PAXTON AND I SAT on that lawn chair until he needed to get ready for work. I didn’t want to leave the Hamptons, but he assured me he was okay. I offered to walk him home, and we only made it as far as the woods before we fell on each other again. We made out against a tree, behind some bushes, and had a near miss with a patch of poison ivy. Paxton told me he’d wanted to kiss me since the first day we’d started working together, so we had a lot of lost time to make up for. I couldn’t get enough of touching him, kissing him, just being near him.
I didn’t turn my phone back on. I had no idea what people were saying about me, and I didn’t care. It was so freeing not to care.
We finally pulled away from each other when Paxton had to do the responsible thing and show up to work. I offered to drive because I wanted to go in and see Elise, but when we reached the door outside Video and Repair, it was locked. Paxton and I looked at each other. Elise, Brady, and Midnight were all supposed to be there.
“Should I text Midnight?” I asked.
Before Paxton could open his mouth to respond, Midnight flung open the door, Brady and Elise behind her. “Guess what day it is.”
“Sunday,” Paxton said.
“Correct,” Elise said. “It’s also Cleaning Day.”
“Already?” I asked.
“We tried to text you, but didn’t get a response,” Midnight said.
“Sorry, my phone’s been off all day.”
Cleaning Day was a Video and Repair tradition. Once a quarter a company came in and did a full-scale clean on the store: carpet scrubbing, shelf washing, a total detox of the place. Those of us who worked here, minus Butch, took advantage of the store being closed to go camping. Midnight’s uncle had a small patch of land up north he’d bought for hunting. We’d all gone camping up there on the last Cleaning Day, and would probably go again on the next one. Part of her would always be the farm girl who loved the outdoors.
“Is it okay if I bring my girlfriend?” Brady asked. I had a feeling I knew his girlfriend, and I couldn’t hide my smile. But we’d never allowed outsiders for Cleaning Day before, usually because we spent most of the night drinking and bitching about work, and it would’ve bored anyone else present. “It’s just, with everyone else coupled up, I don’t want to be alone in my tent while you’re all banging.”
Oh my God. I tried to swallow my laugh and failed miserably. “Did shy and quiet Brady just use the word banging in a sentence?”
“Shut up.” He grinned at me, and his cheeks turned pink.
“One of us! One of us!” Elise chanted.
“Hold on.” Midnight held up a hand. “Who else is coupled up?”
Elise, Brady, and Midnight all turned to me and Paxton. Paxton just raised an eyebrow, like it would be up to me when and where to reveal our new status.
“We’re a thing.” There was no point in hiding it. It’s not like we’d do a great job of keeping it quiet once we got up to the campsite.
“What kind of thing?” Midnight smiled as sweetly as venom.
“A thing. You know.” I pointed between her and Elise. “That kind of thing.”
“Like, you both finally set your bullshit aside, because it’s obvious to anyone with eyes you both have a huge thing for each other? That kind of thing?” Elise asked.
“As much as it does wonders for my ego to hear you talk about my huge thing”—Paxton poked Elise on the nose and she smacked his hand—“you can quit torturing my girlfriend now.”
“I knew it!” Elise punched the air. “I can’t believe you two kept this from me. How long has this been going on? Tell me everything.”
“It just started.” Though, if I were being completely honest, it had been going on for a while; we’d just now gotten around to figuring it out. I said to Brady, “It’s fine if you bring your girlfriend, but she’s probably going to find us boring at best and annoying at worst.”
“I think she’ll have fun. She knows you all.” Brady winked at me. “And she still wanted to come for some reason.”
“Who is your girlfriend?” Midnight asked.
“Strawberry Sinclair,” Brady said, more to Paxton than any of us.
Everyone besides me froze.
“Awkward,” Elise mumbled.
Paxton cleared his throat. “How long has she been your girlfriend?”
“Most recently, since Friday night.” Brady held Paxton’s stare, as if considering if he should elaborate. “She broke up with me a few weeks ago to focus on 4-H, and only agreed to your date because she thought she’d see me there. Is it still cool if she comes?”
