he’d be willing to do this to make it look legit.”
“He helps you, and you help him?” Journee said, and there might have been just a trace of envy in her voice. She definitely wished she had a best friend who would do the same for her.
“I’m pretty blessed to have Martin,” Blakely said, responding to the tone of her voice and not the words. Yeah, definitely envy in there.
“You are. I think maybe neither one of you know exactly what you have,” she said thoughtfully, running her finger down the spirals of her notebook and not looking at Blakely while she said it.
“You might be right about that,” Blakely said slowly, like she was thinking about her friendship and realizing she needed to appreciate it. “I’m pretty sure he’ll go along with it. Do you think it will work?”
“I don’t think you need to be obvious about it. Just let him put his arm around you. The rumor mill will pick it up and take it from there. You know how rumors travel in a small town. All you and Martin need to do is hold hands, and the whole town’s going to have you married by next Friday.”
Blakely grunted. “True.”
“I know.”
“Now about the kind of kiss that we need to have. You said awkward was a winning attribute. What’s a losing attribute?”
“Disinterest?” Journee said, scrunching her brows up, her finger going to her cheek as she pretended to give the question serious thought. “Or, I don’t know, there’s just no spark. Boring. Like you’ve done it a million times and you don’t really care about the person you’re kissing. I think those kisses are the ones that are forgettable and that nobody votes for.” She highly doubted if Blakely and Martin actually got into a kiss that it would be boring, but she wasn’t going to tell Blakely that.
“Nobody votes for? I thought there were judges?”
“There are, but they also get audience participation. It varies from year to year, and the judges’ scores are weighted heavily, but typically, they take opinions from the audience. But every year, it’s been different. The kissing contest is kind of eccentric, which is another appeal.”
“Great. So basically, we don’t know exactly what to expect?”
“That’s pretty much right. Just know that the audience will have some say in it. And they don’t like boring.”
“That should be easy. Martin and I are friends. The idea of kissing has never crossed our minds.” Blakely looked a little guilty, like maybe she actually had been thinking about kissing her best friend. Probably a recent development. “We should be able to do boring and uninspired. Although, it’ll be really hard to make it look like we’ve done it a million times before. And I care about him, so I might have to try to pretend that I don’t.”
“There’s a difference between caring about someone as a friend and caring about someone to the point where you don’t want to take your lips off his,” Journee said, almost sounding wise if she did say so herself.
“You’re my little sister. You’re really not supposed to know more about this than I do.”
“That’s not my fault. Maybe you should have spent more of your teenaged years doing what everyone else was doing and a little less time immersed in your horses.”
“I think it might be too late for me.”
“You’re really going to a lot of effort to try to avoid that football player. Is he that bad?”
Blakely crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. “He’s probably not that bad. I just don’t know. I don’t want to know. I guess that shows that I’m shallow and pathetic.”
“A little probably.”
“Thanks.”
“You want the truth. You’re judging him based on what he does for a living. Or what he looks like. And that’s wrong. You know that.”
“I know.”
“But don’t be too hard on yourself. This is just an area where you don’t do very well. And you have to do better. But there’s no one that has a bigger heart than you do. You’re always putting other people ahead of yourself. Look at the kids that you give lessons to without charging. And I did hear that a certain person was out at Martin’s ranch, and you were showing your secret trick to her. Your competition. And you are helping her. That says a lot about your character. No one expects you to be perfect.”
“She’s my competition, true, but she’s kind of a friend as well.”
“She’s not nearly as good a