The Charade

by Judy Corry

  Oh. So maybe he wasn't agreeing to this because he wanted to spend time with me. Maybe it was just to help with the production we'd been putting on all week.

  I tried not to feel too much disappointment with those thoughts.

  He put his truck back in gear. "Let me just park this thing in the student parking lot and we can head inside."

  After taking my shopping bags to my room, Carter helped me find the special collections area of the school's library where Scarlett, Elyse, and Hunter were already perusing the yearbooks.

  "Sorry I'm late." I pulled out a chair next to my sister and sat down. "It took a while to convince Carter to show some school spirit and help us."

  Carter chuckled and took the seat beside me. "More like Ava's late because she had to try on about twenty different outfits at the store before settling on the first ones she'd pulled off the racks."

  "Sure." Scarlett nodded, a knowing smile on her face. "I'm sure you were just shopping."

  Hunter chuckled at her comment, and I had the feeling they may have been talking about Carter and me behind our backs.

  They'd given us funny looks when Carter and I had come out of the gardens last night, but was it possible they believed Carter and I were dating for real?

  I'd only told Elyse about the deal we'd made, and she knew all about the kiss and the reasons why it had happened in the first place since I'd gushed over it in our room while we got ready for bed last night. But had Carter not told anyone else about it?

  He'd at least clue his friends in, wouldn't he?

  But since I wasn't sure if we were letting the rest of our friends believe we were dating for real or not, I just said, "Yeah, shopping with Carter was better than I thought. Pretty sure we might need to do it again soon."

  I looked over at Carter to see his reaction—wondering if he would set the record straight. But he just put his arm around my shoulder, pressed a quick kiss to my cheek, and said, "We can go shopping anytime you want."

  Okaaaaaay. My face felt like it might catch on fire from how hot it became after his quick kiss.

  Did he have any idea what he was doing to me?

  He had to know. A guy like him had to know the effect he had on women.

  I sat up a little straighter, hoping it would help me regain my composure. "We'll save the shopping for later. Right now, we're here to help Scarlett."

  "If you insist, babe." Carter grabbed a yearbook from the stack that had been placed at the center of the table.

  Had he just called me babe?

  Eek!

  I never thought I'd like that term of endearment before, but having it come from his lips and directed at me might just be the best thing I'd ever heard.

  I scanned the yearbooks, checking the years on the sides for one that matched the time my mom had been at the academy. As I sifted through the pages for photos from my mom's past, I couldn't help but wonder if something was really happening between Carter and me and whether I should be reading into it.

  Because let’s face it, I really, really wanted to read into it.

  "Look at this," Elyse said to me a little while later. "I don't remember Mom ever telling us she was in a school play. Do you?"

  "She was in a play?" I leaned over to see and found a spread from the school's production of Romeo and Juliet, with a photo of my mom as Juliet at the top. "She was the star?"

  "Crazy, right?" Elyse said, as surprised as I was by this fact.

  "She looks so young there."

  "I know," Elyse said. "She was our age. She looks just like us."

  "She was so beautiful," I said, taking in our mom's long, brown hair that cascaded down her back in curls.

  I slid the yearbook away from Elyse toward Carter so I could show him. "Doesn't she look just like Elyse and me?"

  He studied the photo with narrowed eyes and then moved his gaze to my face, as if comparing the two of us. "You definitely look like you're related. Is she as tall as you two?"

  I shook my head. "No, she's only five-foot. She never says much about our bio dad, but she has said that we got our height from him."

  "I got my height from my dad, too," Carter said. "I don't think my mom was very tall."

  He got a strange look on his face when he mentioned his mother, and I was reminded of what he'd said about how she'd left him at a childcare center when he was little and never returned.

  He swallowed and resumed looking at the yearbook as if searching for a distraction. Then he pointed to a photo and said, "Looks like my dad played Romeo."

  "He did?" My jaw dropped at the coincidence. Sure enough, a guy with light hair who looked like a younger version of his dad was in a photo with my mom, doing the dramatic double suicide scene at the end. And while I didn't have a thing for older guys, Mr. Hastings had actually been pretty cute in high school.

  But I guess that shouldn't surprise me since his son was gorgeous himself.

  It made me wonder if my mom ever had a crush on Carter's dad growing up.

  "Did you know your dad played Romeo in the school play?" I asked Carter.

  He shook his head. "I knew he did a lot of different things in high school—sports, clubs, and whatever interested him. But he never specifically mentioned being in a play."

  "Apparently, neither of our parents considered starring in the school's play worth bragging about to their kids."

  "I guess not," he said. "But that must be where Nash got his flair for the dramatic from."

  "And Elyse from my mom."

  It looked like he was going to say something about my acting skills too, but when he glanced over at Scarlett and Hunter who were immersed in yearbooks of their own, he seemed to think better of it. He probably didn't want to clue them in to the fact that everything they'd been seeing from us this week had been an act.

  "Do you think this play was how our parents became friends?" I asked Carter, referencing back to what his dad had said the day before about him and my mom going way back.

