Page 113 of Trick or Tease

They wandered off toward the food vendors, leaving me standing there feeling like the biggest fraud who ever lived. All around me, people were having the time of their lives at an event I helped create while secretly planning to sell it all away.

My phone buzzed for what felt like the hundredth time today. Ron again. I had been ignoring his calls since this morning, but he was nothing if not persistent. I glanced at the screen and saw a string of increasingly impatient voicemails and texts.

I ignored him, just like I had been all day.

I spotted Sabrina across the field, her black witch dress flowing behind her as she helped a family navigate toward the corn maze. Even in the flickering light of the jack-o’-lanterns, I could see the tension in her shoulders, the way she held herself like she was bracing for impact. She looked beautiful and fierce and completely untouchable.

I waved over one of the kids helping out with the parking situation. “Can you take over parking duty for a few minutes?”

“Sure thing,” he said, accepting the clipboard. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just need to handle something.”

I made my way across the field, weaving between families and dodging excited kids running between attractions. My heart was hammering against my ribs like I was walking into a courtroom to deliver closing arguments. Which, in a way, I guessed I was.

Sabrina must have sensed me approaching because she stiffened even before I reached her. She finished giving directions to the family, her smile bright and professional, before turning to face me with eyes that could have frozen hell itself.

“Sabrina, I need to talk to you.”

“No.” She started walking away from me, heading toward the hayride staging area.

I followed her, trying to keep my voice low so we wouldn’t make a scene in front of the customers. “Please, just give me five minutes to explain⁠—”

“Fuck off, Garrett.” The words came out sharp and clear, delivered with enough venom that a couple of teenagers nearby turned to stare.

She kept walking, but I couldn’t let her go. Not like this. I caught up to her and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the crowd toward the edge of the field where the shadows were deeper.

“Let go of me,” she hissed, trying to yank her arm free.

“Not until you listen to what I have to say.”

She whirled around to face me, her eyes blazing with fury in the moonlight. “If you don’t want to join your ancestors haunting that house, you better leave me alone right now.”

The threat should have been ridiculous coming from someone dressed as a witch, but there was something in her voice that made me believe she was capable of violence. I dropped her arm but didn’t step back.

“Sabrina, please. Just let me explain what really happened. It’s not what you think.”

“It’s exactly what I think,” she spat. “You came here pretending to care about this place, about us, while secretly planning to sell it out from under Billy. You’re a liar and a snake, and I was an idiot for ever trusting you.”

The words hit me like physical blows, but I forced myself to keep talking. “I never meant for it to happen this way. The appraisal, the offer—it all got out of hand before I could figure out how to handle it.”

“Handle it?” She laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “You mean handle us. Touch me again, and we won’t have to pretend there’s a headless horseman.”

She stomped away from me.

I didn’t go after her. She made it pretty clear she was not in the mood to listen to my bullshit.

I took a break and went into the house. Billy was in the kitchen scarfing down a muffin. When he saw me walk in, his jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything. Just kept chewing with deliberate slowness, like he was trying to figure out how to get through this interaction with minimal contact.

I cleared my throat. “Billy, I⁠—”

He held up the remaining half of his muffin, waving it in my direction with mock politeness. “You want this too? Since you’re apparently taking everything else that matters to me?”

That stung. This was my little brother, the kid who used to follow me around everywhere, who looked up to me like I hung the moon. Now he was looking at me like I was the villain in his story.

“Billy, please. Can we just talk about this like adults?”

He took another bite of his muffin, chewing thoughtfully while staring at me with dead eyes. When he finally swallowed, he set the remaining half down on the counter and stood up.