Page 64 of Don't Go Faking My Heart

I can't think about what I want.

But I also can't stop.

Do I want to stop?

"Isn't this the moment someone's supposed to interrupt us?"

"No," a voice says from the door.

Rusty and I fly apart.

The Janes are standing at the entrance to the conference room watching us with amused expressions. "By all means, keep going," Jane says.

"Don't let us stop you," Millie agrees, taking a sip of her Diet Coke.

"We can wait." Parker says.

"Heck, I'll grab some mistletoe if it helps," Lou says.

"It's May," Parker says.

"So?" Lou asks.

"So why would you grab mistletoe?"

"To help speed things along."

"You think going to the garage, opening up a box of mistletoe, and coming back all the way here with it would speed things along?"

"And you think I was being literal?"

"I'm not the poet here."

"No, you're really not," Lou teases.

The four of them take a seat, filling in around Rusty and me. We take opposite ends of the conference table, which doesn't make sense because we typically sit together. And we're fake dating.

Right. We're fake dating! I'm an affectionate person, and I'm getting carried away. Being all warm and touchy with Rusty comes as easy as smiling because we're already so close and because I really love cuddling. And hugging. And kissing. And Rusty, it turns out, is good at faking all of these.

Because we're faking! Because he GIVES ME NOOGIES.

Yeah, that argument is as weak as it sounds even in my own head.

"All right," Jane says when she sits. "Let's rebrand Sugar Maple."

By the end of the week, we have three videos ready. Sonny, Duke, and Tripp all show up to see our handiwork, so it's a full house when we press play in the conference room.

A time-lapse video starts from the perspective of a car driving into Sugar Maple. The video slows just long enough to see the Sugar Maple exit. And the voiceover is Lou sounding all throaty and ethereal.

"POV: You're in South Carolina and want a day trip to a cute southern town off the beaten path. So you take the exit for Sugar Maple."

The video speeds up and the car parks on Maple Street.

The rest of it is an ode to "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," with one craving leading to a fascination leading to something new and then leading to an adventure, all of which are unique to Sugar Maple. The video speeds up for movement and slows down to highlight attractions, like we planned. And Lou's voice is even better than I expected. She has her friend voice, her lawyer voice, and her Lucy Jane voice. They have subtle differences, but the Lucy Jane voice gives me chills. She ends the day in a cabin—Strawberry Fields—and her voiceover says, "Feel so content with your day that you never want to leave, so you find a place to stay that inspires you to write a song …"

And then the first chords of Strawberry Fields for Never start as it fades to black.

The conference room erupts into applause.

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