I was sure there were plenty of girls who would love to swap places with me right now.

And I knew that they would have called me crazy for wanting to back out of this last minute, but I was already here, and I had a job to do.

I parked the car in the driveway and killed the engine. I burrowed my mother's car since she came home from work early today. She said the office wasn't that busy, and she was glad to have Friday off to do some online shopping.

I allowed myself to take three deep breaths before putting on my game face. I purposely came earlier than Jason asked. Maybe the earlier I visited, the earlier I could leave.

I rang the doorbell. I had expected the housekeeper or butler to come running; instead, it was Jason who let me in.

Jason's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. "Summer. You're early."

"You didn't give me a time frame." My eyes went to the sweat dripping from his brow.

"Yup. You're right. It was my fault." He took the blame quickly. "I was doing a workout, but come on in." I stepped into the foyer. "Shoes off, please."

I quirked a brow. Jason's in his old form today. I could tell from how he greeted me. He sounded like the old Jason that didn't go turning his back on his friends.

"I need a shower, but I'll give you a quick tour of the first floor."

The house was nice. Would I want to live here? Probably not. Only because there was wood paneling everywhere, and I could see myself doing more renovations than actually living in the space.

"Right here." He opened a door. "Is the powder room. Then down the hall is my dad's office.

Bingo!

We made a full circle back to the family room with the big television. "I really should grab a shower," Jason said.

"I mean, I wasn't going to say anything." I pinched my nose, fanning the fake stench away.

He chuckled. "I'll be back. Make yourself at home." He patted the armrest of the couch.

"K, thanks," I told him. I plopped onto the couch, throwing my hands over my head. I was overselling this whole thing, but it didn't throw Jason off.

He headed out of the room, and I gave it another five minutes before leaping into action.

I darted for the mayor's office. I should have known it wouldn't have been easy as one two three to get in.

There was a pin code lock on the door.

What the heck. I was no hacker. I didn't know how to get around this, and I wanted to call the mission a failure already.

I released a disappointed sigh and rested my head against the cool mahogany. To make myself feel better, I decided to try to punch in two codes. What's the worst that could happen? I've never heard of someone getting locked out of anything after two wrong codes.

The first one was something simple like his election day. The pin pad lit up red. Okay, that was a fail. Final and last try, no pressure or anything.

I stared at the numbers as they could speak to me. Then I tried another code that sprouted into my head. I held my breath, and... the pin pad lit up green. My jaw nearly dropped, and I wanted to jump for joy.

"As his assistant, I set up all the passcodes and security for the mayor. This is kind of like classified information, but most of the things that need to be accessed by pin codes or passcodes are the exact two that I use for almost everything. It's the same pin code that I have on my phone. That guaranteed that I wouldn't forget them."

I may have accidentally peeped at mom's pin code earlier when she was lying on the couch and punched it in. I didn't think she knew I was standing over her. I wasn't trying to be sneaky about it either. It was a mere coincidence.

But no time to dwell on all of that. I have about five to ten minutes to snoop around to my heart's content.

I headed straight for the huge-ass desk across the room.

On top of it, I saw a picture of him and Jason, and then I found a picture of him and my mom directly behind it. It looked like it was from over the summer when they met with the Governor.

I thought it was a little strange that he doesn't have any pictures of his wife, but he had two images of him and his dog that passed away last year. But I wasn't going to make any of that my business.

I opened the drawers one by one, looking for anything that looked remotely suspicious that might give me a clue.

My hands skimmed this blue folder, and it was just begging to be examined by me.

Flipping it open, I found some blueprints for a new hotel in town. It looked nice, should bring in a lot of revenue. I saw the name of the building's owner, and I had to do a double-take. The mayor owns that building. But that was not the most surprising news.

The building he wanted to tear down was Cam's mother's salon.

AH CRAP!

I whipped my phone out of my cross-body bag and snapped some photos. Clearly, I know I wouldn't be able to post these online or anything, but I could show Cam in case he didn't believe.

Cam.

I had a light bulb moment. What if the only thing stopping

But that wouldn't explain why he wanted to push me away.

What could the mayor have done? Threaten to demolish the place if Cam didn't listen to him? Is that why Cam got arrested over the summer? He found out the plans and went to confront him?

My head was spinning with all the possibilities.

I shuffled the papers back into the folder and neatly tucked them away like how I had seen them.

Pushing in the drawers quietly, I took a step back to admire the scene. It looked untouched, like no one was here. Then I made a mad dash for the door, quietly closing it behind me.

"Summer?" I heard Jason say.

I did some of those quiet ballet leap on my tiptoes until I reached down the hall to the bathroom, stepping inside.

When his voice sounded closer, I pretended to walk out. "Oh, hi! Sorry. I was using the restroom." I hitched a thumb over my shoulder as if it wasn't obvious.

Jason nodded. He had no choice but to believe me.

I was good at covering my tracks.

"Yeah, that fine. So um, you wanna watch a movie or...." He stepped up to me. "Or we could do other stuff." He said with his voice in a lower octave. It was kind of cringe, to be honest. Not all guys could pull that off. He certainly wasn't one of them.

"Actually," The universe must be looking out for me because my phone started to ring.

CAM.

I haven't texted him since we left school earlier. He had no idea how I would spend my Friday night. And I knew that this wasn't a date. Not to me, at least. A part of me still felt like I was cheating on the Cam in the middle of our completely unofficial romance.

"I um. I have to go." The excuse rolled off my tongue. I moved around him and headed for the front door.

Jason was close behind. "Are you serious? You weren't here more than an hour. What do you have a family emergency or something?"

I shook my head, grabbing my boots to slip. "It's not that." I stood up straight.

Jason huffed out a laugh. "It's because of him, isn't it?" his tone grew dark.

He couldn't even say his name. I nearly rolled my eyes.

I wanted to play dumb, but then that would draw this out. "Yes. It's because I want to be with Cameron." I couldn't believe the first time I said those words out loud was to him.

Jason remained silent for a second.

"I'm happy for you two. You could leave now." He opened the front door for me, giving me a light push outside.

I turned to say something. "I'm so-"The door slammed into my face.

Eh, it could have been worse.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Grandpa. He answered immediately, and it sounded like he was munching on a bag of chips. "Gramps, I have something to tell you!"