Kandi’s face went as white as a turnip and she gulped.
“Have you heard anything strange since moving in here?” I pressed her.
She shook her head no, but quickly stopped herself. “I—I hear the occasional rustling downstairs or outside when I’m up in the apartment, but I just figured it was…”
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from busting out laughing. “You figured it was what?”
“Just… wind. Or an animal or something.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets and looked around. “All I know is I wouldn’t want to live here.”
I turned to get her pumpkins, and gave an exaggerated shiver that she could see, smiling to myself as I walked away. That’ll teach her to mess with me.
2
Kandi
The store was packed with people. The morning came and went and my party planner never showed up, leaving me with over a hundred pumpkins, art supplies, some measly decorations, and hardly anything done or unpacked.
My cellphone rang as I was handling the register. I smiled as I handed a customer her bag of candy and sighed a relieved breath when I saw Jenny’s name on my phone. “Jen! Oh, thank God. Where have you been? Are you okay?”
She sniffled on the other line. “I’m so sorry, Kandi,” she said. “I-I’m at the hospital. My dad had a little scare. He’s fine, but—but I don’t think I can come to help you today.”
My eyes fluttered closed and I took a deep breath, forcing a gritted-teeth smile at the next customer in line as I started ringing him up. “Oh, Jen, I’m so sorry. Is everything okay? Anything I can do?”
“No, thank you though. It was just a heart ‘episode’ they’re calling it. But they’re keeping him overnight. I might be able to come by tomorrow before the event and help—”
“No. No, you stay with your dad. I’ll figure things out here.”
“Thank you. And… again, I’m sorry.”
I hung up, took a deep breath and glanced around my store. Maybe it was time to hire more staff? But I couldn’t really justify paying someone ten dollars an hour for work that most of the time I could handle myself. I swallowed hard, looking at the line ten people deep that had formed, and ducked my head back into the register.
Maybe for busy seasons I could justify the expense, though? It would give me the time to manage more events, like the pumpkin decorating, rather than the menial work, like inventory and pricing. Then again, I’d only been in business for three years and I was barely making a profit as it was.
Not to say business wasn’t good… it was. It just wasn’t great.
“One thing at a time,” I whispered to myself. Step one? Get these customers handled. Then, I could spend the night setting up if I needed to. Sleep was for pansies, anyway.
By seven, the sky outside had turned almost entirely dark and most of my customers had cleared out. Even though I was technically open until eight, maybe I could get a start on the courtyard out back.
I winced, remembering the hundred or so pumpkins in crates back there and then glanced at the clock on my phone. Shit. What time did Ford say he’d be back to pick up the crates? Did he need them back tonight? Maybe I could keep them until Sunday, use them as part of the Halloween décor?
Yeah, right. He didn’t exactly seem like he was jumping at the chance to do me any favors.
I hit the redial button next to his name and waited while it rang twice. On the third ring, he answered, his deep drawl a perfect match to the sexy, farm-boy-next-door look he had going on. “This is Ford,” he answered.
“Uh… hi. This is Kandi,” I started.
“I know who this is,” he answered.
Okay. Great. “Well, uh, I was wondering when you were going to be back to get the crates? Because it’s totally not a big deal if you can’t come get them today…”
Did I sound desperate? I felt desperate.
“I’m actually on my way there now.”
I cringed. “Okay, see… that’s the thing. My girl today, she sort of canceled and…”
A noise came from out back in the courtyard. I gulped, my eyes sliding toward the closed door. Maybe it was the paranoia of living alone, but these last few weeks, I could have sworn I’d been hearing things out there in the courtyard. Mostly at night. And always when I was alone.
I’d been trying to convince myself that it was crazy talk. That there were no such things as ghosts. I had even checked out a few books from the library. The sound—not dissimilar to a baby crying, like in the ghost story Ford had told me—grew louder. And then there was another sound. Like scratching.
I inhaled a shaky breath.
