Me: I think you meant it’s like how fields marked with an asterisk are required, because if you want to get this hot bod into bed, it’s a real date.
Miggity Miggity Mac: Did you just say “hot bod”?
Miggity Miggity Mac: I changed my mind. No sex.
Me: Where are you taking me?
Me: Wait. Don’t tell me. I love surprises.
Miggity Miggity Mac: Be ready at 6:30. If you’re late because you’re fixing your hair, I will leave you.
Me: You can’t just honk at the curb. You have to come to the door.
Miggity Miggity Mac: You cannot be serious.
Me: Oh, but I am. Prepare to wine and dine me. See above: hot bod.
Miggity Miggity Mac: 6:30!
Two days later, I was staring out the windshield of Mac’s Jeep as she shifted into park. “You brought us to a farm?”
I hadn’t made her come to my door after all. I’d been waiting outside my building when she pulled up at 6:26 p.m. I’d spent the forty-five-minute drive north picking songs to make her laugh and teasing her over the playlists on her phone. My goal had been to put her at ease. With the way she was gripping the steering wheel and trying not to look at me when I first hopped in the vehicle, I was worried this night would be over before it even got anywhere near a bedroom.
“Well, yeah,” Mac said now, giving me a funny look. “It’s almost Halloween. I thought it would be fun.”
I guess I was surprised to see she’d brought us to a tourist attraction for our date. That was sort of our everyday reality.
Halloween was tomorrow, and this place was packed. The Haunted Forest in Weaverville opened every October for a season of scaring. People paid to get chased through the woods by masked figures wielding chainless chainsaws and other props. I’d been a few times growing up.
I waited, suspicious of her motivations.
She blew out a breath. “And I didn’t want to do this in town where people would see us, okay?”
Ah, there it was.
A humorless chuckle left my lips. “You ashamed of me, Maximus?”
“Brady,” she groaned, exasperation evident, “do you really want to sit and have dinner down at Apollo’s while everybody and their brother comes up to us wondering what the hell we’re doing together?”
I frowned. “Well, I do like their garlic knots.”
She gave me a flat stare. “You know how nosy our town is. It seemed better to, you know, keep this between us since it’s temporary.”
“One night,” I murmured, feeling that ice pick chip off another piece of my heart. What would I do if Mac woke up tomorrow—after everything—and was content to go about her life ... without me? Would she really be able to act like nothing had happened?
“That’s right. One night,” she agreed, but her eyes skittered away and she quickly climbed out of the Jeep.
I followed as we made our way to the ticket booth, where I had to practically wrestle Mac to the ground in order to pay for our admission. I reminded her that the date was my idea, and she argued with me for a solid three minutes while the line behind us got longer and more aggravated and a bored teenage employee looked on in annoyance.
“Will you hold my hand if I get scared?” I whispered in her ear as we waited with our group for our turn to go into the haunted forest.
She turned her head to look at me, and we were so close I could see that swirling gray storm in her eyes. I wanted to lean in and brush my nose against hers, kiss those red lips slow and deep, and hold her hand, too. But I didn’t know where the lines were drawn. Did “just sex” mean to hell with everything else? Or was there freedom in our affections because we were away from Kirby Falls?
While I was busy overthinking it, Mac took the opportunity to bring her lips to my ear. She rose onto her tiptoes and steadied herself with a hand on my shoulder. My hands went to her waist, so eager to have her close.
“First one to scream has to buy the other one a hot chocolate.” She pulled back and tilted her head in the direction of the haunted concession stand.
I grinned, happy to play along. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
