The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

            “Wow.” He smiled, looking totally surprised, and she wondered if she’d ever be able to look at him and not feel a tiny bit sad. She’d never want to get back together with him, but she’d probably also never feel nothing for him, either. “I can’t believe you’re being this nice about it all.”

            “Why?” she asked, and they both shared a smile. Because the last time they’d spoken, she might’ve called him Satan (amongst other choice words) and taken his beloved World Series baseball.

            She shrugged and said, “You weren’t that hard to get over, Scarf.”





Jack


            Jack: Are you cold or just really happy to be at this rehearsal?

            Hallie: First of all, you will not make me look down at my own breasts with your childish behavior.

            Jack laughed quietly and looked up from his phone long enough to see her stick out her tongue at him. She looked down at her device and started typing again.

            Hallie: Second of all, I got sent to the principal in junior high because when Jon Carson said that exact same thing to me, I went on a rant in the lunchroom about how he obviously knew nothing about nipples. I got in trouble for saying NIPPLES and he got off.

            Jack: I bet he did.

            Hallie: You’re an idiot.

            “Hallie, for God’s sake,” her mother said, putting her hands on her hips and yelling, “can you put down your phone for five minutes so we can have a damn rehearsal here?”

            Hallie rolled her eyes and set her phone on the empty seat beside her.

            Jack laughed again from his spot in the gallery. The wedding was going to be outside the following day, but they were rehearsing inside because another wedding was going on today.

            Everyone else in the room had a role in the wedding, but Jack’s only job was to sit and watch the train wreck. Hal’s mom and sister both seemed to be intense about every single detail, and Hal’s ex wouldn’t stop staring at Hal, but she had spent the entire time looking bored because she was on her phone.

            Texting him.

            Busted, he texted.

            He watched her absolutely ignore her mother’s warning as she glanced at her phone and quickly sent: Quit getting me in trouble.





Hallie


            “That is disgusting.”

            Hallie looked up from her phone and at Carolyn, her sister’s maid of honor, who happened to be standing next to her and grinning with her nose wrinkled. “What?” she asked.

            “The way your boyfriend watches you. I want to vomit with jealousy.”

            Hallie followed Carolyn’s gaze to Jack, who was giving her that sarcastic little smirk she loved. “He’s actually being a brat—that’s what that look is.”

            “I don’t mean this minute,” she said, glancing toward Hallie’s mom, who was having a shitfit about the violinist. “I mean that since we got here, your boyfriend has been sitting there staring at you as if you’re the most amazing thing he’s ever seen.”

            Hallie needed to remember to tell him to tone it down a little so he didn’t come off as a clingy creep. He was good at looking at her like she was amazing, though; the look he was giving her at that moment did wild things to her stomach.

            She opened her mouth to downplay it, but remembered that she did actually want everyone to think Jack was the perfect boyfriend who worshiped the ground she walked on.

            “He’s just, um,” she said, trying to think of the right words. “Jack is just very focused.”

            “Well, bravo, Hallie,” Carolyn said, looking downright wicked as she gazed at Jack. “A focused man is hard to find.”



* * *



            • • •

            “Okay, so I bribed the server to put us at Chuck and Jamie’s table.”

            “What?” Hallie asked as they walked into the lodge’s great room. Jack had immediately reached for her hand when the rehearsal ended, and she’d yet to find a way to one-up him in their current situation.