* * *
Elliot craned his neck to see over the endless line of people. “Looks like this will take a while…”
“That’s half the fun,” Tara assured him, winking at Lizzie.
Lizzie brushed at her white uniform pants. “I should have gone home to change.”
Elliot shook his head. “No way, you glow in the dark. I won’t lose you.” He drew her to his side for a quick one-arm hug.
Justin approached, waving tickets, with Julia and Chad at his side. Elliot dropped his arm from around Lizzie, not wanting to embarrass her in front of her friends.
Surprisingly, the group found the hour wait enjoyable. The line moved at a leisurely pace as they chatted and laughed, exchanging stories and ribbing each other. A live band played on a makeshift stage made of hay bales and performers wove among the crowd doing all manner of acts, including swallowing swords and spitting flame. As the friends wound past a concession stand, Justin offered to buy a round of hotdogs and soda.
“I haven’t had a hotdog in forever,” Julia said, wiping at a smudge of ketchup on her chin.
Chad chuckled, handing her a napkin.
“I’m glad I got all the pumpkins decorated and set out before we left tonight,” Julia continued. “The shipment was late and I was getting worried.”
Tara nodded as she tucked the last bite of her hotdog in her mouth. She held up one finger to indicate she’d need a minute to chew and swallow. “I’ll come by tomorrow and check them out, for sure,” she laughed, tossing her hotdog wrapper into a trash can free-throw style.
Lizzie chomped on her hotdog, happy to have food in her stomach as she glanced from Tara to Julia, listening to them talk about the flower shop. She’d been so nervous at lunch that she’d hardly eaten, and the hotdog tasted delicious.
The breeze picked up and Julia crowded close to Chad for warmth. Lizzie tugged the jacket Tara had loaned her closed across her chest.
Noticing her hunch in the jacket, Elliot reached for her, then pulled his hand back and tucked it in his pocket, still unsure of the status quo.
Justin slurped the last of his soda from the straw, making a sucking noise, then tossed the cup into a trashcan. “During the day elementary school groups come here to see the pumpkin patch and farm animals, but at night the zombies come out.”
“I don’t really like zombies that much.” Julia admitted, causing Chad to pull her closer to his side.
“Don’t worry, babe, I’ll keep you safe.”
Julia beamed up at him, and Lizzie glanced toward Elliot, wondering if he felt the same way about her.
Finally, the line moved around the barn and into a dimly lit corn maze. As she took in the surge of people and dressed actors, Lizzie’s pulse sped up. She’d never actually been in a corn maze, and this one was dimly lit and filled with flashing lights of all colors and rolling fog.
“Meet you guys at the end!” Justin called, leading Tara away. Chad grinned and tugged at Julia’s hand, leaving Lizzie and Elliot alone.
Elliot took Lizzie’s hand and led her into the maze. Darkness surrounded them and he dropped her hand to pull her to his side with one arm. “You promise to protect me in here?”
Glancing from side to side, wondering what to expect, Lizzie nodded.
At the first turn in the maze, Elliot backed her into a shadow between two hay bales. With her back against the bale, he gazed down into her glowing eyes. “Having fun?” he asked, but before she could answer, he leaned down to drop a kiss on her lips.
When the kiss ended her eyes fluttered open. “So far, so good,” she replied with a smile. “I’ve always wanted to do something like this.”
“Kiss me with hay poking into your back?” he laughed.
“Maybe…”
That was all the encouragement Elliot needed, and he leaned down to kiss her again, taking the kiss from warm to searing hot.
Unable to resist the fun of the spooky scene and her raging attraction to Elliot, Lizzie banished all thoughts of what her mother would think and fell headlong into the kiss. Out of habit, concern for her actions rose to the surface, but she crammed the bad feelings back into the dark place they’d come from, determined to enjoy herself.
