He grunted. “Sorry you don’t like my face.”
She only hesitated for a moment before reaching up to rest her hands on his cheeks.
“I adore your face. I’d just adore it more if you were using it to smile at the children who might sign up for Greener.”
At her touch, his posture softened, and he leaned into her palm for the briefest of moments before pulling away. “Did you just tell me to smile more?”
“I believe I did,” she said. “Are you going to listen?”
“No.” He shifted his weight from foot to foot as he gazed around the crowded festival’s main drag. “It’s weird. Everything looks just the same.”
Faith caught her lower lip in her teeth at the memory. She’d dragged him here when they’d been dating, pulling him from booth to booth and vendor to vendor while she exclaimed over the handmade jewelry and the painted gourds entered in the annual decorating contest. Although he’d claimed a town celebration devoted to produce wasn’t his scene, he’d held her hand and eaten fried squash blossoms and given his opinion about which pair of pumpkin earrings he liked better. She was wearing them today, in fact, in the spirit of the festival.
“Come on, you loved it back in the day.”
He glanced down at her, and although his face was stony, she could practically read his mind: it hadn’t been the festival he’d loved. It had been her.
She blinked and looked away, unable to keep meeting his eyes with those thoughts rushing to the surface. Her gaze fixed on the booth across from BUILD’s on the opposite side of the wide pedestrian path, and one of the booth’s inhabitants shot her a cheery wave.
She brightened and waved back, grateful for the distraction. Her friend Mabel Bowen had apparently just started her shift behind the table for her radio station, 105.5 the Brick. Mabel mouthed an exaggerated “How are you?” then rolled her eyes and pointed at the guy in the booth with her. The station owner, Brandon Lowell, didn’t notice a thing as he chatted up a pair of twenty-something women who’d stopped at the Brick’s table.
Brandon stepped out of the booth with a T-shirt and stood way too close as he held it up to check the sizing on first one woman, then the other. Mabel silently pretended to gag, and Faith shot her a sympathetic grimace. Brandon was a wealthy sleaze who hadn’t made a great impression on her when they’d met at the station a few months ago, and today wasn’t doing much to improve that.
“Friends of yours?” Leo asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “That’s Mabel. She hates her boss so much it’s almost funny.”
“I know the feeling.”
She assumed he was talking about that prick Carlisle Lockhart and couldn’t disagree.
When his eyes strayed back to the Brick booth, she reluctantly asked, “Did you want me to introduce you?” It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that Mabel was in a serious relationship, in case he was about to ruin her day by asking for an introduction to her hot friend. But he shook his head and rolled his shoulders restlessly.
“You just… how do youknoweverybody?”
“It’s called living in your hometown. You should try it sometimes— Oh wait, that’s literally what you’re doing right now.” She blinked up at him innocently, delighted when she caught the flicker of a smile. “Like I said, you should’ve walked in the parade. Burn off some of that broody energy.”
“Me? Smiling and waving from a float?” He grimaced, but Faith had figured him out years ago; that was his “I’m secretly enjoying this conversation” grimace.
“It’s okay; I’ll just put you to work in front of the table,” she said. “You can attract all the moms who might be interested in your hiking program. Wait, sorry, your environment-based educational programs.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Why me? Why not you?”
“I’m not the one who chose this shirt, buddy.” She pinched the ultrasoft material where it stretched over his ribs, pulling it even tighter against his stomach.
The corners of his eyes crinkled as she flattened her hand against his side, starting a slow slide down his waist. And then a cheerful voice interrupted the moment.
“Hellooooo!”
Faith jumped away and turned to see two of her BUILD staff members headed in their direction.
“How’d it go?” Judging by their bright eyes and big smiles, the parade had been a success, but Faith always felt better hearing a full report.
“Fabulous,” said Jonah, her language arts tutor and event planner. “We gave away all our candy, which means at least six hundred people have stickers with our logo and QR code.”
“Excellent work!” Faith high-fived him, extra grateful to have him back on her staff full time thanks to the Digham Foundation money in the BUILD bank account. “How many of our tutoring kids showed up to walk with you?”
“Close to twenty,” Elaine said, adjusting her oversized, rimless glasses. Then the retired calculus teacher shot Faith a sly glance. “Don’t worry; we sent them home with their families instead of dropping them off with you to babysit.”
