by Abby Brooks
To my horror, Izzy caught Evie staring, saw me, and dragged her over. “Hello there, big brother!” She slipped onto the stool beside me while Evie hung back. “What brings you out tonight?” She waved at Austin and Jude, sweet as pie.
“Drinks with friends.” I brandished my beer. “You?”
I inwardly cursed my little sister and her not-so-subtle game. She knew I’d be here tonight because I freaking told her where I was going when I suggested she ask Evie to hang out sometime. I also informed her that I purposefully hadn’t invited my neighbor because, reasons.
“Same!” she chirped, then introduced Evie to the guys. “This is Jude Malone,” she said, her cheeks blushing, eyes batting, heart fluttering. Izzy had never been able to say his name without imitating melted caramel. “And this handsome lug is Austin O’Connor. Guys, meet Eveline McAllister, better known as Evie the magnificent, Alex’s new neighbor.”
Handshakes happened all round and Jude suggested we move to a table. “They’re better for conversation when you’re in a group this big.”
If I’d wanted to be in a group this big, I would have invited Evie out myself and I gave Izzy a glare that said as much. She fluttered her eyelids, grinned like a maniac, and claimed a seat as far from Jude as possible.
“What’s it like, living in a haunted house?” Austin asked as Evie took the chair across from me.
“Honestly? Exhausting.” She puffed out her cheeks and widened her eyes. “I’ve only been here for two days and everyone already knows me as that woman who lives with a ghost. I don’t know if I’ll ever live it down.”
A waitress sauntered over, her gaze tracing Austin’s tattoos. Between his blue-collar masculinity and Jude’s energy, our table always caught the attention of the fairer sex. “Hey ladies,” she squawked. “What can I get ya?” Her eyes fell on Evie, then widened. “Ohmygoodness,” she breathed. “You’re the new girl. I have to know, and I promised my friend Alice I’d ask if you ever came here, but is your house really haunted? One time, my cousin Ethan told my sister who told me that she saw a man standing in the window. It was, like, super creepy.”
“I think it might be,” Evie said in a conspiratorial whisper. When the waitress’ eyes widened, she continued, “For one, the lights were all on when I first showed up and I’ve never even paid one bill. The house is really clean. Like super clean. It’s like living with a slightly OCD roommate I never see.”
The waitress frowned as Jude choked on his beer and guilt washed over me. Letting the town talk about the ghost—aka: me—had seemed like a harmless diversion…until now. While I wrestled with my conscious, Evie and Izzy placed their orders and the woman sashayed away.
“It’s like that,” Evie said when she was gone. “I spent my first day trying to assure everyone it’s not haunted, but that wasn’t helping at all. I figured I might as well have some fun with it.”
“Speaking of fun…” Jude’s eyes gleamed in that way that always ended with one of us in trouble. “I just had an idea.”
Austin and I groaned. “No, thanks.” I rolled my eyes to the ceiling while Austin nodded his agreement.
“You don’t even know what my idea is, yet.” Jude pouted.
“Don’t need to.” Austin crossed his ankle over his knee and leaned back in his chair. “We all pass anyway.”
Jude leaned in. “We’re gonna play a game. Every time someone asks if the house is haunted, we take a shot. Come on!” He slapped the table. “Can you think of a better way to break the ice and get to know each other?”
“I can think of many better ways.” I shook my head as I shot him down. Jude had the constitution of an ox, but Evie? She was small and delicate and looked like three drinks would break her, not the ice.
She gave me a look that said “what can you do?” and I gave her a look that said “say no.” The quirk of her head reminded me I knew she couldn’t say no to things and I wondered if I’d lost my mind. Did we really just have a silent conversation or was the writer’s block and impending deadline truly driving me crazy?
“This is a bad idea,” I said, in case my imagination had gotten the better of me.
“It is a very bad idea,” Evie replied before turning to my friend. “But sure! Why not? The game is officially on.”
