“Oh.” A thought passes across her face, and I freeze, but then she shakes her head, appearing to shake the thought away, too. “He is a hottie, isn’t he?”
“He sure is,” I say in a short tone.
Dad strides up to the podium and calls out a hello into the microphone, saving me from having to speak more to Daphne about Jenson’s hot body.
“I’m thrilled to officially announce my intention to run again as mayor of Liberty Falls,” Dad says to loud applause.
Once the clapping dies down, he clears his throat.
“I’d like to thank my wife, Nora, for all her love and support, along with my children,” he says smoothly like he’s rehearsed this a thousand times. “My daughter, Daphne, and her husband, Todd, who’s at home right now with my two grandchildren; my son, Sheldon, and his bride-to-be, Cara; my daughter, Olivia, and her husba—”
Oh, no. He didn’t. He couldn’t have.
My father turns back to look at me, a pained apology written all over his face.
He did.
He whips back around to the crowd, who are tittering and murmuring.
“Excuse me. And…her cousin, Jenson, who’s like my second son. I know Dee’s his stepdad, but Jenson’s part of the Graham family, and he always will be.”
And the hits just keep on coming.
Now Dad practically just announced Jenson as mystepbrother?
Luckily, my father steers the rest of his speech away from family and focuses instead on the issues he plans to focus on if he wins re-election—to end bullying in the schools; to get more business in the downtown area; and to continue to make Liberty Falls “one of the safest towns in the state of Pennsylvania.” Then, he adds half-jokingly, “And another goal, I hope, is to bring a much-needed winning season to Randolph College’s football program. The addition of Jenson to the coaching staff should be a big boost.”
Football’s huge in Liberty Falls, and the applause is louder for that part of Dad’s speech than anything else he’d said. I turn and raise my eyebrows at Jenson, who mouths “no pressure, right?”
When Dad mercifully finishes talking, we all clap and cheer, and then we go out to dinner as a family to our favorite Mexican restaurant in town. Everyone except for Daphne, who says she’s too tired to eat out.
My parents sit with Cindy and Dee at the big booth in the middle of the restaurant, and the hostess leads Sheldon, Cara, Jenson, and me to a separate space a few feet away.
Customers call out to us as we weave around the tables. One of them tells me he’s pulling for my dad to be mayor forever.
I laugh. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen but hopefully he will be for a while.”
Another customer asks Jenson if he’s going to be at the fair’s bell ringing.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” he says with a smile.
“Love seeing you and Jenson together, Olivia,” the woman says. “I wish my cousin and I got on this well.”
I clench my jaw and nod. “We’re very lucky. Have a good evening.”
By the time we reach our booth, I feel nauseous. Jenson slides in next to me, and Sheldon and Cara sit across from us.
“Are you two friend-dating to all events now?” Sheldon says in a teasing tone.
“That’s right.” Jenson plays it off with a grin. “All in preparation for your big day. We want to make sure we know each other well enough and don’t act like strangers.”
“You’re cousins—you’ve been best friends your whole lives,” Sheldon says. “What is there to get to know?”
Jenson shrugs casually. “I haven’t been back much lately.”
“Hi Olivia. Hello, Jenson. Welcome home.” Calvin, the reporter for the Star, smirks at me as he walks by.
His comment is innocent enough, but there’s something about his expression, like he’s been listening…