When they came up for air, Lizzie’s face broke into a wicked grin and she turned to dart past Elliot, looking over her shoulder to be sure he followed. They played cat and mouse through the maze, far more interested in their own game than the occasional actor popping up in gory makeup. When Elliot caught Lizzie it was understood he’d get a kiss, and both grew more excited through the chase, egged on by the shock of ghouls popping up in the dark, the loud music, the fog, and the pulsing strobe lights.
Seeing the end of the maze ahead, Elliot tugged Lizzie into a shadow for one more kiss. Lifting his lips from hers, his eyes crinkled at the edges with a smile. He kissed her forehead, then tucked her against his chest, his chin on the top of her head.
When Lizzie finally squirmed, wondering if their friends would be missing them, he relaxed the hug. She grinned up at him, her eyes warm and her face glowing.
He cocked an eyebrow and rubbed the back of his neck. “I hated these places as a kid, but they’re much more fun as an adult.”
Lizzie straightened her mussed clothes and checked her bun. “I’d have to agree.”
They joined the rest of the group as they climbed onto a hay wagon, and no one seemed aware of their late arrival.
As she dangled her feet off the side of the flatbed truck, Lizzie grinned, her gaze taking in the line of friends stretching along the truck. How had she gone so many years without companionship and fun? Elliot took her hand and tucked it between them, lacing his fingers in hers, causing her heart to flip in her chest.
The truck rolled along past a patch of glowing jack-o’-lanterns on a hill. To Lizzie’s surprise, as they passed, some of the heads rose from the ground, floating magically to chase the wagon, their orange faces contorted as if in pain.
Further along, actors dressed as zombies and all manner of frightening creatures approached the wagon, some with roaring chainsaws or blood-smeared weapons, causing Lizzie to rear back in fright and scream with delight. When one particularly creepy zombie bride selected Lizzie to taunt, she buried her face in Elliot’s arm.
The truck rolled to a stop and Elliot hopped off, offering Lizzie his hand to jump down.
Justin pointed over the hill toward a distant mansion, glowing red with fog billowing around its base. “We head this direction next.”
The place could have been a haunted Spanish villa, causing Lizzie to shudder and Elliot to respect the people who’d put so much time and effort into the design and construction of the venue.
Hanging back to walk behind their friends, Elliot stuck close to Lizzie. However, he didn’t take her hand, still unsure if she wanted her friends to know they were a couple.
“Remember last year when those chainsaw guys jumped out right here and chased you through this part?” Tara asked Justin, then turned to the group, walking backward. “You should have seen him run.”
“I was just playing along,” Justin assured. “Besides, when that body came up out of the grave, you jumped right up on my back.”
“I might have,” Tara laughed.
Chad reached out to help Julia step over a stone in dark. “As kids we came up here every year, sometimes four or five times.”
Tara laughed and pointed at him. “You guys got in all sorts of trouble out here if I remember correctly.”
“It was nothing.”
Justin thumped Chad on the back. “One of these days I’ll have to hear some of those stories.”
Once again the bleakness of her childhood stood out in Lizzie’s mind. She’d had fun on the farm with her grandfather, but she’d never run with a group of friends in the country or in town. She’d longed for friends, dreamed of friends, but had been surrounded instead by girls who’d managed to find other, more acceptable buddies within the clique, never her.
; As the group neared the mansion, they had to pass through a half-lit swamp and a graveyard, both filled with rolling fog and actors jumping from behind gravestones and trees, their grotesque made-up faces lifelike.
Lizzie jumped and screamed in delight at each fright, her hands clasped to her chest. Elliot, on the other hand, responded stiffly to the actors dressed as zombies and corpses, struggling to appear calm and collected.
Searchlights lit up the night over the mansion, beaming into the night sky, swaying rhythmically, crisscrossing over and over. Near the front door of the mansion, a girl sat crying on a bench, her face in her hands. As the friends approached, she lifted her head to reveal a skeleton face, horrifying Lizzie into a scream. Elliot looked away.
