Page 3 of Her Obsessed Lumberjack

The wagon jolts to a stop, and I push down my thoughts with a deep breath, letting my anticipation take over. Our wagon driver, a man dressed as a creepy Victorian coachman, turns to look at us with a snarl. His face is painted white, his lips bloodless.

“End of the road,” he croaks. “This is where the living and the dead part ways. Better get out quick, or you may never leave.”

I leap out of the wagon with Margot close behind, both of us giggling. The coachman has to clap his hands to get the attention of our lip-locked friends. He breaks character, his croaky voice switching to normal as he says, “Hey! Come on, get outta here! I don’t want your damn bodily fluids all over my seats!”

Margot snorts, and we tell our friends to catch us up as we hurry into the corn maze. My heart is thudding as we push our way through the gloomy stalks, lanterns lighting up several paths that branch off in different directions.

“Which way do you thi?—”

Margot is cut off by the rustle of leaves. Something is creeping about in the shadows to our left, and we both freeze, eyes wide as we look at each other.

“Maybe it’s just the wind?” I whisper.

With a demonic growl, the Grim Reaper bursts from the corn. His scythe shines in the moonlight, his skeletal mask white as bone as he stumbles toward us. I scream, my pulse racing as I shoot off in the opposite direction, with Margot close behind me. Every corner brings a new terror: scarecrows with stitched smiles grabbing at us, a blood-stained farmer with a maniacal grin lugging a chainsaw behind him, a screeching woman in a tattered wedding dress, reaching for us with shaking hands.

Margot and I squeal, adrenaline pushing us forward as we dart through the maze, rushing past other terrified people. We dodge a pair of ghostly twin girls in blue dresses, asking us to play, before we reach a fork in the maze. I’m about to turn right when a clown leaps out, its grotesquely painted face leering at us. My whole body jumps violently, and I careen to the left instead, running until I reach a quiet corner where no ghouls are waiting for us.

“Holy crap,” I say breathlessly. “That clown was horrible!”

I turn, expecting to see Margot catching up to me, but the corn passage is empty.

Shoot.

No matter how much I love Halloween, there’s no way I’m brave enough to tackle this haunted maze by myself. I need to find Margot before I literally pee my pants, but the corn maze is so disorienting, with identical stalks stretching in every direction. I wander around for a few minutes, trying to follow the sound of screaming and laughter, but everywhere I turn seems to be a dead end.

Picking up the pace, I turn one corner, then another, breathing fast. A left, then another left…

SMACK.

I walk straight into a brick wall and stumble backward. The fall sucks the air from my lungs, and I blink up at the night sky, my head swimming.

“Shit.”

The deep voice startles me.

Brick walls can’t talk…and why would there be a brick wall in a corn maze, anyway?

My world comes back into focus, and I look up into the face of a giant peering down at me. He’s lit up by the orange glow of a nearby lantern, and I take in his thick beard and deep green eyes, the color of pine needles. Concern pinches at his handsome features, and he bends down to reach for me, lifting me to my feet like I’m as weightless as a fallen leaf. The contact makes me shiver in a way that has nothing to do with the frosty evening, and I take a step back from the man, lifting my head to look at him. He looks just as big now that I’m on my feet, towering above me. I can’t take my eyes off his broad shoulders and thick chest, and I feel a burst of warmth deep inside me, making my whole body tingle.

Holy crap.

He’s the hottest man I’ve ever seen. I can smell his masculine scent—like wood smoke and apple cider—and I get a crazy urge to bury my face in his chest and breathe him in.

Nope. Be normal, Freya. Don’t smell strangers.

“I’m sorry,” the man says, his voice so deep it raises goosebumps on my arms. “Didn’t see you there. You okay? Not hurt?”

He’s looking at me with so much seriousness, so much intensity, as if my well-being is immensely important to him.I can feel myself blushing, and I step away from the lantern closest to me, trying to hide my pinkening face.

I should tell him I’m fine, laugh it off, make a joke about how clumsy I am. Heck, I should saysomething.

“Yeah, I…I’m okay! Sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going. I didn’t see you either! I got lost…there was a clown, s-so I ran. I was with my friend before, but then she went right and I went left. So I didn’t know where to go. I was just wandering around the maze like a headless chicken…or I guess a headless horseman? Since it’s nearly Halloween? Ha…” My mouth is dry, my gaze darting around, looking anywhere except at the gorgeous man in front of me. I take another step back and my sweater snags on a cornstalk, almost making me fall again. The man moves forward like he’s about to help me, but I manage to free myself with a hard tug.

“I’m okay,” I assure him, laughing awkwardly.

Oh, God, why am I like this?

Trust me to meet the hottest man in the world and act like an idiot in front of him.

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