Page 53 of Trick or Tease

Absolute fucker.

He was enjoying fucking with me.

Asshole.

I stomped out of the maze and walked home to shower away the day.

When I got to my bedroom, I paused and looked at myself in the mirror. There was dirt on my cheek. Straw in my hair and pumpkin gut stains on my shirt and jeans.

No wonder he didn’t want to kiss me.

I had seen his world. The gorgeous women with their styled hair and fashionable clothing.

I was not them. I would never be them. He was all big and fancy and I would always be the farm girl. It wasn’t that I didn’t like my life or was ashamed of it. I loved my life. I didn’t want to live in the city and wear heels that cost thousands of dollars. I didn’t want to spend an hour at the salon getting my hair done every week.

But that didn’t stop me from wanting the man that lived in that world.

I was about to get in the shower when I got a text from Lucy. She wanted me to come over and work on more of the decorations. The only reason I was considering the offer was because she promised beer and nachos.

Country girl wasn’t going to reject beer and nachos.

And I was definitely not ashamed of it.

I quickly replied I’d be over in an hour.

I dipped my brush in the white paint and added another layer to my ghost’s ridiculous grin. The thing looked more like a demented snowman than anything scary, but at least it would give people something to laugh at during the hayride.

“Lucy, I think we need more stuff along the dirt road,” I said, setting down my paintbrush and wiping my hands on an old towel. “People are going to be sitting on that hayride for what, ten minutes? Just staring at empty fields?”

Lucy looked up from where she was hot-gluing plastic bones to a wooden sign. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the whole stretch from the main road to the hill house. Right now it’s just nothing. Corn fields and pasture. If we’re charging people for this experience, we need to give them something to look at the whole time. Keep the kids entertained. Involved.”

“You’re right. Billy’s so focused on the house itself and that fake headless horseman idea, but the journey should be part of the show too.”

I grabbed another beer from the cooler and took a long sip, my mind already racing with possibilities. “We could set up scenes along the way. Like little vignettes. Maybe a graveyard scene in that clearing about halfway up? Some more scarecrows in different spots?”

“Ooh, what about those skeleton hands we bought? We could make it look like zombies are trying to claw their way out of the ground.”

“Yes! And remember those motion-activated sound effects Billy ordered? We could hide speakers in the trees.”

Lucy grinned. “This is why I love working with you. Billy gets so caught up in the big picture that he misses the details.”

We had a stack of foam headstones we were putting names on. Wooden cutout signs that needed painting. And so much more. It seemed like one idea led to another and another. The simple corn maze and pumpkin picking was turning into something much bigger. Like a snowball rolling downhill.

“You know that thing you told me not to do?” I blurted out after opening my second beer. “Well it happened.”

“I told you turkey bacon is gross.”

“No, not that. I spent the afternoon in the corn maze. With Garrett.”

I quickly gave her the recap of what didn’t happen.

“So let me get this straight,” Lucy said, not looking up from her werewolf. “He almost kissed you. Again. And then he just walked away. Again.”

“Yep.” I stabbed my brush into the paint with more force than necessary. “Said it wasn’t a good idea and practically ran.”

“What a dick.”