Page 113 of The Facade

“It’s a little cold for that right now though, don’t you think?” she asked.

“I’ll keep you warm.” I winked and plopped the French fry into my mouth.

Her cheeks flushed darker, and I was tempted to whisk her away to the falls right then. But then she said, “I kind of think I’d prefer we go there in the spring or summer. The weather will be better then.”

“You think we’ll still be together this summer?” I asked, just to test her.

“I know we will,” she said, not a shred of doubt in her expression.

“And why’s that?”

“Because my brothers will beat you up if you break my heart,” she said with a shrug.

I chuckled. After glancing across the table at Carter and Nash who were paying us no attention, I bent close and whispered in her ear, “Well, it’s a good thing I don’t plan to ever do that.”

Epilogue

Elyse

“It’sweird seeing them together like that, isn’t it?” Nash nodded toward Mack and Cambrielle who were standing a few feet away from us in the hall after school.

It was the day I’d been anticipating ever since hearing that the drama department at my new school was putting on a production ofThe Phantom of the Opera. The day I would find out if I’d be playing the role I’d dreamed of playing ever since watching the 2004 movie version of the musical in my family’s tiny living room in Ridgewater, New York.

Miss Crawley, the drama teacher, said she’d have the cast list posted by the time school let out. But the last bell had rang five minutes ago, and there was still no sign of her or the list.

“You think it’s weird for Mack and Cambrielle to be together?” I asked Nash, deciding to engage in the conversation topic he was offering as a distraction from my nerves. My nails could certainly use the reprieve from all the chewing I’d been doing to them right about now.

“Yeah, don’t you?”

I looked to where his sister and my brother were standing. And while their height difference certainly made them stand out, I actually thought they were cute together.

When I’d first found out that they were secretly dating, I’d been a little shocked. I’d thought Cambrielle still had a crush on Ben at the time. But after seeing them together and thinking back to the way they always bantered back and forth with each other when I first moved here, it made total sense that it had happened.

So with a shrug, I turned back to Cambrielle’s skeptical, blond-haired, blue-eyed brother who was way too cute for his own good and said, “I actually think they’re perfect for each other.”

“Perfect?” His eyes widened, like he couldn’t believe I was telling the truth. “More like weird.”

I smiled and nudged him with my shoulder. “I think that’s just the protective-older-brother side of you coming out.”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

I glanced back to the bulletin board where the cast list was supposed to be pinned.Where was Miss Crawley? And why was she making us wait for so long?

“Are you as nervous as I am to see if your name is on the list?” Nash asked, following my gaze.

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, there’s probably no way to measure your nervousness compared to mine. That would take a much more scientific approach than I’m qualified to do right now. But if your hands are sweating, or if you’re feeling a little nauseous, then we’re probably at the same level of nerves.”

And there I was. Rambling like an idiot.

Because that was what I did when I was nervous and talking to a cute boy.

He didn’t seem to mind, though. He just chuckled lightheartedly and said, “Are you having heart palpitations, too?”

I nodded.

“Then yeah, we’re probably tied.” He shot me a wink and my heart skipped for a reason that had nothing to do with the cast list.

It had been doing that a lot around him lately.

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