Page 25 of Resisting the Fall

My head reared back slightly. “Why would I care?”

Carson shrugged, though his smile broadened.

“Well, I don’t.”

“Okay.”

I spun the quarter again. “Though speaking of Maven, now that school’s started again, have you warned her about Levi?”

“Not really. I mean, I asked her about him, but she said they’ve only spoken a few times.”

I nodded, not wanting to lecture Carson on how to brother, but also feeling like he wasn’t taking this threat seriously enough. “Still, it might be smart just to give her a heads-up. You know, preempt any kind of advance on his part.”

“Preempt?” Carson lifted a brow. “Someone paid attention in World History.”

“I’m gonna head home.” I’d said what I’d intended to say. It wasn’t like I was actually waiting around to see Maven. Except the sound of the front door opening nearly had my heart jumping out of my chest.

“Maven?” Carson called, sending me a smirk.

“No. It’s me, honey,” Ms. Price whisper-shouted.

Carson started into the front room, clearly curious about what was happening, and I followed.

Ms. Price was standing at the front window with Maven’s violin case at her feet, peeking through the blinds.

“What are you doing?” Carson asked, stepping next to his mom and separating the blinds to see out.

“I think Maven’s being asked to homecoming,” she whispered, like someone might hear her over the blaring speakers from the front yard. Oddly, the muffled tune sounded like classical music.

I hurried to the window. There, on the front lawn, was Levi. One of his cronies stood behind him, wearing sunglasses and holding a speaker, while Levi held a bouquet of roses and a poster that read: “It’s instrumental to my happiness that you go to homecoming with me.”

“You have to be kidding me,” I muttered to myself, though I apparently said it loud enough that Carson glanced in my direction.

“How sweet is that?” Ms. Price was clearly unaware of the situation and how this was not a good thing. She released her hold on the blinds and stepped back. “Are you two asking anyone to homecoming?”

Carson also stepped away from the window. “I’m not sure yet, but I think Katie Heaton is expecting Ben to ask her.”

I glanced out the window again to see a smiling Maven taking the bouquet from Levi. I hadn’t been sure if I was going to ask Katie, being that she’d been away all summer so we’d hardly spoken, but with Carson undecided if he was going, someone had to keep their eye on Maven. “Yeah. I’m going to ask Katie.”

Maven

Carson grabbed my duffle bag from the trunk of the Uber I’d taken from the Amtrak station. He draped it over his shoulder before lifting out my larger, heavier suitcase with a small grunt. Then he shot me a look. “Not that I mind, but I thought you said you were only going to be here a day or two.”

“That’s the hope.” I took hold of my violin case handle, then closed the trunk. “But with how stubborn Ben can be, I packed a few extra things in case.” It was also the reason I hadn’t taken Cassandra up on her offer of letting me drive her car again—I wasn’t sure exactly how long I’d be here. It was one thing to borrow her car for a day or two, but any longer seemed like an abuse of our friendship, even if she wouldn’t see it that way.

Carson gave a little chuckle, waving at the driver so he knew to leave. “Let the battle of wills commence.”

“It’s not a battle, it’s an ambush. It will be over before Ben even knows what hit him.”

“And you’re certain you’ve thought this through?”

“The last thing Ben wants is me showing up in Autumn Ridge and announcing to everyone we’re still married. So once he sees the consequence of his choice standing in front of him”—I gestured to myself—“ready and eager to share the news with anyone who will listen, he’ll concede.”

And if he didn’t, I’d move on to Plan B—make him so miserable he’d soon be begging to have our Vermont case dismissed.

Carson gave a slow nod, heading toward the house with my luggage. “For your sake, I hope you’re right.”

“And for yours,” I said with a laugh, hurrying ahead to open the door for him.