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“Shouldn’t you kids be in school?” she asked. That was the other thing about Peggy; she rarely kept her opinions to herself, and I could hear the clear disapproval in her tone.

“Nah, it’s a special day,” I said.

Peggy lifted an eyebrow, like she didn’t believe me, but I gave her my broadest smile, and she merely shook her head. “What will it be?”

“We’ll have two BFPs,” I said. “Both with extra maple, extra crushed Oreos and one with bacon.”

I handed Peggy our menus and smiled when I caught the look on Madi’s face. “You remembered my order,” she said.

“Duh, it’s practically the same as mine except you ruin yours it with bacon.”

“It’s not ruined,” she replied.

“Sweet and savory should never be mixed. It’s sacrilege.” I sounded so adamant that it drew a small laugh from her lips.

“I forgot how weird you were about mixing certain foods.”

“I forgot you were a barbarian who would mix together just about anything.”

She suddenly smiled, and my lungs felt like they could breathe again. I hated seeing Madi upset. Her expression only grew brighter when her pancakes arrived. I started salivating too as I looked down at my plate. Four huge pancakes were stacked on top of one another. Between each layer, I could see a thick drizzling of maple syrup oozing out of the folds and sprinkled over the top were large chunks of Oreos. Even the crispy bacon that was draped on top of Madi’s stack was doused in maple syrup and cookie chunks. It looked incredible.

Neither of us hesitated before we started to dig in. My first mouthful was pure bliss, and I closed my eyes as I savored each sweet bite. It was a struggle not to ditch my knife and fork and devour the stack with my hands.

Madi was making it difficult to fully focus on my pancakes though. She kept making little moans of pleasure as she ate, which made my stomach tense every time. To distract myself, I asked her the first thing that popped into my head.

“So, did you watch the show on Sunday night?” I asked.

Madi shook her head and kept her gaze focused on her food. “What’s to watch? I already experienced it.”

“True,” I replied. I didn’t want to talk about the fact that I had watched it. I’d spent most of the time studying my conversations with Madi and trying to analyze her reactions. The girl always appeared irritated with me on the surface, but sometimes I dared to hope that maybe she felt something different underneath.

“I just wish I’d been able to get out of it last night.”

The food in my mouth turned bland at her words, and I struggled to swallow it down. “You still want out?”

She frowned as she looked at me. “We talked about this last night...”

“I know. I just thought that things might have changed after today.”

Her frown grew more pronounced, and her eyes grew wet with the promise of tears. Damn it. I was meant to be fixing the problem, not making it worse.

“Okay, I know you’re not a huge fan of being in the contest.”

“That’s an understatement,” she grumbled.

“But the main reason you wanted to leave so early was because of Jake, and he’s not an issue anymore.” I said it as gently as I could, but that didn’t stop the hurt from flashing across Madi’s eyes.

“Maybe you could just view the contest as a fun distraction?” I asked.

She pursed her lips as she considered my suggestion. “It’s just so embarrassing,” she said. “You should have seen my parents the other night…”

“You should have seen mine,” I responded. “My mom spent an hour lecturing me on the wrongs of pushing pretty girls in pools.”

Madi laughed and my heart warmed at her reaction. I wished I could make her laugh like that more often.

“So, will you stick it out with me?”

“I’ll think about it,” she finally agreed. “But you’ll probably give me the boot come Monday anyways.”