laughing. First up, I’d like to welcome my man to the stage, someone you all know. Gavin Valentine!”
The crowd clapped and cheered as Gavin made his way up to the stage. His shoulders had a tense set to them and he moved slowly, only giving the crowd the tiniest nudge of his chin to even acknowledge the fact that he knew he was in front of one.
Gen pointed at the first of three stools and he climbed up and took a seat on it.
“Next, I’d like to welcome to the stage one of my very best friends, and the purveyor of the best mulled wine most of us have ever tasted. Let’s be honest, the only mulled wine most of us have ever tasted. But, still. The best. Abby Baxter!”
Abby scurried up the steps at the side of the platform and then walked across the stage, giving the crowd a small and embarrassed wave as she went. She was nervous as hell. She didn’t even know what she was going to be called on to do up here!
Gen continued. “Finally. Last but not least, we have the man that you all know as a huge rock star, and I know as my boyfriend’s annoying brother. Jet Valentine!”
The crowd erupted into such a roar as Jet crossed the stage in confident strides, waving to the audience with both hands in the air, that it actually startled Abby and caused her to draw her head back a few inches. She wasn’t used to that kind of energy, or attention.
Jet, on the other hand, looked like he was in his natural setting for the first time since he’d been back. He was clearly made to live in the roar of the crowd. He was a fish, and cheers were his water.
The other thing she noticed as Jet crossed the stage was the fact that about half of the audience pulled cell phones out of their pockets and started recording.
Great. So whatever humiliation she was about to be made to suffer was going to be preserved for posterity. And probably YouTube.
Jet climbed up on the last remaining empty stool. Abby cocked her head to the side as she looked at him. “How can you be so casual about this when you don’t even know what we’re gonna have to do?”
He gave her a carefree, sideways grin. “No matter what it is, I can guarantee you that it won’t be the biggest fool I’ve ever made of myself on stage. Or on camera. I’m cool with it.”
That only made Abby’s gut churn more. The same thing could definitely not be said for her.
Gen walked over to the three of them and handed them each a stack of cards, each about the size of a sheet of paper, and then gave them each an oversized permanent marker.
She stepped back to the microphone and said, “All right, then! We’re going to start the festivities off with a little game. It’s called ‘Who Knows You Better?’ The competitors are Abby and Gavin. I’m going to be asking a series of questions about Jet and his life. All three participants will write down their answers on the cards they hold in front of them. No peeking!
“Then, the answers will be revealed at the same time and we will see who knows Jet Valentine better– his friend, and I have to say it, rival in high school, Abby… Or his own brother.”
Gavin leaned over to speak to Abby and Jet, raising his voice slightly over the sound of the crowd. “I’ll tell you right now,” he said in his normal stoic monotone, “Abby’s going to win. I care about you, Jet, but I don’t bother to crowd my brain with details about you.”
Jet laughed. “Aww, bro. That just might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Abby sat up straighter, gripping the pen so tightly that her knuckles grew white with the pressure.
She didn’t want to give Jet the wrong idea, thinking that she’d paid attention to every detail about him she’d learned during the entire time that they’d known each other, and that those details were so important to her that she’d committed them to memory… Okay, maybe the problem was that she didn’t want to give him the right impression.
But, she could feel the competitive spirit rising in her gut. She could already see how this was going to play out. If she knew the answer to a question, she’d have to write it down. It just wasn’t in her DNA to lose if she had the capacity to win.
And especially not where Jet Valentine was concerned.