“I don’t mind,” I said. I found the whole thing more amusing than I should’ve.
“I don’t mind if she comes along either,” Paxton said. “But do me a favor and tell her I’m sorry for the sucky date before we all get there.”
“She knows.” Brady let out a laugh. “The whole damn town knows you’ve been in love with Macy for the last year.”
Paxton stiffened beside me as that one word hung in the air between us. Love. It rattled around in my system like a pinball. I knew Paxton liked me, and he really liked kissing me, but love? Was he in love with me?
“We should get going. Me and Macy have to pick up our tents,” Paxton said, with an emphasis on tents, as in two, as in we weren’t sleeping together. “Do you know how to get there, Brady?” When Brady nodded, he took my hand. “We’ll see you then.”
I got in the driver side of my car, and Paxton got in the passenger side. I put the key in the ignition, but waited a beat before starting it. “So, about that love thing?”
“Oh, you heard that?” Paxton gave me a half grin.
“Do you?” I turned to him. “Love me?”
“I guess it depends.”
I pursed my lips. “On what?”
“If it freaks you out,” he said softly. “Then definitely not.”
“And if it doesn’t freak me out?”
“Then I’d tell you I’ve been in love with you since our first day at work. When Midnight tried to put on her shift supervisor face and terrorize you like she did Brady, but you weren’t having any of it. I watched you wait until she went into the break room, then you put a wad of gum in the receipt paper so it would get all stuck and messy with the next customer she rang up. And the first thing that popped into my head when you did that was Damn, I think I love that girl.”
I laughed. “That’s a terrible reason to fall in love with someone.”
“What can I say? I’m a sucker for girls who can hold their own and aren’t afraid to pull out a wrench and scare the shit out of some hipsters every now and again.”
I leaned over the console, until I was close enough to feel the warmth of him. “Lucky for you, I’m a sucker for boys who know how to break into community sheds and who love old movies as much as I do and who raise rabbits for show.”
“That is a very specific set of desires. How fortunate for me indeed.”
“I love you too.” I pressed my lips against his, cursing the console for being so boxy and in the way when all I wanted to do was crawl onto his lap.
A tap on the roof of the car had us breaking apart.
Elise bent down, waving the air in front of her. “The hormones. I can’t take it. I’m choking on the fumes.”
I wrinkled my nose at her. “Did you need something?”
“Bring a jar of your grandma’s blackberry jam for breakfast. Momma made us a loaf of bread, and she ate all the jam we got for fixing your dryer already.”
“Will do.” I started cranking up the window to make her go away.
“Save it for the campsite!” she hollered as she climbed into her truck.
I sighed and turned the ignition. “We probably should go or we’ll never make it there.”
Paxton was grinning at me.
“What?” I rubbed my cheeks. “Do I have something on my face?”
“You love me,” he said.
I thought we’d already established that. “And? You love me too.”
He settled back in his seat. “I just like saying it out loud.”
“You are such a dork.” I took his hand and threaded his fingers through mine.
I drove to the end of Main Street and turned down my road. We planned to grab my tent first and then stop at his house on the way to our campsite. An unfamiliar car sat in the drive. A new car. The kind that probably had heated seats and a rearview camera.
I glanced at Paxton. “Wait here.”
If another reporter had shown up, I didn’t want them anywhere near Paxton. Though I couldn’t imagine Gram letting anyone in the house, and I didn’t see anyone skulking around the Hamptons. My heart thudded as I approached the screen door. The sound of laughter floated outside. Definitely not a reporter.
The first thing I noticed was Mom sitting on the plastic-covered couch. She never sat on the couch. Neither of us could stand the feel of it. The second thing I noticed was the man sitting beside her. They both stood as the door slammed behind me. He had warm brown eyes and the beginnings of gray hair around his temples.
“Macy, I want you to meet Roger.” Mom held his hand. She looked as happy as she had at the Royals game, and I decided right then not to hate him on sight.
“Hi. It’s so nice to meet you”—don’t call him cradle-robbing Roger, don’t call him cradle-robbing Roger—“Cr-oger.”
