Page 53 of Fake It Till You Make It

“Special, my foot.” Eli stood again. The motion was so abrupt, the entire table shifted sideways. “Amarie’s got him wrapped around her ring finger, too. He invited her dancing two seconds after meeting her.”

“Is this jealousy I hear?” Amarie taunted.

That comment brought a military halt to his rant. Eli grabbed the chair, swung it backward, then straddled the seat.

“What next?” he demanded.

“Take as many pictures as you can of your everyday jobs. I’ll get shots of Eli at work. You all can take selfies and do the same thing to post on your pages. Include your coworkers if they are okay with their images on social media. The key to social media is to be your most authentic self.”

“Do you want me to take my shirt off?” Noah asked.

“Not at this moment.”

“After the meeting then.” He winked.

“Listen here, Noah, Amarie may be my fake partner, but she is still my employee. Stop flirting with her.”

Amarie picked up her phone. “I like a growling, possessive animal doctor. That’s good. Keep it up, the ladies online adore protective men.”

“Y’all sure this pretend thing is a good idea?” Tobias inquired.

“It’s fine,” Amarie and Eli said at the same time.

Leah smiled.

Tobias looked worried.

“Amarie,” Noah asked, smiling, “tell me more about this thirst trap.”

“Oh yes. Let’s do a demonstration. Stand up, Eli.” He did as he was told, at first. “Take your cap off. Walk to the door. That’s good…” Amarie trailed off watching his butt work the heck out of his jeans. “Yeah, now spin to face me.”

Eli skull and crossboned his arms. “No. Nope. Stop the camera.”

“Ooh, ooh, get that pout.” Leah hopped up. “I loved that face when he was a baby.”

“Mom, the dang blasted video is still going.”

“This is great footage. Keep going,” Amarie cheered.

“I’ll do the auction. What I’m not going to do is sexy model photos to put online.”

“Not sexy. Thirsty. There’s a difference. This is how we’re going to boost your engagement.”

“I don’t want more engagement. What I want is to be left alone.”

“Not true.” Amarie needed to remind him what he stood to lose. “You want to save your family house and your father’s business. This is a vehicle to reach your goals.”

“Come on, bro.” Noah grabbed Eli by his shoulders. “Give us just a little pout. Think of the children.”

“How about a black-and-blue eye.”

“Boys. Boys,” Leah called. “We will do our part to follow Amarie’s lead.”

“Wow, I’m in charge?”

“Of course, dear. And I think we should announce the winners of the bachelor auction at the Founder’s Day Festival. Everyone will be there. It’ll be a great time to show off more of the Service spirit. Shephardstown maybe the oldest city, but Service, we’re the beat in the heart of West Virginia.”

“Well, the fifteen-second clips of Eli delivering Mr. Johnson’s foal have gotten a lot of comments. Once we reachone thousand TikTok followers, the algorithm will allow us to add a direct link to the auctionluvbuzz.com site as well as a donation button.”