Page 37 of Romantic

“Sure, what’s going on?”

“I wish I knew.”

I scurry through the campground, grateful for the new lighting along the paths throughout the resort. The lights are on at Pepper and Brandon’s cottage. Pepper opens the door; she seems delighted to see me.

“Annie!”

“Pepper!” I say more sternly than I have ever spoken to her. “We need to talk.”

“Okay, okay . . .” She looks totally guilty. She waves me inside the cottage.

“Pep?” Brandon calls as he comes down the stairs. “Oh! Hi, Annie.” He turns to Pepper who has taken a seat on the couch. “Another tarantula?” he asks only partly in jest.

“Pepper, do you want your dad to stay for this conversation?”

“Why not?” she says sulkily. “You’re going to tell him anyway.”

“What has she done now?” Brandon asks with sudden concern, taking a seat on the couch.

“I don’t know for sure.” I sit down in a nearby chair. “But . . . Pepper, did you put Ex-Lax in Jack’s cookies?”

“Maybe . . .” she smiles a little. Brandon looks horrified.

“There was Ex-Lax in those cookies? I had three.”

“No, I made a special batch just for Jack.” She breaks out into a triumphant smile.

Brandon puts his head in his hands and groans. “Where did I go wrong?”

In general, I think of Brandon as an entirely different species from myself. He is so excessively responsible and rich and grown up. But sitting on his couch with his head in his hands, I see a man just a few years older than me, struggling to raise his daughter on his own. What’s worse, it’s all my fault. Not only because I involved Pepper in the matchmaking with Edward and Elinor, but because she is desperate for Brandon and me to date. The whole situation is supremely awkward.

My phone buzzes with a text.

Jack

Someone broke into my house!

This message is followed by a photo from inside his apartment. My heart sinks.

“What is it?” Brandon asks. I hand him my phone. He takes a deep breath before holding it up to Pepper.

“Did you have anything to do with this?” he asks.

It’s a photo of the mirror in Jack’s front entryway. Scrawled across it are the words, “I Know!”

His regard for her, infinitely surpassing anything that Willoughby ever felt or feigned. —Sense and Sensibility

11

Brandon

“Pepper, did you go into that man’s house again?”

“I don’t see why you’re so angry. I thought it all through. I didn’t damage any property. I didn’t steal anything!”

Oh, the confidence of a ten-year-old. It’s a beautiful thing—and so dangerous. “Honey, haven’t you heard of breaking and entering? Going into another person’s house is against the law. I seriously hope he doesn’t call the police.” At least I know that Annie, who just left to comfort her hysterical boyfriend, won’t betray Pepper.

“He won’t call the cops. He’s guilty of something. That message wouldn’t scare someone unless they were guilty of something big.”