“Hello? Earth to Kandi?”
“Ford?” I whispered. I was clutching the phone so hard, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had left indentations where my fingers were. “Someone’s here,” I said. “Someone’s in the courtyard.”
“What?” If I hadn’t been so terrified, the concern in his voice would have sent warmth spiraling in my chest. “Kandi, listen to me… wait right where you are. Do not go out there without me. I’m two minutes away. Do you have a weapon?”
“How will a weapon help against a ghost?” I whispered.
There was a pause on the other line and then a quiet curse. “A ghost?”
“Yes. It’s just like you said… sounds like a baby crying—”
“Jesus Christ. Kandi, I made that shit up. There’s no ghost in that house. Is there still a noise outside?”
“You made the story up?” I whispered. “Why? Why would you do that?”
“Because,” he grunted. “You were being a little pain in my ass and I thought it’d be funny.”
What. An. Asshole.
“Kandi, this is serious. Do you still hear anything outside?”
I stood ramrod still, listening. There was a quiet sort of rustling and then a loud crash. A scream slipped from my mouth and I dropped to the floor, sitting, hiding behind the register. “Yes. Yes, something loud this time. A loud crash.”
“I’m parking now. I’ll be inside in a second.”
He disconnected the call and my breath left my lungs in short, sharp panicked gusts.
When I heard the front door creak open, I peeked my head out from behind the counter, my eyes widening at the sight of the gun in Ford’s hands.
He made eye contact with me, putting a finger to his lips. But I launched to my feet and pointed at the gun. “Is that necessary?” I whispered.
His gaze narrowed at me. “Yes,” he answered simply.
I crossed out from behind the counter toward him. “But what if—”
“Kandi, sh.” He wrapped an arm around my waist, tucking me behind him. The moment his palm made contact with my hip, heat permeated my clothes and all the molecules between us buzzed to life. I closed my eyes against the sensation, reveling in it for just a fraction of a second before reality tugged me back. “What if it’s someone trying to steal from you?” he whispered.
I nearly snorted. “Steal? Steal what? Some pumpkins? Perhaps some chalk markers?” “What if they have a gun, too?”
Well, crap. I hadn’t thought of that. “I’ve been hearing something out there for a few weeks now. What if it’s…”
“Don’t say it…”
“The ghost?”
Ford groaned and dropped his head. “I was teasing you earlier.”
“I looked up that woman you mentioned—she was real. And people really do claim to see her on Halloween.”
“Yes, I know. But there is no story about hearing a child back here, is there?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t found any anecdotal evidence for that part of his story.
“Okay, then,” he said. “Now, shhhh.”
We crept toward the courtyard door, and Ford paused, his hand hovering at the doorknob. He looked back at me, giving me a final nod before turning the knob and quickly swinging the door open. He pointed the gun and we both gasped.
3
Ford<
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Kittens. Five goddamn kittens blinked back at us, staring down the barrel of my gun. I clicked the safety back on and put the gun back in my holster. They meowed, scattering and hiding… but one brave kitten stood its ground, mewling and hissing at us.
“Oh my gosh,” Kandi said, bending down and holding her hand out. The one brave kitten walked cautiously up to her, sniffing her finger. “So, you’re the little rascals that have been so loud lately?”
I raked my fingers through my hair and let out a heavy sigh. When Kandi had made it clear someone—or something—was out here, I’d gone into a full-blown panic attack. Fight or flight was real, and I was all about the fight. Sweat pushed through my pores, and I swiped it off my brow with the back of my sleeve. My heart pounded against my ribs as I took a seat at one of the tables, resting my head in my hands.
Something delicately scratched at my jeans, and when I looked down, one of the other kittens had come out of hiding and was looking up at me with gray eyes.
Meow.
“Well, hello,” I said. Bending down, I scooped it up and set it on the table. It was tiny. Couldn’t have been larger than my palm. Maybe four weeks at the oldest from what I could tell from the other feral cats I’d seen around my farm.