Jude cheered. Izzy pretended not to ogle him. Austin rolled his eyes. And I tried to bat down a protective surge I wasn’t supposed to feel. “You guys go ahead,” I said. “One of us has to keep a level head.”
“Whatever makes you happy, grandpa.” Jude arched a brow, before turning to Evie. “I’d ask you what brought you to Wildrose Landing, but that would be stupid, since we all know your Great Aunt Ruth passed away and left you the house on Sugar Maple Hill.” He shrugged. “Small towns. What’re ya gonna do?”
She returned the gesture, her smile fading when her eyes found mine. Was I glaring again? Probably. I glanced at my beer.
“What line of work ya in?” Austin asked.
“I’m a writer.” She glanced at me. “Not as good as him though. What about you?”
“Yeah,” Austin sighed. “Me neither.”
She frowned. “You’re a writer too?”
“No, I own an auto repair shop, which means I’m nowhere near as good a writer as him.” He gave her a devilish smile. “But I’m a much better mechanic than he is.”
Evie laughed and I closed my eyes to collect as much of it as I could.
“And Jude owns this bar,” Izzy supplied.
“Which is why you’re receiving impeccable service tonight,” he said. “Everyone wants to impress the boss.”
Evie’s eyes found mine. Did she want to impress her boss? Did I even count as her boss?
“I’m sorry to interrupt.” A twenty-something girl with jet black hair and a distasteful facial piercing tapped on Evie’s shoulder. “But you’re the one who lives in the haunted house, right?”
And just like that, the game was on.
“I am. The first night I stayed there, this weird scratching sound woke me up in the morning.” Evie widened her eyes and clutched her heart as the girl wobbled away, satisfied.
“I like her,” Jude said, then threw back his first shot. The rest of the table followed suit.
Unfortunately, bravery was contagious. All it took was one slightly tipsy girl to set a cascade of events in motion. A grandfatherly gentleman stopped by on his way to the bathroom. “Is your house haunted?”
They took a shot.
Ted Mason, the guy who ran the farmer’s market, leaned on the table. “I heard you have a ghost…”
They took a shot.
A table of soccer moms tittered their way over. “Is Sugar Maple Hill really…” The spokesperson asked in hushed tones, unable to finish the sentence.
They took a shot.
On and on it went until Evie’s eyes met mine and she silently begged for help.
Okay. There was no begging, silent or otherwise. My writer’s brain was a little drunk on excitement, but Evie? Evie was a lot drunk. And if something didn’t happen soon, she would be on her way to bad news drunk. Jude and Austin had taken to loudly discussing the ghost, laughing like assholes whenever someone new took the bait and seeing as how I was to blame for all of this, I couldn’t let it go on any longer.
“All right, guys,” I said after their fifth shot. “Something tells me Evie isn’t having as much fun as you.”
She laughed, blinking furiously to focus her eyes. “I’m having fun. You guys are the besht! Who knew I loved tequila so much?”
I glanced at Izzy who didn’t look much better, then at Jude and Austin in turn. They zeroed in on the women, then grimaced.
Jude ran a hand through his blonde hair. “Maybe I didn’t think this one through.”
“You think?”
Evie stumbled to her feet, staggering a little as she detached from her chair. “I’ma gonna commune to the bathroom.” She giggled. “Commune. Communism. Compute. What is it with that word when I drink?” she
muttered as she wandered away.
“Thank God I opted out of the game.” I practically growled. “Now I have two drunk women to take home.”
Jude leaned back and threaded his hands behind his head. “Sounds like a problem we all wish we could have.”
“One of them’s my sister, you dip-shit.”
Izzy lifted her hand and twiddled her fingers. “Alex’s sister. At your service.”
“Why don’t I take Izzy home so you can take Evie home?” Jude asked.
My sister panicked. Her hormones screamed yes while common sense said no. Me? I wondered how no one else at the table picked up the fact that she’d been in love with him for years.
“No, no, no.” She waved him away like the bad decision he was. “That’s okay. You’re just as drunk as me. I can get myself home.” Her sentence came out as one long word.
