Page 15 of Love is Trash in Hallow's Cove

If I can’t avoid Hayley, I have to figure out a way to convince her I’m better than any of her other romantic prospects. That I’m worth staying in Hallow’s Cove for.

Fuck.For the first time since I was a kid getting bullied for digging through the trash instead of playing during recess, I’m worried my weirdness is too much. I don’t want to be anyone but myself, but that person seems incompatible with who pretty, sweet, and decidedly not a weird trash gremlin, Hayley would want for her mate.

Chapter seven

Hayley

“Ithinktheraccoonis back,” I say, cheeks still warm as I return from the dumpster to toss my regular trash before pickup day tomorrow. There was a notable absence of my vibrator when I went out there. I didn’t dig through the trash or do anything gross like that, but I’m pretty sure it’s gone.

“Huh?” Freddie asks, looking up from his magazine, this time one about fishing.

“There was something missing from the dumpster. I threw it out last night and when I went out there, it was gone.”

He cocks his head at me. “That’s weird. What was it?”

My face grows hotter. I can’t exactly tell this nineteen-year-old boy that it was my busted vibrator. “Oh, uh, nothing. But it wasn’t in a trash bag, so it was easy to see that it was gone.”

“Huh,” Freddie says again,unhelpfully.

“Are raccoons drawn to, uh, specific types of smells?” I immediately regret asking since I can’t answer any follow-ups about what kind of smell I’m talking about. But this is the second time now that something has stolen an item that smells like my pussy.

“Not sure. You should ask Jake.”

“Why Jake?” The prospect of talking to my standoffish neighbor sounds even less appealing than usual after he was the surprising star in my sexual fantasies last night. I’m still on edge from my ruined orgasm, and a night filled with dreams about him running away from me while I beg him to fuck me.

A weird look crosses Freddie’s face and his golden eyes widen. “Oh, uh, just because he’s had to deal with them before, and it’s his dumpster too, so he’d want to know that there’s an issue.” Freddie coughs and looks back at his magazine.

“I think maybe I’ll look up online how to catch one. Or call animal control.”

“No!” Freddie protests, fumbling the magazine and dropping it. “Don’t call animal control. They’re mean. And bad. Jake will deal with it.”

I narrow my eyes at him, wondering why he’s acting so strange. Then it hits me—is animal control a bad topic to bring up with shifters because they might be mistaken for a wild animal when they’re fully shifted?

Crap, I wish there was some kind of guidebook for when you come to Hallow’s Cove that teaches you how to not accidentally offend its monster inhabitants. I’d gocheck in the bookstore, but the vampire that runs the place seems kinda mean.

“Oh, sorry, okay, I guess I’ll go do that.” I give Freddie a little wave and step out the front door right now like a dumbass instead of saying I’ll go talk to Jake later and then never actually go. Now I have to do it or Freddie might get suspicious about what the raccoon has been stealing.

I inhale deeply to steel myself for dealing with Jake, and close my eyes for a moment. Which is a mistake, because the image of him smiling at me pops into my mind again. I open them and let out a startled yelp when I see Jake coming directly my way from the game shop across the street.

He freezes in alarm at my reaction, stopping halfway across the street. It feels like time slows again as I drink the sight of him in. Did he somehow get hotter than the last time I saw him? Because the way his pants hug his thick thighs and the streak of silver hair falling over one eye is doing things to me.

A car honks at him to get out of the road, breaking us both out of our stupor, and he scurries the rest of the way across the road with a sheepish wave to the driver.

I resist the urge to flee back inside the bodega and give Jake a strained smile and a wave. “H-hey!”

“Hi Hayley.” His low voice paired with the intense look he’s giving me makes me shiver.

“Hey!” I say again, like a moron, broadening my smile to mask my embarrassment. “You’re just the person I was looking for.”

His thick brows raise and a hint of a smile stretches his full lips. “You were looking for me?”

“Y-yeah, I need you to help me with a problem.”

“Oh? What kind of problem?” His eyes drop for a moment, giving me a once over that makes my pussy clench.

“It’s, uh… it’s…” It’s between my thighs and needs something thick and hard to take care of it.

Jesus, get it together. Don’t eye fuck the guy who hides whenever you show up.

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