Once they stepped into the mansion, it was completely dark, and Elliot reached for Lizzie, grasping her hand tightly. The floors were uneven in the twisting hallway, causing the couples to stumble into each other as they bumped into the leaning walls.
A light flashed in Elliot’s face, and a clown with a knife protruding from his chest jumped out of a shadow. Lizzie screamed at the top of her lungs and Elliot grabbed her, yanking her to his chest to get her away from the clown. She could feel his heart pounding against her back, and she giggled, loving the thrill.
In the thick darkness Chad and Julia moved ahead, followed by Tara and Justin, leaving Elliot and Lizzie to feel their way along the walls, watching, waiting for the next fright.
A zombie grabbed Elliot from behind. He let out a high-pitched scream and jumped behind Lizzie for protection. In horror, she turned and climbed up his chest to get away from the thing. Stumbling backward, they clutched at the wall in the darkness, shrieking, searching for the way out.
When the zombie retreated, Lizzie laughed in horror, untangling herself from around Elliot. “You screamed like a little girl,” she teased, slapping his arm.
Elliot ignored her, his eyes wide, trying to watch in front and behind him at the same time as they continued forward, inching along the pitch-black hall.
After what seemed like an hour of stumbling through corridors filled with creepy actors, they spotted an open space that appeared to be the end of the mansion. Justin, Tara, Chad, and Julia waited for them there, and Elliot breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, a body dropped from the ceiling, nearly hitting Elliot in the face. The swinging body’s chest popped open to spew blood on the floor at Elliot’s feet. Horrified and disgusted, he screeched and grabbed Lizzie, like a frightened child would clutch a teddy bear. He lifted her off her feet, swinging her around to protect himself from the gushing body. Lizzie squawked and grappled to scuttle away from the swinging body, while Elliot, shrieking like a banshee, hung on to her for dear life.
Chad and Justin roared with laughter, slapping their legs and pointing at Elliot. Tara and Julia giggled behind their hands, making more of an attempt to be polite.
Lizzie managed to get one arm loose as she fought to escape Elliot’s grip, then finally found her footing. Turning to him, she couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on his face. It was part terror, part humiliation, part desperation. “It’s okay,” she assured him, shaking his arm to bring him out of the fear-induced stupor. “Elliot! You’re safe!”
Chad and Justin came forward, each taking one of Elliot’s arms. “Come on, man,” they hooted. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Elliot staggered with them, his face ashen white.
By the time they reached the parking lot, Elliot had regained his usual aplomb and was able to laugh at his antics. “I’ve never done well in those places,” he huffed, running his hand through his hair.
“You did great,” Lizzie assured him, patting his back.
Chad and Julia waved goodbye as they climbed into Chad’s truck, calling out a few last boos and teases at Elliot.
Soon Tara and Justin, and Elliot and Lizzie, were settled in Justin’s truck and headed home.
Elliot sighed and leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling.
Lizzie reached for his knee in the dark, giving it a squeeze of understanding and sympathy.
He glanced down and she grinned, her eyes bright with happiness. Stretching his arm across the seat behind her, he pulled her against his side and kissed her forehead.
Reveling in the camaraderie and romance of the evening, Lizzie was torn. She felt sure that being in Smithville was perfect, as planned. But her attraction and contentment with Elliot was growing by leaps and bounds, leaving her to feel as if she were losing control.
* * *
Later that night as she lay in the darkness of her room, Lizzie contemplated Elliot’s kisses. A thrill raced down her spine when she remembered his breath on her cheeks, his hands, and his mouth. The way he’d caressed her fingers, kissed her forehead… the man knew how to touch a woman, that was a fact. A stroke on the palm, the breathy pause before the kiss. Chills danced along her scalp and liquid warmth flowed through her pelvis.
With a huff, she flopped over in bed to stare at the wall. “Stop it, just stop it,” she berated herself. “This is not the time to be getting tangled up with a big-city man.” But it had only been a date, right? A great date, she acknowledged, but just a date, and a group date at that. She hadn’t been on many, but just because a man showed you attention and you enjoyed it didn’t mean anything had to change. Did it?
