I also wondered what the hell I was thinking, but I nodded like I’d never been surer about anything in my life. “I’ve heard so much about her.”
“Alright, then,” Connor said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you…”
He accepted the call, and once our connection cooperated—it took a few seconds—a pretty girl with brown hair in two braids appeared onscreen. Connor angled his phone so that his camera caught both of us. “Okay,listento this—” Mads started before her eyes bugged comically wide.
“Mads, this is Olivia,” Connor said happily, unable to play it even a little cool. “Olivia Lupo.”
I summoned a smile and waved. “Hi!”
In response, Mads made a show of pinching her arm. “Just checking,” she said with a guilty but sly smile. Next to me, Connor wentred. It must’ve been an inside joke. “What are you guys up to?” she asked.
I only realized why I’d wanted to FaceTime her when Connor got up from the table to show her the Farm’s vast view. I’d grown curious about his life. His life back home, not his manny existence on this island. I wanted to meet the people who were so important to him. Who meant the world to him.
But that didn’t mean I was dying for a one-on-one conversation with his best friend. “I’ll be right back,” Connor said a fewminutes later, offering me his phone. “Nature, uh, calls.”
“Literally,” Mads chimed in. “The Annex has an outhouse, right?”
I reluctantly took the phone, but I didn’t say anything until Connor had disappeared into the woods. “It really is great to finally meet you,” I said, half-hoping our connection would crumble and the call would disconnect. “I know he’s missed you a lot.”
“I’ve missed him a lot too,” Mads said. “We’ve never been apart this long, and I know being away hasn’t been a piece of cake for him.” She paused. “It’s also great to meet you. I’ve been super curious, to be honest.”
I blinked. “You have?”
“Yeah, of course. Connor went from asking how everyone at home was to talking about you nonstop.” Mads raised an eyebrow. “You’re surprised?”
I shook my head. No, I guess I wasn’t. Not really.
“I’m not usually the overprotective type.” Her cheeks flushed a little. “But then again, Connor has always had the upper hand in relationships. I haven’t needed to worry about him. Everyone jokes that he falls hard and fast, but he always,alwayslooks before he leaps, which hasn’t been too often.” She laughed. “And I have you to thank for that.”
“Me?” I snorted. “What did I do?”
“You’re his dream girl, Olivia. The camp crush that got away. Whether he knew it or not, I think he was saving his heart for you.”
A lump formed in my throat.
You’re his dream girl, Olivia.
I think he was saving his heart for you.
“I know that’s probably scary to hear,” Mads said as I heard a chugging noise in the distance. Was it my hammering heart? The blood in my ears? Or something else? “But it’s the truth, and I think you need to know that…” Her eyebrows knitted together. “Wait, shit, I’m sorry. You look terrified.”
“Yes,” I said, then winced. “I mean, no. I mean…” I sighed. “It’s just a lot of pressure.”
My stomach squirmed. I’d known Connor less than three weeks, and I definitely wasn’t the person he’d been romanticizing in his head for all these years. I hadn’t remembered him without prompting, but he’d really been pining over me?
You messed up, I started berating myself.Everyone told you—
The chugging intensified, and before Mads could say more, a sound between apopand awhistlemade me blink. “Olivia!” I heard Connor call as I just hung up on Mads and looked over my shoulder to see not only him and his knee-numbing grin emerging from the mouth of the woods, but also…
A tractor.
My breath caught.
The green antique John Deere tractor from Annie’s Polaroid, here all along. “It’s been on the Farm since the 1930s!” Wit called from the driver’s seat, as if reading my mind. He guided the tractor onto the lawn, revealing Meredith and a few others on the flatbed trailer.THEOYSTERCATCHERhad been painted across theback in yellow letters.
“Sunset tractor rides are a Fox family tradition,” Meredith told us. “We go from house to house and pick up more passengers. It’s the best way to see the Farm!”
“And I am a gold-star tour guide,” Wit added, “if you need further convincing.”
