Page 43 of As Long As You Kiss Me

Chapter 11

“Look at the cute bunnies.” Sully pressed her face up against the glass like a little kid.

“You could take one home if you wanted,” Jackson said.

Yeah, right. “And have it poop all over my apartment?” They were cute to look at in the pet shop, but it was a whole other thing to have them move in with her.

“You can potty train them,” he explained.

She shook her head. “That sounds too hard.” She grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the back of the shop. “Let’s go find the spiders.” That was the real reason they’d come here anyway.

“Right. Much less cuddly than fluffy bunnies,” Jackson said.

“To be honest, they really creep me out. Even the pet ones. I don’t think I could ever let it crawl around on my hand.” Sully shuddered.

“I’m not the hugest fan either,” Jackson admitted.

As they walked toward the spider section, they passed several cages with mice in them. “Hey,” Sully said. “What if we planted some mice too? I bet Mason would hate that.”

Jackson snapped his fingers. “Now you’re thinking.”

“How many should we get?” she asked. “One? Two?”

“Let’s just get one. Two might seem like too much of a coincidence. He might figure out they’ve been planted.”

“What if we went to the Halloween store and got some of those plastic spiders?”

“That’s a great idea,” Jackson told her. “But there’s one thing we’re not thinking through well enough.”

“What’s that?” Sully asked.

“How are we going to get this stuff in Mason’s apartment?”

“We’ll figure something out.” Sully had a few ideas of what might work.

Jackson walked farther back in the store. “I found the spiders.”

Sully followed him. “Ew, so creepy. Just looking at them makes me feel like something is crawling down the back of my shirt.”

Something really did tickle the hairs on the back of her neck just under her messy bun. She wriggled and then slapped at the back of her neck. “Ahhh.” But nothing was there.

Jackson had a huge goofy grin like he’d gotten away with something.

“Did you just do that?”

“Do what?” His face didn’t match his words. He was smiling way too much for someone who was innocent.

“Touch the back of my neck,” she accused.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She refused to believe that one of those spiders had somehow gotten loose and were crawling on her. Although, it was possible…

Jackson burst into laughter, doubling over. “You should see the look on your face.”

“Very funny!” She put her hands on her hips. “You know I’ll only have to get you back, right?”

“I’m not scared of you.”

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