Page 74 of Ever With Me

“You’re ridiculous.” But he’d made her smile.

A bowl slid in front of Brooks, then Bunny set Maddie’s croissant sandwich down and sat on the opposite side of the booth. She wore a worried, serious look. “Want me to kick them out of the café?”

Thank God Lindsay and Travis stopped the feud between our families. I love Bunny.

Maddie smiled. “No, you don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t mind doing it. Nothing would give me more pleasure than putting a Strickland in their place. I heard what they did to you—crossing your name out on the Applepalooza sign-up sheet. And also about that River Boat band. Your grandfather was livid.”

Really?Pops hadn’t displayed that level of emotion in front of her. Then again, she imagined there was a side of Pops that only Bunny got to see.

“River House,” Maddie corrected. She felt Brooks’s eyes on her, then remembered how he’d said the night before he wouldn’t be playing at the fair. They’d have to come back to that topic eventually, but right now it felt like a hot-button topic to bring up amid a fragile truce.

Especially now that I’ve apologized for blackmailing him.

“Same difference.” Bunny shrugged. Then she looked at Brooks. “You in town this weekend?”

Brooks nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“You’re a good-looking young man. You should sign up with our Maddie for the Applepalooza contests. Show those two up. You’ll be the best-looking couple, that’s for sure.”

“Bunny, I’m sure Brooks has better things to do than go to Brandywood’s Applepalooza. I’m not even sureI’mgoing.”

“Hmph. Well, he should. And he should take you. Josh hasn’t been able to take his eyes off your table.” Bunny nodded in Josh’s direction, then winked. “Just say the word, and I’ll tell them to go somewhere else.” She stood and headed back to the counter.

Shit. Is Josh really staring at us?

Maddie checked over her shoulder toward him. Hewas—but his gaze was fixed on Brooks.

Dammit.

Bunny might not know who Brooks was, but she didn’t expect any of the older crowd in Brandywood to be familiar with young rock stars.

Josh definitely will, though.It appeared he already had.

And so had several other people in the café.

Maddie cringed. “Don’t look now, but I think your cover is blown.”

“I don’t care,” Brooks said, tucking his thumb and forefinger under her chin and lifting it so she focused on him. “Don’t pay any attention to him. What’s an Applepalooza?”

A smile curved on her lips. Tucked in the booth with Brooks, sitting on the same side, she could almost pretend they were in their own little bubble, even as the volume level dropped slightly and the whispers began.

“It’s one of Brandywood’s fall traditions. There are all sorts of different apple-themed contests throughout the day. Bobbing for apples, an apple pie contest, an apple-picking contest, apple barrel racing, Auction-a-Peck, a few other things . . . and then there’s a singing competition at the end of the day.”

“Singing competition?” Brooks furrowed his brow. “What does that have to do with apples?”

“Well, it used to be that you had to use a song that had the word ‘apple’ in it, but then people got bored with hearing one too many renditions of ‘My Favorite Things,’ ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life,’ and ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,’so they changed the rules a few years ago and just let people sing whatever they want. But the winner gets the Golden Apple trophy.”

“I’ve officially left real America and entered New Christmastown on a romance movie set, haven’t I?” Brooks snickered.

She dipped her finger into the collar of his dark gray T-shirt and tugged it out. “Don’t worry, city boy. We’ll have you wearing flannel and chopping wood soon—oh! There is a wood-chopping contest, actually. Apple wood, that then gets used in the following year’s pork butt smoking competition.”

“Of course there is.”

“You laugh, but it is many a woman’s favorite part of the weekend.”

“The pork butt or the wood chopping?” Brooks raised a brow.

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