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When I was in bed with Sidney this morning before the sun came up, warm under the covers, about ready to wake her up with my head buried between her sexy thighs when the phone rang, I never thought I’d be having a standoff with a group of multicolored bears holding medieval torches by noon.
“I see you’ve upgraded from the Tiki torches.”
“Got them from a woman online who used to cosplay reenactments at Renaissance fairs.” Penny smiles as she lowers her arm, pointing the hand-carved wooden handle with a steel cage engulfed in flames attached to the top directly at my chest from ten feet away. “Fun, right?”
“See? I told you they do reenactments!” I hear my mother say from the porch. “I don’t understand who the witch is though. Ford! Are you the witch?”
Ignoring her, I stare at the blue bear with a storm cloud on her stomach leading the charge.
“You really gonna burn down your sister’s dream house?”
Penny scoffs. “No. We planned on dragging you out of it and burningyoudown. Thanks for stepping outside and making it easier. I’ve heard flannel is super flammable. We’ll be nice and give you a ten-second head start.”
“Should we be cheering for Ford, or the bears?” my father asks. “When does the actual trial start? Will there be refreshments? I could use a Perrier.”
“I never thought I would actually be happy about making us all come to this weird town.” Finch laughs. “This is fascinating.”
By now, a tour group has stopped on the sidewalk on the other side of the black wrought-iron fence. They’re watching what’s happening on the front lawn of the Gore House with their phones up, recording it all like this shit really is some kind of fucked-up, bear-witch trial.
Christ… I really should have stayed in bed with Sidney this morning.
“Look, I’m guessing there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. Can we not do this right now? I’m a little busy.”
“You okay over there, Ford?” Kenny shouts from over by the tour group on the other side of the fence, putting his hand on his holster.
Even though his holster is empty because guns scare him, and he’s afraid it will go off on accident and shoot him in the foot.
“Not really, Kenny,” I shout back as the group of angry bears takes a step toward me, all of them holding their torches in my direction.
“Looks like you’ve got it under control! I’ll just stay back here.” He waves at me, then turns to smile at the tourists. “Anyone want some cookies? I made a fresh batch of pumpkin molasses this morning.”
“There’s no misunderstanding, dear.” Aunt Dawn shakes her furry head at me, pulling the torch back momentarily. “We’re definitely here to burn your ass.”
Leaning around me, she waves the torch at my family up on the porch.
“We’ll be done here in a jiffy so you can get back to your family time, no worries!”
“Did that green bear just speak to me?” my mom asks quietly. “Am I part of the reenactment now? I didn’t pack the right clothes for a stage performance.”
“Listen, asshole.” Penny glares at me. “Ginger and I trusted you to do the right thing with the information we so kindly provided you out of the goodness of our hearts.”
“You only gave me that information to fuck over your sister,” I remind her.
“Whenwefuck her over, everyone has a good laugh about it. Whenyoufuck her over, you make her wake up alone in bed, sad, broken, and miserable, because your family came to town, it’s been over four hours, and you haven’t told her.”
“She was quite inconsolable when we left.” Sidney’s mom nods.
Fuck.
“The only reason she’s never trusted your ass in six years is because you make her feel like she’s only good enough for you when you’re in Harvest Grove,” Ginger adds, and she might as well just shove that torch right into my chest at this point. “And here you are, ghosting her in bed to hang out with your family. She thought you were out getting donuts, not keeping her apart from your life again, like always.”
There is no goddamn way my family is screwing up my lifeagain.
Who am I kidding? I screwed this up all on my own, thinking I was doing the right thing.
The screeching of tires has everyone’s head turning to look at the street, and my heart starts pounding as soon as I see a familiar piece-of-shit Honda come flying up to the curb. Sidney scrambles out of it, and it takes her four tries before her driver side door will close. She finally has to take a step back and kick the hell out of it to get it to latch.
Now is definitely not the time for my dick to wake up, but as soon as I see her rushing through the gate, pausing to wave at tourists and apologize to them for not having any cider, it’s impossible not to get turned on. She’s wearing a pair of ripped skinny jeans hugging all those curves I had my hands and mouth on last night, and my flannel I left on her bedroom floor is tied in a knot at her waist with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She’s so beautiful I almost need to bend over and put my hands on my knees to take a couple of deep breaths, completely in awe that she’s mine.