“One, two, three, four…” Kandi counted aloud, cradling one of the kittens against her chest.
“Five,” I said pointing to the fallen box that was on its side on the floor. Inside, another black ball of fluff peeked out, staring nervously at us.
“Do you think there’s more?” she asked. “Where’s the momma?”
I shrugged. “Probably around here somewhere. Or went off to try to find food.”
Kandi laughed as the kitten in her arms crawled up to her shoulder. The sound was gloriously beautiful. I closed my eyes, remembering the first time I’d ever heard that laugh when we all went bowling early on in hers and Ben’s relationship. Her laugh was a thing of beauty, much like herself. It was high-pitched, without being obnoxious, and delicate. But it rang with pure joy.
But when I opened my eyes again, she was still Kandi. The girl who used to date my ex-best friend. The girl with designer clothes. The girl with a trust fund. The girl who wanted to live in a loft in the center of town… not the kind of girl who would be interested in a dirty farmboy.
But that laugh. When I heard that laugh, I just wanted to find ways to keep her laughing… forever.
“I should… I should go get them some food or something. Right? What if their mom doesn’t come back now? Especially since I’ll be hosting a huge event out here tomorrow. They… they can’t keep living out here. And what about when the temperatures drop?”
A New England winter? This family of kittens would never survive outside, that was for sure. “We can put some food and water out and try to lure the mother cat into the shop at least. And then maybe get her upstairs. But I’ll warn you, if she’s feral, that’s not an easy feat. Cat scratch fever is real and it is a bitch.” I would know. I’d had to get many antibiotics for getting too close to the barn cats.
My gaze shifted to the crates of pumpkins. Still not unpacked. Not one damn pumpkin. I pointed to them. “Seriously?” I said. “You didn’t do any of them yet?”
Her grimace said it all. “It was a bad day. My party planner quit, and I was slammed the entire day. The only thing I managed to get done out here was hanging the pumpkin lights.” She gestured above us to the orange and yellow lights strung around the courtyard. There were also some fake spiderwebs up and she had plugged in a life-size witch. “If you want, you can leave them and I’ll finish putting the pumpkins out tonight.”
She sighed, almost defeated, until the same kitten as before nibbled on her earlobe and then crawled across her shoulder.
And there was that laugh again. “I think I’ll call you Spider.”
The third kitten licked at my work boots and I gave a grumbled laugh, creaky and unused. “If that’s Spider, then this has got to be Boots. He likes licking mine.”
“Boots,” she smiled and leaned over to scratch at his head, still near my shoe. “I like it.”
One of the other kittens was entirely black except for a small white line across it’s forehead and two splotches of white by its ears. “And I’ll call this one Frank… because he looks like Frankenstein’s monster with those markings.”
I laughed and nodded. “Clever.”
“And look at this one… he has an overbite that makes his tiny teeth hangover his lips.”
“You should call him Vlad,” I said. “Like Vlad the—”
“Impaler! That’s genius.”
I smiled and lifted the kitten I had put on the table. “And what about this one? I think she’s the only girl.”
Kandi thought a moment before answering, “What do you think of Sabrina?”
I laughed. “I think you like this holiday a little too much.”
“Blasphemy. The phrase too much doesn’t exist with Halloween!”
Just then, there was a louder, deeper meow from the corner of the courtyard and Kandi gasped. “It’s the momma,” she said, pointing. Sure enough, two glowing green eyes carefully came out from behind a potted plant.
“Careful, Kandi,” I warned.
She nodded, but kept her hand outstretched. Momma came up slowly, sniffing her fingers briefly before backing away once more. Kandi set Spider down on the ground near Momma and backed away. “I’m going to go get some Tuna and milk for them as an offering.”
