Page 46 of Trick or Tease

And honestly, that was exactly my plan.

I thought about that photo he’d given our parents. The four of us together, back when things were simpler. Back when Billy looked up to me instead of just accepting that I’d rather be anywhere else.

“You know what?” I heard myself say. “Show me your damn maze.”

“Seriously?” he asked, and there was something almost vulnerable in his voice. “You actually want to see it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, if I’m supposed to keep an eye on this operation, I should probably know what I’m keeping an eye on, right?”

The grin that spread across Billy’s face transformed him into that little boy that annoyed the hell out of me from the moment he learned to walk. Had it really been so long since I’d shown any interest in something that mattered to him?

“Garrett, you’re going to love this,” he said. “We’ve got the whole thing mapped out, and Sabrina had this brilliant idea about different themed sections, and wait until you see what we’re planning for the finale⁠—”

He was already walking toward the corn field, talking a mile a minute. I followed. It felt good to see him excited.

We were totally different but he was still a good kid, and he deserved a better big brother than me.

17

SABRINA

Iheard Billy’s voice before I saw him. I didn’t know who he was talking to, but he was giving someone a blow by blow of his maze design. When he got like that, he was a kid again. The years fell away.

When he had gotten a new toy as a child, he would go on and on. We used to tease him back then. He would know every detail about whatever toy or card he got and then we got to know all those details.

I smiled and shook my head as he rambled. I was working on the placement of a fake skeleton that kept falling over every time the wind picked up. It wouldn’t stay upright. I was getting dirt under my fingernails trying to secure it properly to the wooden stake. Maybe I could just wrap the stubborn little guy in duct tape, call him a silver mummy.

“This is where we’re going to have the scarecrow village,” Billy said. “Over there Sabrina’s setting up her creepy stuff. She’s got great ideas.”

I straightened up, brushing my hands on my jeans, and peered through the corn. Sure enough, there was Billy practically bouncing on his heels as he led someone through the entrance of our maze. When I caught sight of his companion, I nearly dropped the zip ties I’d been wrestling with.

Garrett was actually following his brother into the cornfield.

I blinked hard, certain I was seeing things. The last time Garrett had ventured into the field, it had been that night. The night that we scared him. I still felt guilty about that.

But I wondered if he was checking out the maze so he could criticize. That would be Garrett’s way of doing things. He would have some hotshot ideas that were of course a million times better than what us hicks put together. If he dared talk shit about our hard work, I was going to use the zip ties and tie him to a post.

He could be our newest scarecrow.

I crouched lower behind the cornstalks, straining to hear every word as Billy gestured wildly with his hands. From my hiding spot, I could see Garrett’s face clearly. To my surprise, he actually looked interested. Not the polite, condescending interest I’d expected, but genuine curiosity.

I watched him and felt a bit like a creep. He was hard not to look at. He was wearing a pair of jeans again and a polo shirt. He looked like he was about to go out on a yacht or to a baseball game. The man could make faded jeans look like high fashion. His rocking body helped.

Dammit. Why was he so hot?

I glanced down to see what I was wearing. Unfortunately, it was exactly what I remembered putting on. My standard uniform of jeans with little tears and maybe even a stain. My work boots. And I glanced down and shit. Yep, I was wearing a Metallica T-shirt I bought at a second-hand store like five years ago during my metal phase. Now, it was just a work shirt and it was beyond fashionably faded.

Shit.

Of course.

He was going to see me in my farm finest.

I shook my head and took a deep breath, chastising myself for getting all worked up. There was no reason to worry about how I looked. Nothing I did would make him stay.

“So this is just the entrance area,” Billy was saying, sweeping his arm toward the wooden posts we’d hammered into the ground yesterday. “We’re still working on the arch that’s going to go over the whole thing. Sabrina thinks we need something bigger and more dramatic than just the little sign our scarecrow’s holding.”

I bit back a smile. Billy was making it sound like the arch had been my idea, when really it had been his stroke of genius after we’d both stared at our pathetic little entrance sign for twenty minutes yesterday, realizing it looked more like a lemonade stand than the gateway to a spooky family adventure.