  "Probably." Carter shrugged.

  I gave the yearbook back to Elyse and continued searching through the one I'd been working on. When I turned to a page with the title of Sweethearts Ball at the top, I saw a photo of Carter's dad wearing the kind of sash girls wore in beauty pageants, with the words “Most Preferred” in thick black lettering across his chest.

  "This must have been from that story you told me, what Mack's dad likes to tease your dad about."

  Carter leaned closer to look at the photo I was pointing to, his shoulder pressing against mine. "Yeah, that's my dad." But then he seemed to notice something else, because he chuckled and pointed to another guy in the photo. "And that's Mack's dad." He shook his head and smiled. "Looks like he took second place. Maybe that's why he always brings that story up. Because he's jealous he didn't win."

  The man in the photo looked nothing like what I'd been imagining Mack's dad to look like.

  Since Mack was black, I'd assumed his dad must be black, too. The photo was black and white, so it didn't show the exact skin tone, but it was obvious that his skin was closer to Mr. Hastings's coloring than Mack's. But he did have the height that Mack had. Mr. Hastings was probably close to Carter's height, but in this photo, Mack's dad stood a few inches taller than his friend.

  "Mack's mom was originally from South Africa," Carter said, seeming to notice that I was trying to figure out how everything worked. "Or at least I think her family is from South Africa. I think she was born in the U.S. And I'm pretty sure she was in the same grade as my dad and Dr. Aarden."

  "That's cool," I said.

  I was about to turn the page when my eyes caught on a photo at the bottom with the caption that read, Miriam Cohen and Joel Hastings dance the night away.

  What the—?

  I took a second look at the photo. Carter's dad wore the "Most Preferred" sash in the photo and my mom wore a sleeveless dress that while it was probably the height of fashion twenty something years ago, she probably wouldn't be caught dead wearing to
day now that she was a fashion icon. But what I noticed most was the way they were dancing. It wasn't the awkward, rigid pose where you could fit five Bibles in between their bodies and still have room. No, they were practically hugging and looked very content to be in each other's arms.

  I blinked my eyes, not used to seeing my mom being romantic with a guy—for as long as I could remember, she'd never really dated anyone. She'd always claimed she was too busy and that she didn't want her attention taken from raising Elyse and me.

  But the way she was resting her head against Mr. Hastings's chest, and the way his chin rested on top of her head with his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, I couldn't help but think they’d been more than the simple "friends" that Mr. Hastings had called them yesterday.

  "Um, guys?" I said, looking to my left and then to my right to make sure I had Carter and Elyse's attention.

  They looked up from their yearbooks. Scarlett and Hunter looked up as well. With their eyes on me, I pointed to the incriminating photo and said, "So, um…I'm pretty sure our mom and Carter’s dad dated back when they were in high school."

  22

  Ava

  We searched the rest of the yearbooks from the years that our parents were at the academy, and by the time we were done, Elyse and I figured out that Mack's mom and our mom had been best friends all four years at the academy. Our mom and Carter's dad didn’t show up in any photos together until the play Romeo and Juliet. And then after that play, which had happened during their junior year, photos of Mom and Carter's dad popped up here and there, and in most of them they stood close enough that I figured it was safe to assume that they had indeed dated—or at the very least had been very close friends.

  "That's kind of cute that your parents dated in high school and now you two have your own thing going on," Scarlett gushed as we stood to put the yearbooks back on the shelves where they belonged.

  I peeked over at Carter, curious how he felt about the possibility.

  Was it weird for him?

  Or did he not think much of it since we weren't actually dating?

  He picked up a stack of yearbooks from the table and started walking around the table with them, ignoring Scarlett's comment.

  So I just smiled at her and said, "Apparently, the Cohen women have a thing for tall guys with blue eyes."

  "Is that true for you, too?" Scarlett eyed Elyse. "Do you go after the same type?"

  Elyse grimaced, like she wasn't exactly comfortable talking about who she may or may not like. But after tucking some hair behind her ear, she shrugged and said, "Blue eyes are nice. But I don't really have a preference. I, um…" Her cheeks colored. "I guess it's more the inside that counts."

  Scarlett smiled. "That's probably a more mature way to go about things."

  Elyse shrugged. "And what about you? Do you have a type?" she asked Scarlett.

  It was Scarlett's turn to look uncomfortable—her eyes widened briefly and her cheeks got slightly rosier than usual. When she gave Hunter a sideways glance, I remembered what she'd said about things with him being complicated. From what I'd gathered so far, they’d been best friends since their sophomore year and had kept things platonic for most of that time, but then last year they dated for a couple of weeks—only to realize later that they were better off as friends.

  They were basically tied at the hip when she wasn't doing volleyball or house-captain stuff, so it seemed like they'd been able to maintain their friendship well enough after everything was said and done. But from the way they glanced at each other at Elyse's question, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe there were still feelings brewing deep down inside.

  Scarlett cleared her throat before saying, "I don't have a type. I, um, I don't have time to date right now, anyway."

