AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
Killian
Sixteen Years Ago
Ididn’t need a stupid job no matter how much Declan said I did.
“I’ve had a job since I was thirteen. You’re fifteen, Killian. It’s time you get a job,” I mocked him as I rolled my eyes. “Not everyone wants to be like you, Dec.”
Not everyone wanted a job at thirteen. School, work, sleep. School, work, sleep. That was all he ever did. Well, that and Maggie. But he didn’t know we could all hear them when he snuck her into his room at night.
I wanted to have fun. What was so bad about that?
“What was that, son?” Hartwell Waverly asked, tipping up his hat to look at me. Mr. Waverly owned Waverly Farms, the biggest farm in all of Cedar Harbor—which wasn’t saying much, considering how small our town was. Still, it was the fall spot. Even people from surrounding towns came to spend the day at Waverly Farms. They had apple picking, fresh cider, homemade donuts, daily pies to take home, hayrides, and a corn maze, but it was their pumpkin patch that drew people in. Mr. Waverly boasted that he had the best pumpkins in the state.
Was that even a thing? What qualified as the best pumpkin?
“I’m not your son,” I mumbled. I hated when he called me that.
“I know, boy, I know.” He sighed and gave me that look. I hated that stupid look. Everyone gave me and my brothers that look—oh, how impossibly sad their lives must be because their dad died. Mom got it worse because she was raising all six of us on her own. The stupid pity party the whole town threw her was dumb. She was just fine without all their stupidness.
We were just fine.
“I need you to do just one more thing for me today, and then you can go home for the day. I need you more on the weekend than I do on a Friday afternoon,” he continued. I shrugged. Whatever. I was stuck here for the season anyway. And we had an early day at school, so it gave me something to do. “The Goodwin girl got dropped off by the Pastor to pick out a family pumpkin. I need you to help her out and then walk her home, make sure she gets there safe.”
“Gabby?” I asked hopefully. Please, for the love of everything holy, I didn’t want him to say Ginny.
“Ginny,” Mr. Waverly corrected.
My heart sank.
Genevieve Giselle Goodwin.
The witch.
My nemesis.
I groaned. I hated her. Hated her with every fiber of my being. For a Pastor’s daughter, she was all violence wrapped up in a spunky little person who could get away with whatever she wanted. She’d been picking on me since we both could walk, but every time I ever told anyone, no one ever believed me. She was just too nice to everyone else.
And Declan said I wasn’t allowed to punch a girl when I asked him if I could. I called it defending myself. He called it inappropriate.
I groaned, my head rolling back as I stared up at the gloomy sky. Why’d it have to be Ginny Goodwin?
“Now, I know you two don’t like each other, boy,” Mr. Waverly began as he took off his hat, “but you’ll treat her with respect. Got it? She’s my customer, and you’re my employee. This is a good lesson right here on how to treat people, even if you don’t like them. Now, she’s up by the farmhouse waiting for someone to accompany her around the patch. You be good to her.”
“Yes, Sir,” I grumbled. And with that, I turned on my heels and stormed my way across the farm. Stupid Ginny Goodwin. Stupid pumpkins. Stupid job. Stupid Declan for making me take this job. The last thing I wanted to do was spend a whole afternoon catering to the witch.
I rounded the corner of the farmhouse to find Ginny waiting on the front steps. Her hands were clasped in front of her while she bounced anxiously on her heels.
The most annoying thing about Ginny Goodwin? She did something to me. Just the sight of her lately made my stomach uneasy and not in a bad way. In a nervous way. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew enough about things to know what it meant. I just didn’t want it.
Sure, she was pretty… sort of. Incredible, dark coils danced freely around her face and clung to her ridiculously vibrant copper sweater. The color did something amazing to her chocolate eyes and brought out the gold in them. Her flawless tawny skin, those full lips, that curvy stature… somewhere over the summer, Ginny Goodwin had gone and grown up.
How dare she.
I hated it.
Mostly I hated it because now I was attracted to the girl who bullied me.