I lifted Sabrina off the table and set her on the ground as well. All the kittens started moving toward their mother and I hoped the momma cat didn’t end up relocating them somewhere else. Kandi was right… they wouldn’t likely survive a few more weeks out here. “Not milk,” I said. “Most cats are lactose intolerant.” Kandi looked at me surprised and I shrugged. “I’m a farmer. I know these things.”
“Okay… tuna and water?”
I nodded and she turned to run inside.
Kandi
It only took me a few minutes to get a can of tuna from my kitchen cabinet and a bowl of water. I came back to the courtyard and set them down on the ground, nearly freezing from shock when I saw Ford unloading the crates of pumpkins. “You… you don’t have to do that.”
“I know,” he said, barely turning to look at me before continuing his work. Apparently, he was a man of few words. After emptying the first crate, he turned it onto its side and placed the water and tuna in it, just inside the door to my store. “There. That way, maybe we can get them indoors at least. If they go into the box, we can relocate them upstairs more safely, without having to pick them up. You don’t happen to have a litter box, do you?”
I shook my head no. “But I know where we can get one.” I pulled out my phone and texted Yvonne from the Maple Grove Animal Rescue.
In the meantime, I could at least start setting up for tomorrow. Maybe, at the very least, get these pumpkins out and looking pretty. I bent and lifted one of the larger pumpkins, placing it at the other end of the table. I grunted as the weight of the pumpkin pulled me down with it.
“I can do this,” Ford said.
“I know. But, so can I. It’ll go faster if we both do it. Besides,” I slid a glance at him from the side of my eye. “I feel bad again that I’m messing up your day. I’m not usually this disorganized.”
He raised a brow, and I threw my hands out in frustration. “Okay, fine. I’m always this disorganized. But I’m still sorry.”
He shrugged and moved around me. As he passed behind me, his hands fell to either side of my hips. I inhaled a sharp breath, my body tightening, heating, responding to his touch in a way that I hadn’t felt with a man in months. Not since Ben… hell, maybe not even ever with Ben.
I felt his hands jerk away from my body as he mumbled an apology. “Sorry,” he said. “I-I didn’t mean to touch you.”
I gulped. “It’s—it’s okay.” Truth was? It was more than okay. His touch—firm and commanding—had me achy and wet in
all the right places.
I wasn’t going to pretend that I didn’t know how ridiculously hot Ford was. Any woman with eyes and a mediocre libido could see it… could feel it. His black and gray flannel shirt was tight against the straining sinews of his chest and biceps. And his jeans hugged his thick thighs and delicious ass just right. Not too tight. Not too baggy. I was like Goldilocks and he was my freaking porridge.
“If you’re going to help, why don’t I do the heavy ones and you arrange the smaller pumpkins?”
Even without his hands on me, I could still feel his presence right behind me. Strong notes of his scent—some sort of mix of pine and mulch that was sweet and masculine all at once—hit my nose, and a shiver rocked down my spine.
“Kandi?” he asked. His breath was labored, heavy behind me, and I could feel the heat of it on the back of my neck. Goosebumps raced down my arms as I nodded, not trusting myself to speak just yet. Instead, I moved down to the other side of the table.
Getting some distance from Ford was a good thing. I needed space to clear my head. This was my ex-boyfriend’s best friend. Sure, Ben and I were completely broken up and had been for months. But wasn’t there some sort of code against this? Like some guy code that you weren’t supposed to date your friend’s ex? Or make her feel all wet and gooey in her naughty bits?
I cleared my throat. “You don’t have to stay and help. I’ve got this.”
I could feel the potent energy of his gaze as he turned to look at me, and through the corner of my eye, I saw his full lips press together. “There’s a lot left to do here. And as you just said, it’ll go faster with two of us.”
I blinked and swallowed hard as his soft brown eyes latched onto mine. There was something in that deep gaze of his. Something kind and warm, but also raw. I found myself drawn to him in a way that I couldn’t understand.
Bewitching You: A Maple Grove Halloween Novella Page 2