“I heard.” Jax expires a slow breath. “It’ll all work out. I promise, Pops.” He gives a little wink, but that disconcerting look on his face says just about anything else.
Mack runs up and lands her arms around us. “You two were brilliant!God!” She’s practically reeling. “Who knew you could act so well? I swear, when this is said and done, you should both get a film agent. Hollywood ain’t seen two liars like you.” She guffaws so loud my left eardrum begs to implode. “Okay, so now that the masses are busy stuffing their faces with frosting, I think the time is right to lower the boom,” she whispers, but her laughter still titters right through.
I glance to Jax. “We can do it in the morning. Why ruin the night?”
“Are you kidding?” Mack shuttles us over in their direction. “Did they wait until prom was over before showing up like a couple of prostitutes that have seen their pimp-lovin’ heyday? What about the time they spontaneously took over the morning announcements your first day of freshman year and told all the other kids the two of you just got over a bad bout of mono—thekissingdisease?”
I suck in a sharp breath. “Mom told me to put ointment on my ‘rash’ between classes. I forgot all about that horrific nightmare!” It’s really not a wonder why it took years to score my first date.
Jax gives a serious nod. “And the time they showed up at summer camp and spent the afternoon with us in the pool?” He looks just as livid as I suddenly feel. “In string bikinis?”
“Payback is a bitch, and her name is Karma.” Mack gives us a little push in their direction, and the two of us falter. “What’s this?” She balks at our inability to move. “Don’t tell me you’ve changed your minds. None of that touchy-feely crap was real, right?”
Jax and I lock eyes once again. For the first time in weeks, it feels as if that impenetrable distance we shared for so long is creeping right back. Jax closes his eyes and dips his chin to the floor. Oh God. He realizes I meant everything I said, and he feels sorry for me.
“None of it was real.” My throat burns as I push the words out past that painful lump still forming. There. Jax doesn’t have to worry about me getting my heart broken. At least not in front of him.
“Then get to it.” Mack marches us right to ground zero as Mom and Deb hop over with ear-to-ear grins plastered to their jubilant faces.
“Here’s the happy couple now!” Mom engages in an awkward and slightly dangerous looking version of the happy dance.
“What a night!” Deb howls to the forty-foot ceiling. “I say we get some serious music in here, and we get a little groovy.” She shakes what her mama gave her, and Jax turns his head and moans as if he’s going to be sick.
“In a moment”—Mack scoots us in just a touch closer toward killing our mothers’ dreams—“the kids here have a little confession to make.”
I shoot my sister a dirty look. Way to introduce their heartbreak—and mine.
“Yes.” I take in a breath that I wish would never end because I hate what comes next.
Jax picks up my hand and gives it a squeeze before placing it carefully back by my side. “This was all a joke.”
Mom and Deb continue to ogle us as if we were the second coming of Elvis—a resurrection they once swore was upon us. I had never been so afraid of a blue-eyed dead man. Some people were afraid of the boogieman. I was terrified of a zombified singer from ages past making a beyond the grave reprisal under my bed.
“What’s a joke, dear?” Deb wraps an arm around my mother’s shoulder. “Is it the cake? I thought it was a touch dry myself. That’s what you get when you hire someone else to do what you could have done yourself.” She tosses a hand in the air.
“Not the cake,” I say boldly and more than a little pissed at Jax’s eagerness to get the sick show on the road. “Us. We are. Jax and I are a fake. We’re not in love, and we never were.”Lies, all of it lies, I want to scream, but at this point there’s no telling what I’m referring to anymore. And for that matter, I guess it’s only a lie on my part.
Mom’s features are the first to crumble. Deb takes in a quick breath before looking to her son. “What’s this?”
Jax groans as if he’s about to burst. His eyes cut to mine, and gone is any trace of joy or happiness from his face. He takes a solid breath. “Poppy and I thought it would be hysterical to make you think that we had finally succumbed to those feelings you both tried your hardest to push on us. It wasn’t real. Those feelings don’t exist.”
My heart slams to the floor without any hope of ever crawling back where it needs to be. I don’t want it. It’s far too damaged to ever work again.
“Poppy?” Mom staggers forward as if she’s about to fall over. “Is this true?”
“It’s true. The joke’s on you.” I blink back tears. “This was just some elaborate scheme to make you believe that the very thing you wanted for us was finally coming true.” How cruel. How stunningly callous of us to ever stoop so low.
“But you were naked.” Mom’s tone grows incredulous. “I saw you bending over to kiss his—”
“What’s this?” Dad comes up, and Mack sweeps him to the side to fill him in on the fun. “Oh, for shit’s sake!” he tosses up his arms and heads for the bar.
“Wait a minute,” Deb snaps as she wags her finger between us. “Are you two telling us all of those sentiments you’ve shared, the affections you’ve displayed over the last few weeks were some long-drawn-out hoax just to get a rise out of the two of us?” Her jaw goes slack. “What have we ever done to you to deserve this?”
Mom straightens as the two of them share a look of horror recounting all those oh-so-innocent bouts of insanity they’ve engaged in over the years.
“Never mind.” Deb glowers at the two of us. “I hope you are both proud of yourselves.” She jabs Jax and me hard in the chest with her finger. “I will spend the rest of my life reliving these past few weeks as some of the best memories I have ever had. Way to break your mother’s heart, Jaxson Livingston Stade!”
As a kid, I would giggle incessantly whenever Deb invoked Jaxson’s middle name, but now it just seems sad and disconcerting.
