Page 50 of Trick or Tease

Sabrina grinned. “Big Boy Bob it is.”

We got busy dragging the bags of straw deeper into the maze. Each scarecrow’s arms were rigged to point visitors in the right direction. Again, I was surprised. It was a clever system that Billy and Sabrina had devised to keep people from getting genuinely lost. I had not given them credit they deserved.

Am I the asshole?

Yes, yes, I am.

“The trick is making them look natural,” Sabrina explained as we worked on the fourth scarecrow. She was standing close enough that I could smell her shampoo and how fresh and amazing her scent was. It was completely at odds with the fact that she was covered in dirt and straw.

Fuck me.

I wanted to grab her and throw her down in the middle of the corn and have my way with her.

“If they’re too obviously pointing the way, it ruins the illusion,” she said.

I watched her as she fixed the scarecrow’s arm. She was so capable. She made knots that wouldn’t slip loose. It was the sort of thing that was hard not to look at, someone just knowing exactly what needs to get done.

I was turned on. What the fuck was that about?

It was the confidence. I was drawn to her give-no-fucks attitude. I liked that she wore jeans and tees. Work boots. She didn’t have any makeup on. Or if she did, it was minimal. My world was filled with women that spent a lot of time on their appearance. They would never be caught dead wearing jeans and boots that had seen better days. Their tans were the work of spray. Sabrina’s tan was the result of spending hours in the sun doing manual labor. Her body was rocking, but it wasn’t hours of Pilates and yoga. Her body was the result of working on the farm.

Fuck me.

Why did I want her so badly?

“You’re staring,” she said without looking at me.

“I’m observing your technique,” I replied, which was technically true but sounded ridiculous even to my own ears.

She glanced over at me then, and for a moment, there was something in her expression that made my jeans too tight. “Is that what we’re calling it?”

Before I could figure out how to respond to that, Billy’s voice came from somewhere deeper in the maze. “Hey, can someone help me with this post? It’s not going in straight.”

“Coming!” Sabrina called back, but she didn’t move immediately. She was still looking at me like she could read my mind.

“Let’s go help him,” I said.

The interruption was exactly what I needed.

We found Billy opening a cardboard box with his pocketknife. There were several large boxes.

“What’s all this?” I asked. My first reaction was to ask how much it all cost.

But I had to trust him. It was his show. After what I had seen, they seemed to know what they were doing. Billy had apparently gone overboard at some party supply warehouse, because we had enough decorations to outfit a small theme park.

“There was a huge sale,” Billy said. “Halloween online store. It’s all cheap but it’s not like we need real quality. It works.”

“No way!” Sabrina said with excitement. “Did you get the spiders?”

I shuddered. “Spiders?”

Sabrina grabbed one of the boxes and ripped it open. “Spiders!” Sabrina said with glee.

I took a step back. I didn’t think they would actually buy spiders, but they were all just a little deranged, so I wouldn’t put it past them.

“Yes!” Sabrina let out a whoop. She held up a huge black, plastic blob.

Not a blob.