Chapter 8

Eight

D ahlia

It’s midnight, the tour is ready to begin, and at first, it looks like I have no participants.

It makes no sense. The entire town came out for the festival today, which means the ten sign ups I had originally was already a fairly modest start.

But now, nobody has even bothered to show up, not the people who signed up at the festival, nor those who registered on the city website. In fact, now that I’m looking at my phone, the sign-up page that I’d added to the city website has been erased. Why would people sign up, pay the fee, and then not come?

I slump down at one of the picnic tables and allow myself to feel sad for five minutes, in the dark, with nobody looking.

“This where the tour starts?”

I look up, and Blake is standing over me, looking confused.

Quickly, I wipe away a tear that I stupidly let fall. “It’s cancelled. Nobody showed up.”

“Listen, I paid my $20 online and I expect a tour.”

Now I’m the one who is confused. “It was a dollar, for charity.”

“Oh,” he says with a mischievous wink. “Well, I guess I overpaid then.”

I need to set the record straight. “Blake, I know you only signed up because you felt sorry for me.”

He crosses his arms over his wide chest. “First of all, I didn’t sign up out of pity. I signed up because I wanted to … to support you. Do you understand the difference?”

I bite my lip to keep the grin from spreading, but who am I kidding. I can’t hide my smile any more than I can stop the warm fuzzies that spread through me any time Blake shows me his tender side.

“Well? Who are we waiting around for? Lead on, tour guide. I want my money’s worth.”