  She busied herself with picking up the stack of photos that she'd copied for the project she was working on. Hunter, looking equally uncomfortable, offered to take the last stack of yearbooks to wherever Carter had disappeared to.

  Elyse and I eyed each other briefly, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was. That dating at this private school was probably way more complicated than we'd assumed.

  A moment later, Carter returned from the library stacks. After seeing that everything had been cleared from the table, he said, "I guess I should probably head home for dinner." Then glancing at our spectators, he seemed to make a split-second decision and quickly pulled me into his arms. After kissing me briefly on the top of my head, he said, "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

  And even though it was such a little thing, I kind of loved that he did that because it was such a boyfriend thing to do.

  When he pulled away from the hug and ran his thumb across my cheek, I didn't want to let him go because it just felt so nice to be close to him.

  But since he wasn't my real boyfriend, I let my hands drop from his waist and said, "I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good night."

  He said goodbye to Scarlett and Elyse, and then nodded at Hunter. Then he left us.

  As I watched his back get farther and farther away from me, I couldn't help but think that based on everything he'd done for this charade of ours this past week, he’d probably make an amazing real-life boyfriend.

  And I might just need to find a way to make him my real boyfriend.

  The next weeks passed quickly. Now that we were settled into the new school year, the teachers must have all gotten together and decided it was time for them to take their classes to the next level and start assigning more homework.

  So. Much. Homework.

  At my last school, I probably would have slacked off and only put in the minimal amount of effort to get a passing grade. But since I was at a prestigious private school where apparently everyone but me was a genius, I had to step up my game if I was going to keep up the grades it would take to play basketball.

  But it wasn't so bad. I had Carter helping me with math for our one-on-one tutoring sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. And then in the evenings, Scarlett and Hunter and whoever else decided to stick around at the school after hours got together to study.

  It was kind of nice, actually. I'd always studied with Elyse in the past since we often took the same classes, but there was just something about having a bigger group of kids working together that really helped me grasp the various concepts. And for the first time in my life, I actually looked forward to studying, since it was made fun by being with my new friends.

  And yeah, on the days that Carter stuck around after hours—which happened on Wednesdays and Thursdays, I was extra invested in those study sessions because it gave me a little extra time to be with him.

  Sofia had joined our study sessions a few times, since she and Nash were still good friends. It had been a little awkward at first, but she and Carter seemed to be getting used to being in the same vicinity as each other again. As we all continued to study together, the more normal it became. Sofia and I even chatted about fashion and modeling here and there, and it was interesting to hear what was happening in the modeling part of the industry.

  We probably wouldn't ever be super close, since she thought I was dating her ex, but we smiled and said hello when we passed each other in the halls now. So I was confident at least that she wasn't going to blast me on social media for what I'd insinuated about her and Simon at the barbecue.

  Carter and I continued with our charade as well, since we didn't want Sofia to know we'd just been faking it and I still wanted an alibi for our one-on-one tutoring sessions. But we didn't do anything over the top like our make-out session in the gardens. We actually kept all PDA very low-key, which was basically sitting beside each other at lunch and during our study sessions and saying a flirtatious comment here and there.

  It was kind of like having a boyfriend, just without the cuddle sessions and kissing.

  I was trying not to want those too much.

  Trying not to let myself think of ways to convince him that we needed to practice those very things just in case.
>
  But it was almost impossible not to think about it when every time he leaned close and I caught a whiff of his faint cologne, I was taken back to that tree in the gardens and wished I could relive that moment in real life instead of just in my daydreams.

  "You guys don't have anything planned three Saturdays from now, do you?" Cambrielle asked us one day at lunch.

  "I don't know," Mack said, draping his arm around the back of her chair as he sat next to her. "I was hoping to take you on that date I talked to your brothers about. You're not already making other plans, are you?"

  "As nice as a date with you sounds—" She nudged her back against his arm, pushing it off her chair. "—I do already have plans."

  "What's going on?" Scarlett asked, stabbing some of the kale salad on her plate.

  "Well," Cambrielle said, glancing at Nash who was sitting next to Scarlett. "As you know, I've been slightly addicted to Bridgerton ever since it came out. And seeing all the fancy parties and balls in the TV series has me wanting to throw a big soirée of my own."

  "A Bridgerton-style party?" Elyse gasped, her mouth dropping open. "I am so here for this."

  Cambrielle smiled at my twin, encouraged by her enthusiasm. "We wouldn't have to wear period clothing or anything." Her eyes brimmed with excitement. "You can wear whatever formal dress you want. But I don't know, I've always wanted to have a fancy party like this with everyone, and since most of you are going to graduate this year, I wanted to have it before you all leave."

  "Are you saying I'm going to need a new tux?" Mack asked, a skeptical look in his eyes.

  "Your navy-blue suit would be just fine," Cambrielle said to him. Then looking back at the group, she said, "So, do you think you guys can come?"

  "I can," Scarlett said.

  "I guess," Mack said with a shrug.

  Hunter gave a non-committal grunt.