Page 43 of Just Ten Seconds

Amanda pulls on his sleeve. “Dad, can I go through the corn maze?” she asks with a look of excitement.

He glances over to the structure of hay bales and cornstalks; it appears easy enough for a child to navigate through on her own. The eight-foot-tall wooden sign at the front features a jack-o’-lantern wearing a straw hat, holding a paddle that reads, Five dollars.

“Sure.” He takes out his wallet and hands her money. “Meet me at the exit when you get out. No running off anywhere else.”

She takes the money and then bops over to the maze as the two of us watch her ponytail swing behind her.

“I wish I had her energy.” My words come out longingly.

“She has enough for the both of us. When we leave here, she’ll want to go to the playground, and I’ll be ready for a nap. I’ll also have purchased three scarecrows and enough apples to feed a small army.”

“She suckers you into everything, huh?” I ask.

“Pretty much.” He presses his lips together as he rubs his jaw. “She’s not spoiled. She and I just happen to like the same things, so it’s easy to give in to her. Especially at a place like this.”

“They have cider and donuts inside. Although you don’t like donuts.”

He halts, turning to face me fully, probably surprised by the fact that I remember he doesn’t eat donuts because he worked at a donut shop in high school.

A tiny smirk appears on his lips. “If they’re apple cider donuts, I’ll eat a whole box. I love the fall, and I love apples.”

“Not all apples are created equal. There is one that’s superior to the rest,” I state and then add, “Honeycrisp.”

To my surprise, Dean says the same thing at the same exact time. For some reason, it makes us both go completely silent.

It’s a warm day, the sun shining in a cloudless sky. The children squeal with delight as they run in and out of the maze. It almost sounds like they have some ghosts or scarecrows inside to give the kids a thrill.

“You look pretty,” he says, and I’m caught off guard.

I look down at my knee-high boots over my jeans. “Thanks,” I say. “You look handsome too.”

God, sometimes, I just want to slap myself in the face. Actually, I do. I literally hit myself in the forehead for being so lame.

Based on Dean’s deep chuckle, he finds this amusing. “Are you always this nervous around people?”

“Kind of. It’s a new trait I developed over the years.”

“I thought you were gonna say it’s just me.” He’s teasing. I can see that wit in the rise of his eyebrows. “Do you have a quote for me?” he asks.

I bite my lip at the fact that he remembers that. “ ‘If you blow chunks and she comes back, she’s yours. But if you spew and she bolts, then it was never meant to be.’ ”

He rubs his chin as he thinks of what it could be from. “I need a hint.”

I run my hand down my face and close my eyes, wondering if this is really something I feel like doing. Okay, here goes nothing. I pucker my mouth and speak in my best Garth-like lisp as I repeat the quote.

Dean snaps his fingers. “Wayne’s World.”

Running my hands through my hair, I cringe at the fact that I just did a Garth. “I haven’t done an impression in years.”

“How did it feel?”

I blanch for a moment as I realize, “Not bad.”

We walk around to the end of the maze, Dean with his arms folded over as he assesses the kids running around. When he spots Amanda, he gives her a wave. She waves back and then runs back in for another go of the maze.

“Do you ever think about getting back into acting?” he asks.

“That’s a hard question to answer. Mostly, I wonder if I should have ever stopped.” I rest my foot on the bottom of the railing in front of us and lean over the top. “When Jackie and I met at freshman orientation, we both had our sights on working with Jennifer Lopez. Jackie as a backup dancer and me on the big screen. Jackie hurt her knee right around the same time she met Nick. Her dreams changed, but it was for something out of her control. Me …” I pause and think about how much my life changed in a short amount of time. “I wasn’t finding the success I had hoped for and just gave up.”