Page 47 of Monster Diner

“And I will happily oblige for as long as you’ll let me.”

She rolled up onto her elbows and smirked at him. “I’ll hold you to that, I hope you know.”

“I’m counting on it.” He kissed the top of her head. “How about something to eat?”

“That’d be divine. I’m craving an Italian sub.”

“Your wish is my command,” Victor said.

He headed into the kitchen and threw together a couple sandwiches for them to eat in bed. And when they were fully satiated, they went back to his new favorite pastime—fucking her until her eyes rolled back in her head. And after their second time, he decided that if the rest of his life was spent making love to Lizzy and eating in bed, he’d die a happy man.

20

LIZZY

It was Halloween and the booth had a long line. They’d transported a fryer onto location, and Victor was frying up funnel cakes while Lizzy took orders. She greeted familiar faces from around town.

Gertrude came up to the front of the line. “I’ll take a caramel apple,” she said.

Lizzy plucked one of the juicy apples from the table where they were lined up in rows. It’d been one of her favorite offerings as a kid, and she was ecstatic to see it on the menu when she’d arrived for her first shift. Victor had been handling all the details of their fair booth behind the scenes, and Lizzy merely had to show up, smile, and greet their customers. It was refreshing and made being with Victor the easiest thing in the world. She’d been a fool for doubting they were perfect together.

As she passed by Victor at the fryer in the small space, he gave her rear a firm squeeze. She giggled and playfully slapped his arm before returning to Gertrude at the window of their booth.

“Glad to see the two of you are getting along again.” Gertrude smirked.

“Happier than ever,” Lizzy said and handed the old woman the caramel apple.

“Good to see it. Your dad would have been happy to see you two together. I think he secretly wanted Victor as his son-in-law.”

Before, that might have made her angry or sad, but now it filled her with a quiet sort of melancholy. She couldn’t go back in time and relive the days and years she’d missed with her dad. But being here in Pumpkin Hollow, she felt closer to him, and carrying on the family legacy filled her with pride and fulfillment she’d never known before.

“Thank you,” Lizzy said. “I think he would have too.”

After that, Lizzy and Victor worked the first half of the event until Vivianne and Clyde came in to relieve them.

“Go, enjoy the festival. Make your disgusting lovey-dovey eyes at one another,” Vivianne said, shooing them away with a wave of her hand.

The line cook grunted as he took the bottle of batter from Victor and took his place behind the fryer.

Lizzy smiled and threaded her hand with Victor’s as they stepped out into the festival.

There were pumpkins strewn all along the street, their grinning jack-o’-lantern faces flickering in the twilight. A large band was playing on the gazebo stage in the center of town. And people were lining up for the broomstick race.

They saw Brayden in a circle of teens, and when they walked past, he waved to them with a smile. Hand in hand, they wandered through the stalls of the festival, checking out the local businesses. She stopped to chat with Rowen at the bakery’s display, while Victor drifted over to play one of the carnival games with a stuffed animal raven dangling from it.

“That looks just like Igor,” she said as she joined him in line.

“You want it? I’ll win it for you.” He puffed out his chest in a way that on anyone else would have been annoying, but on Victor was adorable.

“Don’t. Those games are always rigged.”

It was one of those milk jug games where you tossed balls into a tower of milk jugs and the objective was to knock them all down.

They watched the couple in line before them take their turn. Tourists, from the looks of them. The guy was tall and broad, and he paid for three balls. He wound up to pitch, like a pro-baseball player—not that Lizzy knew anything about sports. The first ball sailed through the air before perfectly striking the top milk jug. Then the second ball took out the middle row, but his third ball failed to knock down the remaining three milk jugs, leaving one lonely jug left standing.

The man shook his head. “It’s rigged,” he said to his partner in a sulking tone before his partner ushered him away.

“See,” Lizzy said. “The raven is cute, but you don’t need to waste your money.”