Page 61 of All Autumn
“I see how you look at him. There are stars in your eyes, Autumn.” She touched up her lipstick, then dropped the tube into her purse. “We better go before the guys send a search party.”
“My heart’s still right where it should be. In my chest.” And she was imagining things if she thought there was anything in my eyes.
She glanced back at me as I followed her out. “I hope so.”
Both Connor and Dylan stood when we neared the table, pulling out the chairs next to them. “Let’s mess with them,” I whispered to Jenn. “You sit next to Connor and I’ll sit next to Dylan.”
She put her hand behind her back, giving me a thumbs-up. Connor’s eyes were tracking my approach, and I gave him a flirty wink. Then I glanced at Dylan. I was pretty sure he saw nothing but Jenn coming his way. The man was so in love with her, and I couldn’t be happier that she’d found her perfect mate. I also felt a little sad that I’d never experience a man looking at me like that.
Because Jenn and I were so in tune after years of pulling pranks on our friends, we crossed in front of each other at the same time, her going to the chair Connor held out, and me going to Dylan’s side.
“Thank you, sir,” I said to Dylan as I lowered myself into the chair next to him.
Jenn plopped down in the chair Connor held out. “She made me do it.”
“Tattletale,” I said.
“Cannot tell a lie here,” she snapped back, her eyes twinkling with mischief.
“What are you, George Washington?”
She looked pointedly at her chest. “Do I look like George?”
“If George had breasts like yours, Red, I would have married him, too,” Dylan said. He winked as he slid into his chair.
Adam choked on his beer. “TMI, man.”
“Just saying it like it is,” Dylan answered, his gaze still on his wife.
Connor smirked. “Even without Jenn tattling, I would have bet my life that it was Autumn’s idea.”
I blinked my eyes at him. “Moi? Why am I always the first suspect?”
Everyone else at the table snorted.
“Remember that time she stole Mrs. Rahall’s lesson plans and left a ransom note?” Jenn glanced at Dylan. “Mrs. Rahall was our seventh grade math teacher.”
“I’d forgotten about that,” Connor said, laughing. “She demanded a dozen chocolate fudge cookies be left under my desk in exchange for the lesson plans. Naturally Mrs. Rahall thought I was the culprit.”
“Well, I did confess when she pinched your ear and tried to haul you off to the principal’s office.” I’d wrongly assumed Mrs. Rahall would be smart enough to realize the thief wouldn’t choose their own desk for the drop-off.
Connor met my eyes. “I knew it had to be you. Who else would try to pull a prank like that? I was going to take the blame for you, though.”
I think my heart just melted. “You never told me that.”
He just smiled, and yep, my heart definitely melted.
“What about the time she put her house up for sale?” Adam said.
Dylan grinned. “How old were you?”
“Thirteen. I called the classified line, deepened my voice, and convinced the person on the other end I was the owner.” My friends still thought it had been another one of my pranks. What I’d never explained was that I had this idea the house would sell that very week, and then my mother and I would move somewhere my father couldn’t find us. I did it one of the times he’d left her, and I just couldn’t bear her crying. If we moved to someplace new, she’d forget about him, or so I’d hoped.
“Yeah, her mom couldn’t understand why people started calling, wanting to make an appointment to see the house,” Jenn said.
Dylan leaned back and narrowed his eyes. “Any shenanigans occur on my watch, you’ll be my prime suspect, Autumn Archer.”
He sounded so serious, but his twitching lips gave him away. “I’m a reformed prankster, Chief. No need to suspect me.”
