Page 61 of Always Mine

“Oh, God. Don’t even get me started on them. Ember is making me nuts with her crying over him missing the carnival.”

His light chuckle flows through the line and I can practically see him nodding.“Yeah, same. He’s a miserable human right now.”

“They’ve been bitten by the love bug.”

“What a pair they make.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m not sitting right here!” Hunter yells, and I hear the muffling of sounds at what I’m assuming is them fighting over the phone.

Hunter must win because he takes over the conversation.“Wyatt, please save me from this miserable fool. He’s been insufferable.”I hear the whispers of Cooper through the line but I can’t make out the words. Shaking my head, I put on a flannel, working up the buttons.“Anyway, Wyatt. Tell me, how’s my girl?”

If I roll my eyes anymore I’m sure they’re going to fall from my head.

“You two are the literal worst. She’s always asking‘Have you talked to Cooper?’ ‘Has he said anything about Hunter?’ ‘Do you know how Hunter is?’I swear, if I hear your name one more time I’m going to disown her.”

He makes a little choked noise and I roll my eyes. He’s so whipped.“My girl misses me. That touches my heart.”

I groan, grabbing my phone off the dresser. I’m done. “On that note, I’m going to go.”

“Fine, spoilsport,” he mutters, passing the phone back to Cooper.

Cooper says something to Hunter before his voice comes back through the line. “Sorry about him.”

“Eh, don’t be. If anything, we should feel sorry for him. He’s never going to get rid of Ember now. Poor guy.”

“I’m sure he’d disagree.”

Oh, I know he would. Poor bastard. “Exactly, he’s lost to her voodoo magic. He’ll never come back.”

“I heard that!”Hunter yells, and I can’t help but laugh. He’s got it so bad.

Shaking my head, I do a sweep of my room, making sure I have everything. “Well, I need to go.”

“I figured,” he sighs.“Have fun. Eat a candy apple for me, please.”

“You got it. I’ll even send you pictures.”

“Way to rub it in,”he grumbles through the line.

“I’ll text you later.”

“Alright, be safe. Have fun.”

“Will do.”

We hang up and I spend the next five minutes gathering myself together before heading out the door.

* * *

“I have to admit,our float isn’t half bad,” Paxton says around a mouthful of pretzel.

I cock a brow, looking at him like he’s lost his mind. “Were we looking at the same float? It’s terrible.”

I still don’t understand why our moms put us in charge of it. You’d think they’d have been more hands-on considering this wastheirproject but nope. They left the majority to Paxton and I. I’m sure it was a part of some scheme to drive us closer together, and while it worked for the most part, the float is seriously lacking.

He contemplates it briefly but clearly doesn’t agree. “Nah, it had character. Every town around wishes they had a float like ours.”

Yeah, definitely lost his mind. “You’re delusional.”

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