Page 23 of Love is Trash in Hallow's Cove

“Oh yeah?” Hayley gives me an assessing look that makes arousal flare to life inside me. “Well, I guess you’ll have to take me on some more dates so I can find out.”

Chapter ten

Hayley

Afteroursuccessfuldumpsterdinner, Jake and I have gone on a series of unconventional dates. They’ve been the best goddamn dates of my life.

We spent an evening going through his thrift shop and picking out outfits to make the other person try on, which ended up with him spending the rest of our night in a sequined mini dress that made his thick thighs look unreasonably good, and me in a wizard costume three sizes too big, while we ate all our favorite snacks.

One afternoon, he took me out to a super creepy looking shed in the woods, but he made a point of telling his friends over at the game shop where we were going ahead of time so I wouldn’t think it was a lure to murder me. Turns out it’s where he keeps his still. He taught me how he makes moonshine, explaining that it was a tradition his grandpa taught him, and we spent so long out there talking about our familiesthat it grew dark and we laid out under the stars, discussing what might be out there in the universe while we held hands.

I picked today’s activity, and it’s turning out to be the strangest and best one yet.

I gesture toward Jake, who is sitting next to me on the tan couch, as the man in the chair across from us peers at me over his glasses. “So then I told him very politely, if you put your dirty socks on the couch one more time instead of picking them up, I’ll be really upset,” I say with an exasperated sigh.

Jake shakes his head and scoffs. “No, you said you’d ‘murder me if you see my fucking socks on the motherfucking couch one more goddamn time.’”

I resist the urge to laugh at his colorful language, pinching my thigh hard and grimacing. “Well, if you’d stop putting them there and driving me crazy, I wouldn’t have had to yell at you,” I grumble back.

The marriage counselor across from us nods and looks down to scribble something in his notebook, and I use the opportunity to flash Jake a delighted grin. He smiles back, squeezing my thigh for a second before pulling it back and crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at me as the counselor looks back up.

“It seems like there’s a breakdown in communication that’s causing a lot of stress,” the bearded, bespectacled man across from us says with a placid look.

“You can say that,” Jake replies with a humorless laugh. “Last time she got mad at me, she put a bunch of creepy baby dolls in my office. One of them was holding a notethat said ‘if you don’t take out the trash, we’re going to take you out.’”

His words startle a laugh out of me, which I try to cover with a loud scoff, and Jake’s dark brown eyes sparkle with amusement he can’t hide behind his fake glare.

“It got you to take the trash out, didn’t it, sweetheart?” I reply, my voice overly saccharine.

“Hmm,” the counselor says, pretending to consider the situation, but I caught how wide his eyes got when Jake mentioned the dolls. “Jake, how did that make you feel, when Hayley put the dolls in your office?”

Jake looks at me and hesitates. I can tell he’s fighting a smile, and I nudge him with my thigh. “Yeah, how did it make the big man baby feel? You gonna cry to him about how awful your wife is? The woman who sold her virtue to get you out of your gambling debt? The woman who paid for all of your penis piercings even though I hate the way they look?! But no,I’mthe monster because I put dolls in your office!”

Jake buries his face in his hands, his chest heaving. “Y-you know I h-had that incident in the doll factory as a kid.”

I laugh, trying to make my amusement sound derisive, and shake my head.

The counselor looks between us, aghast and deeply confused. He doesn’t even glance at the clock as he sets his pad of paper down. “Right, okay. I think we did some good work here today, but that’s our time.”

Jake sits up, wiping real tears away from his face, which is red from laughing so hard. I canbarely look at him as I shake the therapist’s hand, then stand and hold my hand up to Jake. “Come on, pookie, let’s go get some ice cream.”

Jake brightens and we casually walk out of the office hand in hand, both of us managing to make it all the way back inside Jake’s car before bursting out into laughter.

“Holy shit, that was even better than I’d imagined,” I say, more than a little shocked by what we just did.

Jake asked me if there was anything strange I’d ever wanted to do for a date, which is how we ended up in Dr. Harper’s office, pretending to be a dysfunctional couple. If I’d told anyone I’d dated in the past about that idea, they would’ve looked at me like I was crazy, but Jake let out one of his deep, sexy laughs and asked if I wanted help booking the appointment.

He’s amazing like that. It’s exhilarating to have someone who not only understands my strange sense of humor, but who embraces it and takes it to the next level with his own silliness. That he happens to be a big, sexy shifter with a wicked smile is an added bonus.

A wicked smile which is currently directed at me, making my clit throb in time with my pulse.

“That was epic. You were incredible. I almost lost it like five times. When you said the thing about paying off my gambling debts, I almost peed myself.”

“What about you and the dolls?” I ask, both of us laughing hard again.

Jake shakes his head and glances back toward the office building. “I’d feel bad for the guy, but the co-pay for the session was high enough that I doubt he cared.”

I nod, appreciating that Jake thinks about how our fun would’ve impacted the counselor. “Yeah, same. I don’t think we need to go back for another session, so he’s safe from us.”

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