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“You went to him?” That wasn’t the answer she was expecting, nor did she think it should take her grandmother that long to come up with it. She said it very convincingly, however. If it were true, Maddie supposed there wasn’t anything she could say about it. If her grandmother sought out Emmett for a job instead of the other way around, she couldn’t blame him for that.
“Yes, of course,” Adelia said with a furrowed brow. “Carpenters don’t exactly go door-to-door offering to build things, you know. I’d heard from a few folks that he did nice work. With everything going on between the two of you, he was fresh in my mind, so I wanted to see if he was available.”
“Was he?”
“Not at the moment. I had a limited window for the project and between the bar hours and his community service, he said time was a little tight for a project of that size. I think we’re going to try to schedule something for next year.”
“It’s funny, he hasn’t mentioned working on something for you.”
Her grandmother narrowed her blue gaze at Maddie. “It’s probably because he isn’t, yet. I’d also asked him not to mention it to anyone, including you. I didn’t want one of you to accidentally ruin the surprise. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for your mother. I wanted him to line her closet with cedar and put up more shelving and shoe storage this week while she was away on her girls’ trip. There just wasn’t time. I may try again when she and your father go on their anniversary cruise in the spring.”
Maddie handed her grandmother her receipt, feeling foolish for being so suspicious of Emmett. He’d given her no reason to think he was after anything other than a relationship with her, and yet she’d concocted a whole elaborate scenario in her mind. Joel’s betrayal was a gift that kept on giving long after she wished she could forget all about him.
“All right, dear, you have a good afternoon.”
“’Bye, Granny,” Maddie said. She watched her carry her bag out to the car and drive off in the direction of the mayor’s house.
The timer went off in the kitchen and Maddie rushed in to pull cookies from the oven. She didn’t need to waste her time thinking about imaginary problems when she had a real batch of two-hundred sugar cookies to make for the Halloween festival.
Chapter Seventeen
Even though it was a Saturday, Emmett opted to keep Woody’s closed on Halloween until after the Trunk or Treat and the movie in the square was over. Normally he opened at eleven, but between his community service in the morning and the town activities happening in the evening, it just didn’t make sense.
Besides that, he didn’t need people with alcohol in their system trying to navigate their cars around a thousand pedestrians. He tried to keep an eye on folks to make sure they could get home safely, but even the slightest delay in reaction time could make a difference if a little Ninja Turtle suddenly ran into the street.
Instead, Woody’s would be throwing its annual costume party starting at nine. With the bar closed, it gave him time to decorate and prepare, and gave him the freedom to leave and participate in most of the town activities as well.
After decorating the library with Maddie, doing up the bar was easy. Joy even showed up early to help.
“Are you wanting the motion-detector skeleton on the bathroom door?” she asked.
“No!” he said adamantly. “That thing moves and screeches at people. If it goes off on their way into the restroom, they might wet themselves.”
“Ooh,” she said with big eyes. “Okay then. How about I hang it on the door to the back room? That will keep folks out of there.”
“Perfect.”
It turned out that Joy was a Halloween freak, so he’d turned over the reins to her where the party was concerned. He’d thrown one last year, but it was really just a glorified costume party with two-dollar drafts. Joy had taken it to the next level. She was getting food catered in, so there was a cover charge at the door that the new bouncer, Dré, would collect. People were encouraged to dress up and they were having a costume contest later with prizes. The whole place was covered in spiderwebs, skulls, and old, flickering LED candles. The jukebox was loaded with spooky songs. She’d even come up with a list of Halloween drink specials including witches’ brew, white zombies, and dragon’s blood.
Emmett was going with it. It sounded fun. And, if a bunch of folks came to the bar for the party when the movie was over, it might be a lucrative night for them, too.
“So, is your girlfriend coming to the party tonight?” Joy asked after the last decoration went up.
Emmett shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s pretty late for her. The bakery isn’t open tomorrow, but she’s so involved in the festival tonight that she’ll probably be exhausted.”
“That’s a shame.”
“What about you? Do you have a special Stormtrooper or Wolfman coming to see you tonight?”
Joy chuckled and turned away. “Not a chance. This town isn’t ready for the likes of me yet.”
Emmett looked down at this watch. The party at the library started at five thirty with the Trunk or Treat starting at seven. It was getting close to time to head to the square.
“Are we good with the food?”
“Yes,” Joy said, whipping her notebook out of her back pocket. “I’ve got platters of sandwiches, fruit, cheese, and veggies in the refrigerator. I’ve got a bunch of chips to dump in bowls. There’s a big Crock-Pot of little smokies in barbecue sauce heating on low. The guy at the Pizza Palace is going to bring a tray of hot wings and garlic knots at nine thirty. When we’re ready, we’ve just got to set it all up on the table with the skull-covered tablecloth. I’ve also got a bunch of matching plates, utensils, and napkins with skulls on them stashed under the bar.”
Emmett was pretty amazed. She’d gone above and beyond for tonight. He’d never attempted to do food at Woody’s, even though he had a full, industrial kitchen in the back. Getting a cook and worrying about everything that went with food service was a headache he wasn’t ready to take on. But maybe someday. He’d see how tonight went for a start.
