Page 6 of A Very Grumpy Halloween

“More and more,” he whispers, and I finish off my wine, dropping the glass down on the coffee table a little too hard.

Ryder reaches over and saves it before it can fall off of the table, and I blink.

“Whoops!”

“Why did you drink tonight?” He asks me, and I lick my lips.

“I was nervous,” I admit, and he smiles softly.

“Me too. We don’t have to do anything. I mean, I wasn’t planning on sleeping with you tonight anyway.”

I frown at his words.

“Then why did you agree to come here?”

“Well, in case it isn’t obvious, I’m into you, Maple. I have been since you got to town, and I didn’t want to turn you down because I was afraid that you might never ask again.”

“So, you were just going to come and let me down easy?” I ask him, hurt starting to pop the giddy bubbles in my bloodstream from the wine.

I grab the blanket off of the back of the couch and pull it around myself. Suddenly, the lingerie isn’t making me feel sexy or confident. Just embarrassed.

“No! I just thought that I could ask you out or that we could talk and get to know each other more. I don’t just want one night with you, Maple.”

He looks like he wants to say more, but he bites his tongue and just watches me, studying my reaction. I wish that I hadn’t gotten drunk so that I could do a better job of hiding my feelings. I feel vulnerable and exposed right now, but I find that I’m not that upset by it. I trust Ryder not to hurt me.

“Alright,” I say finally, and he blinks.

“Alright, what?”

“Alright, treat this like our first date. Tell me about yourself.”

He seems surprised by my words, but he does as I ask.

“Well, I was born and raised here. I moved away for college, but I’ve been back for a little over a year now. I actually came back to town right before you moved here.”

“Do you like it here?” I ask, and he nods.

“It’s home. It’s always been home. I love the people and the small-town way of life.”

“Me too,” I whisper, and he smiles. “So, is being a bartender the dream then?”

“No,” he says with a laugh. “I’m a web designer. Things have been going pretty good the last few months, but I kept working at the bar because it was something to do. It filled the nights and brought in some extra cash.”

I nod and he shifts, his body angling towards mine more.

“What about you? Was the dream to always own a sex shop?”

“No,” I say with a snort. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but our parents died, and Olive wanted to move, and the rest of us followed her. We came here, and Olive opened her bakery, and Saffron started the bookstore, and well, I needed something to do. I’ve always liked lingerie. It makes me feel sexy, and I just… landed on that,” I finish.

He nods, his eyes dark and filled with heat.

He wants me.

That’s the only thought in my drunken mind as I stare at him.

“What about Halloween?” I blurt out, trying to ignore the way that my body reacts to the lust in his eyes.

“What about it?”

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