Page 81 of A Love Like Pumpkin Spice
“Get a room, you two!” Kieran shouts from the other side of the fire, and we bring a bit of space between us. It’s hard to keep my hands off her when I’m sober, but give me a few beers, and I’m probably never letting her go again.
“By the way, who’s going to clean up the autumn festival stuff?” he asks curiously. “Do other people volunteer afterward?”
To my surprise, Caleb jumps in to answer. “They hire people for that.”
“Really?” Lauren asks, eyebrows furrowed as she tilts her head in surprise. “They have the budget for that and new decorations? You townspeople put a lot of money into this.”
“Oh, that’s where the proceeds from it go,” I point out, making Lauren even more confused.
“Harry made it a nonnegotiable part of the budget,” Caleb explains gruffly. “In previous years the decorating volunteers had to spend half a week with detangling everything the clean-up-volunteers only threw in boxes. So now he hires a company to do it.”
“After the autumn fair, no one could be bothered to pack the decorations away properly,” I tell add. “Though that might also have been because Harry insisted on taking down the decorations the next day already, when half of the town was still hungover. He tried waiting a few more weeks, but nobody would volunteer then. So, yeah, he hires a crew to put everything away neatly. Now we can get right to decorating without destroying half the garlands during the detangling process. It always lead to delays.”
“This town is so strange,” Nic says, kind of in awe. “But I enjoy this strange,” she quickly adds, and Lauren nods in agreement.
“It fits our strange,” she says, shooting a grin at Kieran in silent solidarity.
“Oh, absolutely,” he agrees and takes a sip of his beer. “I don’t think we could have picked a better place to move to.”
The night goes on, and we stay huddled around the campfire. Caleb somehow ends up as the self-appointed fire warden, fetching more wood whenever the flames slowly die down and making sure we have flames, not only a glow.
And when it hits two in the morning, and yawns start replacing real conversation, he’s the one who heads down to the lake for water, dousing the fire and covering the whole pit with sand. Just to make sure we’re not accidentally starting a forest fire.
“Look at you,” Lauren slurs, then breaks into a giggle-fit, clearly drunk. “Responsible!”
We made the bonfire between Nic’s and Lauren’s homes, and if it were still light out, we could also see Kieran’s further down the lake shore.
“Damn, it’s dark,” Kieran also sounds less than sober. I think I hear him fall off the log he sat on, as my eyes get used to the dark.
I’ve got a good of a buzz going, but nothing compared to the three city folks in our group. Caleb watches them with quiet amusement, the same way a kindergarten teacher would watch their children badly explain their parent’s job.
Nic is curled up against my side, trying to stifle a yawn into my jacket. Meanwhile Lauren can’t be more than one blink away from also slipping off the log she’s perched on.
“Will you two be all right?” I ask as I stand up, pulling Nic with me, shaking my head when she whispers a complaint.
“Hey, sweetheart, open your eyes.”
She does, not willingly, but grinning lazily when she sees my face. “You’re so pretty,” she says and lifts her hand to poke my cheek. But her aim is terrible, and she almost pokes my eye, so I catch her hand and keep it in mine.
“We’re fine,” Lauren mumbles, and tries to get up, almost immediately losing her balance and stumbling right into Kieran’s arms.
“That’s okay. I got you,” he says lazily and bursts into a giggle. He then tries to get up, still holding onto Lauren, which is not working out too well.
“I’ll get the two of them home,” Caleb says, and I give him a worried glance.
“Are you sure? Let me get Nic inside, and I can help you.”
“I got this,” he assures me.
“Are you okay to drive?” I tilt my head and narrow my eyes at him until he nods.
“I had one beer, Henry. I’m good.”
“Really? Because Nic has a guest room,” I point out, but he shakes his head. “I knew you were scared of the ghost cat.” He answers by scratching his cheek with his middle finger, right beforereadjusting his cap. “Okay. If you end up needing a place to crash after all, you’ve got my number.”
I pull Nic flush against me, the same way we walk around town: With her arm around my waist and mine around her back. Taking a few cautious steps, I almost carry her along. It works though.
Meanwhile, Caleb’s eyes dart between Kieran and Lauren, both of whom are smiling lazily at him.