“Croger is my stage name.” He had a gleam in his eye. “You can call me Roger.”
Mom chuckled as she hooked her arm through his. “I think Macy was trying really hard not to call you her grandma’s preferred nickname.”
“He’s closer to my age than he is to yours,” Gram called from the dining room.
I cringed. “Sorry.”
“No worries.” Roger waved a hand. “I’ll win her over eventually.”
“Don’t count on it!” Gram yelled.
“Quit being rude!” Mom yelled back. She turned to me. “We’re heading out in a few minutes, but I’m glad you got a chance to say hello.”
“Me too.” I glanced at Roger and he was looking at Mom like she held the world. I decided I definitely didn’t hate him. “Is it okay if I keep the car then? It’s Cleaning Day.”
“Ah, are you headed out to the campsite then?”
“Yeah.” Even though I should’ve told Mom about Paxton before we went camping, I really didn’t want to have that conversation in front of Roger. “How did you two meet?”
“Roger stopped in for lunch at the diner after checking in on a few of his businesses. He came in during a lull, so he was the only customer, and he invited me to sit with him. At first, I was just hoping to get a bigger tip, but he won me over by the end of it.”
“You have businesses in Honeyfield?” I asked. There weren’t a lot of businesses to have in town. “Which ones?”
“The diner,” he said, giving Mom a sly smile.
“Dipping your pen in the company ink!” Gram yelled.
“Go back to your quilting!” I yelled at her. “She’s in a mood.”
“Despite what your grandma thinks,” Mom raised her voice loud enough for Gram to hear, “Roger didn’t tell me he owned the diner until our third date. He thought I wouldn’t want to go out with him.”
“I thought you wouldn’t sit with me if you knew I was the boss.” His whole face filled with awe when he looked at my mom. It was weird, but not entirely unpleasant, to see.
“And rightly so,” Mom said.
They’d gotten so caught up in their own meet-cute, I was 99 percent certain they’d forgotten I was standing there. “So, you just own the diner?”
“And the repair shop,” he said.
“Wait. What?” I couldn’t have heard him correctly. “The Video and Repair?”
“I technically own both, but I’m only in charge of the repair side. It’s my business partner’s job to take care of the video side.”
“I work there,” I said, for lack of a better thing to say. This completely threw me for a loop. “Does your business partner live in Shelbyville too?”
“No, he lives here in Honeyfield.” Roger gave me an amused grin, like he knew how much this was twisting my sense of reality. “I believe you all know him as Butch.”
“Butch is your business partner?” Midnight would absolutely lose it. She still hadn’t forgiven him for the Unholy Mistress nickname. “Jesus. No wonder it’s basically falling apart.”
Roger laughed. “Why do you think I split the responsibility down the middle?”
“I’m going to—” I pointed at the door. “It was supernice to meet you, Roger.”
“Likewise.” He gave me a firm handshake.
I grabbed our tent from the shed out back and packed an overnight bag. All this new information swam in my head as I walked back to the car, barely aware of my feet moving. I slid into the driver’s side. I fumbled for my keys and tried to focus on Paxton, even though I was still reeling.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“My mom is dating your boss.” So weird. “Who is also her boss. Is that, like, an ethical thing, or no? Because he didn’t tell her he was the boss until after they went out, so it’s not like he was trying to use his position to manipulate her, and he’s totally into her.”
Paxton held up his hands. “I think you need to backtrack about five thousand steps so I can catch up. Your mom is dating Butch?”
“No.” I shook my head, but I couldn’t clear out all the noise. “His name is Roger.”
“Butch’s name is Roger?”
“I’ll explain it on the way. And as an early birthday present, I’ll let you be the one who breaks the news to Midnight.”
I started up the car and backed out of my drive. As I threaded my fingers with Paxton’s, I tried to keep my mind off the impending tantrum Eric was sure to have once he realized I was done being Fly Ball Girl. I had no idea how deep his obsession with Internet fame ran, and I really didn’t want to find out.