Page 35 of If It's You

“Over my dead body.” Lindsay shook her head.

“But everyone has a date, and it’s next week.”

A slow smile spread over Lindsay’s face. “We’ll see.”

Maizie didn’t like the look in her best friend’s eyes but couldn’t muster up the effort to worry about it. She had more important things to worry about.

* * *

Music wasthe only solution right now. Maizie didn’t even care that she was milking cows again; she turned on her favorite upbeat playlist and danced through her emotions. How did she find the words that needed to be said at graduation to honor Mack? She could talk for three years and never do him justice. But she had to. She knew deep down that she needed to do this, for Mack and for her parents, but that didn’t take the fear away.

For the rest of the school day, she’d considered going back to the Principal’s office and telling him no, but then she would hear that stupid clicking pen in her head.

Forget waterboarding and torture. Principal Hayes’s incessant pen clicking would drive even the most hardened criminals mad.

And now I know why he’s the principal.

She turned her blue tooth speaker up loud enough to be heard over the machines but not too loud to spook the cows. She let the notes replace the blood in her veins and fuel her soul. She was so lost in the rhythm she had nearly made it through half the shift without having to think about anything relating to Turner or graduation.

The milkers were on, and she danced in her rubber boots. Spinning on the slick ground and dancing with the broom. She jumped from the stairs in a leap then spun three times with the ending notes. The song tapered off, and she bowed to the cows, feeling lighter than she had earlier.

Clap. Clap.Clap.

Her heart sank to her manure-covered milking boots, and she whirled around to find Christian standing in the doorway.

“What did I tell you about watching me?” she snapped. Of all the people she didn’t want to see today, he was at the top of the list. Right under Turner and principal Hayes.

He took a few steps into the barn. “It’s kind of hard not to.”

Maizie’s heart skipped a beat.

Christian grabbed the broom out of her hand and studied it. “Is this the best you can do for a partner? Kind of stiff, don’t you think?” His lips curled up into a grin, his eyes crinkling at the corners. If he wasn’t so annoying, she would find his smile wildly attractive.

“I don’t need a partner.” She humphed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.

“Of course you don’t.” He folded his arms across his broad chest.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You wouldn’t accept help even if someone offered it.”

“Not if the one offering is you.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I’m curious. Do the cows produce more milk when they listen to music?” There was a captivating twinkle in his eye, and Maizie couldn’t look away.

“Probably. Mozart has been proven to help people study.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t Mozart. I don’t think Justin Bieber has been scientifically proven to produce anything good.”

Her jaw dropped and she spun on him. “Did you just dis the Biebs? This means war.”

His laugh filled every dark crevice in her heart with unwelcome light. He took a step closer, erasing any distance between them. Had the barn gotten smaller in the last five minutes.

“You’d have to stop checking me out to have time to hate me.”

Her cheeks burned, and she jumped back from him. She wasn’t going to survive the summer with him. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and help me get the next herd in.”

“Yes, princess,” he said, mocking her like always.