“I am nowhere near as drunk as you.” Jude guffawed. “I have the constitution of a moose. You are a delicate flower who looks like she might blow chunks all over everything.”
“Neither one of those things are true,” I said. “Izzy is not delicate. Nor will she throw up in my car when I take both women home. Will she?” I gave my sister a pointed look and she practically vomited her agreement.
Chapter Ten
Alex
With much stumbling and staggering, I got Evie and Izzy out of the bar. My sister slid into the backseat of my car like a baseball player stealing home and Evie briefly met my eyes before stumbling into the fender. “Whoops. Sorry.”
I couldn’t tell if she was apologizing to me or the vehicle, but I wrapped an arm around her shoulder to steady her anyway. She breathed deeply, her eyes sliding closed as she leaned a cheek to my chest.
“Did you just smell me?” I asked the top of her head.
She bolted upright. Eyes wild. Nostrils flared. “Yes. I mean no. No. I did not just smell you. I mean. I did. I was close enough to get a whiff of your cologne…” Panic tangoed across her face.
I laughed and patted her arm. “Easy, now. Don’t hurt yourself.”
Seeing as she had just smelled me, I felt it only fair to return the favor. As I guided her into the passenger seat, I took a whiff of her hair. Underneath the heavy dose of tequila, I caught something spicy. For someone so delicate, I expected lavender, or apple. Something popular and easy to name.
Guess I didn’t have her quite as pegged as I thought I did.
Izzy chattered away on the short drive to her house, a cute two-story complete with a white picket fence. All she needed was the husband, dog, and two-point-five kids to complete the American dream. After she extricated herself from the backseat, she leaned in through the window and planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek before sashaying up to the front door and disappearing inside.
Evie leaned out her window, smiling and waving. “Bye!” she called to Izzy’s porch, then pulled herself back into the car and to me. Her mouth worked as if she had something to say, but then she stared at her fingers, worrying the hem of her shirt. I threw an arm on the back of her seat and reversed out of the driveway.
“You hungry?” I asked.
“Perpetually,” Evie murmured. “Hungry for validation. For connection. For…” Her eyes went wide. “You meant food. Am I hungry for food.”
“That is the most expected reason to ask that question, yes.”
Evie laughed. “That’s the thing about me. I’m never what you expect.” She threw her hands in the air like she was tossing confetti and mumbled something about exclamation points.
I was finding that to be more true with each passing moment. The woman beside me was nothing like I expected. As I waited at the end of Izzy’s drive, Evie leaned back in her seat and let her head roll my way. I smiled, waiting for her to tell me if she wanted something to eat before I took her home. She stared into my eyes for an extraordinarily long time before a sweet grin teased her lips.
“Yeah,” she breathed. “Connection like that.” Her grin widened and her gaze softened to the point I felt downright caressed by the thing, then she swallowed hard and sat up. “You still wanna know if I want food.”
“I do. It’s a matter of turning left or right.” I indicated the street behind us. “Left to home or right to midnight snacks.”
“Is it midnight?” She looked at her wrist, only to discover she did not wear a watch.
If there had ever been a more adorable sight, I hadn’t seen it.
“Figure of speech,” I said as I let my gaze do a little caressing of its own. “Tell you what. I’ll pick us up something to eat, then take you home. Best of both worlds.”
“That’s how I always imagined you’d be. Take charge of the situation.” She grinned as I pulled out and took a right.
“You always imagined I’d take charge of situations, huh? Sounds like we’ve known each other longer than a few days.”
“We’ve met before. But we’re not supposed to talk about that.”
I frowned at the woman in my front seat. I didn’t recognize her, and someone who looked like that would stick in my brain. Was she a fan? Maybe she’d been at a signing? Or one of the colleges I’d spoken at? A foggy memory stood up and waved its hands. “Brown. You’re the girl who escorted me to my car after my seminar!”
Evie sank lower into her seat. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I plead the fifth.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.” She’d been as adorable then as she was now. For months afterwards, I’d thought of her and smiled.
