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“Shit. Marcus needs to leave for work. Put your shoes back on and come say hi to Casper before you take your nap.” Callie finishes off her coffee and sets her mug in my sink. “I want to hear every single detail of Ford’s yearly rescue mission from last night. Including but not limited to how good he smells, how much hotter he got since last year, how fabulously he wears a flannel, and how wet you got when he called youbabe.”
“Absolutely not” is my immediate reply, even as I’m joining her by my front door and turning around in a circle when I don’t see my Converse where I left them. “And he wasn’t wearing a flannel, so there.”
God, he really does wear a flannel quite magnificently—you know, when he’s not ghosting you, Sidney! Snap out of it!
“Not gonna deny thebabething then?” Callie smirks.
I ignore her while I give up trying to figure out where my shoes walked off to, opening the closet in my entryway where I keep the rest of them. I could easily refuse to go over to Callie’s house, but I get puppy kisses from the five-month-old Great Pyrenees she and Marcus rescued, and I feel like I’m going to need them today. Although I use the term “puppy” loosely, considering Casper is seventy pounds and knocks me on my ass to give me those kisses as soon as I walk in their door.
“I’m not going to confirm or deny anything, because Ford is just my October friend. Stop trying to make something happen that isn’t going to happen.”
“I forgot how much I missed your laugh.”
Shaking Ford’s voice out of my head from last night, I stare down at my closet floor and my completely empty shoe rack.
“Where in the hell are all my shoes?” I mutter, really not needing anythingelseto piss me off at this moment in time.
My phone chimes from inside the box of severed heads still sitting on my entry table, and I lean over and grab it, muttering a whole bunch of curses when I see a text from my sister.
Penny: Trick or Treat, bitch! Let the games begin.
“Shit, they’re still doing that?” Callie mutters as she leans over my shoulder and looks down at my phone. Another text comes through from Ginger, with just a string of shoe emojis. “Come on, I’ll give your barefoot-ass a piggyback ride. I can help you plot your revenge.”
At least this took her mind off hounding me about Ford and finding me a stupid happily ever after.
“When we’re finished with that, we can talk about you going on another date with my friend Noah. If you’re dead-set on giving up on your October best friend, let’s at least keep your options open.”
I’m rolling my eyes even as I’m hopping onto Callie’s back.
God, I’m pathetic.
“Dumb bitch,” my cat agrees from the living room.
Chapter 4
Ford
“Welcome tohell.”
October Eve, six years ago
“Hey, that’s mythong!”
My head flies up from staring down at the scrap of yellow lace clutched in my fist to see a brunette strutting toward me with a look of murder on her face.
She’s wearing a pair of orange Converse on her feet that stomp across the hardwood floor, a cream oversized sweater hanging off one shoulder with a giant pumpkin stitched across the front, and a headband with two little foam pumpkins—attached to two coiled pieces of wire—bouncing around above her head as she walks.
She’s young. Probably legal, but way too young for me to be staring at like I’ve never seen a beautiful woman before, with her full, pouty lips pursed in annoyance when she gets to me and chocolate brown eyes that glare at the yellow lace I’m still holding in my hand as I lean against the edge of the bar.
For the first time in months, I feel a spark of life flare through me when she leans closer to snatch the thong out of my hand, and I get a whiff of pumpkin and spice.
She’s like a sexy, sweet, Halloween mascot who smells like a freshly baked pumpkin pie. I’d like to drag my tongue across her bare shoulder to see if she tastes like pumpkin, and spice, and everything nice.
“Goddammit, Penny! Strangers are fondling my fucking underwear!”
Okay, not so sweet and nice.
The yellow scrap of lace is snatched right out of my hand before I can take offense to the fact that I wasn’t fondling the damn things. I’ve been in this weird-ass town that looks like Halloween took a shit all over it for less than an hour. The only thing that stopped me from getting back in my car and getting the hell out of here was that stupid pair of underwear, wondering who they belonged to.