She frowned into the darkness, and curled into a ball under the covers. Two years of hard work had gone into escaping her mother’s domination. She should have absolutely no interest in a man her mother would have chosen for her, and she’d be crazy to let Elliot shake her resolve.
It had taken over a year of night school to get her massage and cosmetology certification, which hadn’t been easy or cheap. She’d lied to her mother about where she was spending so much time, saying she was taking a software certification course for work.
After all that, she’d traveled clear to Smithville to interview for the job, find the property, and buy the house. She’d spent her life savings, for heaven sakes, and most of her 401k, but her mother still didn’t—would never—understand. Any hope she’d had that her mother would come to see her point of view was long gone. The last thing she needed was to encourage her mother. She’d rather be alone than with a man her mother chose for her.
And sure enough, she was alone.
“That’s what it is, I’m alone and vulnerable right now,” she whispered to the quiet room.
A lump formed in her throat and her voice cracked as she continued. “I need some company and tenderness—some validation.” With resolve, she rolled back over to face the ceiling, her fingers laced across her stomach.
Her mind wandered and she grimaced, knowing full well that she’d been disappointed when Elliot hadn’t followed her home. Hadn’t he felt the same about their passionate kisses? Evidently, he hadn’t been as interested in continuing the whole thing as she had been. It was all she could do to tear herself out of his arms, yet he’d calmly walked her to her car and said goodnight.
Damn the man! Why did he have to be so handsome and funny, and— handy! He was available, that was all. He wasn’t what she wanted or needed, he was just there, and she had been drawn in. She certainly didn’t need him or anything he had to offer.
So why did she feel like she needed more kisses, more touches, more laughter and passion and…
“Argh!” she huffed, grabbing the sides of her head, as if that could make her thoughts stop returning to Elliot. “I’m a woman, I have needs.”
Her arms stretched out toward the ceiling. “Yes, but right now you need to focus on the spa.”
One hand came down and hooked a finger in the neck of her nightshirt, tugging at it as if it were choking her. “The spa is set up and doing well. Tara and Gloria are a huge help. I need another project. My loom should be here soon—”
Her loom. She’d think about that. It was big and expensive and traditional and—substantial. It had cost her more than she’d planned, and she’d
never used one before, so she was sure there’d be a learning curve. She had boxes of coarse yarn stored in her spare room, ready to practice. She loved the look and feel of the lumpy, bumpy, handmade yarn. It felt elemental to her, as if it came directly from the earth. It was— grounded. And that was exactly what she needed right now. Grounded.
Chapter Eleven
Justin shoved his chair back from the breakfast table to scrutinize Tara as she pushed food around her plate.
She glanced up to see him staring at her, and her eyes darted to Elliot, then back to Justin. “What? Why are you glaring at me?” she asked her husband, laying her fork beside her plate.
With a shocked look, Justin raised his hands in surrender. “I’m just looking -- not glaring.” He dropped his hands. “I’m worried about you.”
Tara stood and collected her plate and silverware. “Well, stop it, I’m fine.” She turned to Elliot. “Are you finished? I’ll take your plate.”
Elliot looked down to his half-filled plate, his loaded fork hovering in midair and glanced to Justin for help.
Rising from his chair, Justin circled the table and took Tara’s plate. “I’m going to handle clean up. Why don’t you go curl up with that new book you’ve been meaning to read?”
She frowned in speculation. “Why?”
Justin snorted. “What do you mean, why? Can’t I do something nice?” He put her dish in the sink, then returned to take her elbow and point her toward the kitchen doorway. “Just go, okay?”
Tara wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. “I’m fine…”
He let go of her arm in the doorway and gave her a little push. “I know you are. Now go find your book.”
Glancing from one man to the other, Tara regarded them for a long moment. “You’re not offended that I’m cutting out?” she asked Elliot.
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