“Oh, God.” Evie sagged. “I hoped you didn’t mention it because you didn’t remember.”
“Oh, I remember. You were on a mission. I could tell you were terrified, but you were going to talk to me, no matter what. I thought to myself, ‘There’s a girl who’s gonna go places.’”
“Now you’re just being nice. Which is also how I imagined you. But we’re not supposed to talk about that, either.” She patted my thigh as if I was the one who needed comforting.
“I am not just being nice. That’s exactly what I thought.”
Evie grew quiet as I pulled into the drive thru at Mike’s—the best burger joint in town—and placed our order. By the sound of it, she hadn’t gone as many places as I thought she would. She’d been so cute that day, with her square shoulders, lifted chin, and trembling voice. She had things to say and no amount of fear would keep them from being heard. I’d pegged her for success.
Fast forward a few years and she’d been fired from an uninspiring job and found herself huddled in my front seat, too afraid to speak her mind. Something had derailed her. Hard.
My curiosity went into overdrive. What could that something have been?
The woman working the drive-thru was so enthusiastic and polite, I considered giving her a tip. Evie accepted the bag and plunged her hand in search of a fry. Typically, food was a no-go in my car, but I let it slide just like I let the topic of our meeting at Brown drop.
“Oh my goodness,” she said around a mouthful of food. “This is so good. Like homerun, man. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you.”
“You act like getting a cheap burger and a ride home is something special.”
“It is. I mean, you’re Alexander Prescott and I’m…me. This is a huge deal.” She waved her hand around the interior of the Range Rover, then grinned around a mouthful of food.
“You work for Alexander Prescott. That makes you a huge deal by association. Besides. Maybe it would be easier on you if you just thought of me as sexy neighbor man.”
Evie groaned, her gray eyes rolling wide and mortified. “Nope. Not easier at all. We promised never to bring that up again.” She fished around in the bag and grinned.
“I made no such promise.”
“You have pretty eyes. They’re warm like sunshine, but cool too. They make me think of fall. Whiskey on the rocks. Pumpkin spice. Thick sweaters and falling leaves and the light is just gold, gold, gol
d.” She crammed a handful of fries into her mouth while I hid a smile.
I made the turn into her drive, the red maples waving us home.
“Why’d you stop?” she asked, then stretched her neck to peer through the windshield. “Oh. We’re here.”
I killed the engine and watched as she hugged the fast food bag to her chest and fumbled with her seatbelt. She fumbled so long, I climbed out of the car and crossed in front. I hadn’t intended to help her into her house, but with the seatbelt being an unsolvable puzzle, I’d hate to see how she approached her deadbolt. When I opened the passenger door, she was still struggling, so I leaned over her and freed her with one click.
“Now you’re the one sniffing me,” she said with a chuckle. She turned to look at me, our faces inches apart. Her gaze fell to my mouth and she licked her lips.
As much as I wanted to kiss her, I pulled back a fraction. Evie was wasted and I would not take advantage of that. “All I smell is burgers and fries.”
“Sure, buddy. That’s what they all say.” Evie cackled like she’d made an epic joke and before long, I was laughing right along. I walked her up the front steps and leaned on the wall as she fished in her purse for her keys.
Moonlight caught in her hair and danced through her eyes. Her hands, delicate as new snow…
I blinked away the narration as Evie staggered. “Whoa, now,” I said, gripping her shoulders to keep her from falling, as the inspiration flowed and flowed. Words piled up in my head. For the first time in a long time, I’d be up all night with a story that wouldn’t leave me alone—as long as I could get home before I lost the plot.
Evie’s gaze singed mine. “I had a wonderful night.”
She leaned in closer. Lips parting. Eyes hooded. Head tilted. This woman, my future employee, was coming in for a kiss and I didn’t hate the idea. In fact, I was a massive fan of the idea. I wanted to taste her, to touch her, to skate my fingers under her shirt and acquaint myself with the breasts I’d seen under her silk robe.
But, as the sober one in the situation, I needed to do the critical thinking for both of us.