Page 4 of Promises & Pumpkins
“Are you okay?” I asked, reaching down to help gather the boxes. Harper brushed her hands over her legs.
She nodded, but the red tint on her cheeks darkened. “Yeah, I’m good. Totally fine.” She looked back at the stair she’d missed like it had betrayed her while I grabbed the last box. Then she took it from me when I handed it to her. “I’m not locked out this time though.” Her chuckle was dry but then she stopped and cleared her throat.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” I winked, and she tilted her head to the side.
She pursed her lips, but her eyes widened, like she was biting back a smile. “I mean, you live, like, twenty steps that way. Where else would we meet?”
“Well, if I’m lucky, maybe at the haunted house this weekend.” It was a tradition in Hazy Cove. Everyone went to the haunted house to take their turn seeing if the paid actors could scare them. And they usually could; it was one of the scariest Halloween attractions in the Pacific Northwest. Apparently, everyone except Harper, who was shaking her head so fast her blonde ponytail was whipping from side to side.
“Oh, nope. I don’t do scary things.” She put her hands up in front of her in the shape of an ‘X’ to make it clear. “Sorry. I’ll see you around though.”
I laughed and put my hands up in surrender. “Are you sure?”
Harper nodded, hugging the boxes to her. “I’m absolutely positive. Me and haunted anything don’t go well together.”
I put my hands up in gentle surrender. “Fair enough. Can’t blame a guy for trying.” When I winked at her, the red tint in her cheeks returned. “See you around, neighbor.”
Chapter 5
Harper
“Icannot believe you’re dragging me here.” I cringed when someone wearing a clown mask walked up to us; next to me, my sister laughed maniacally. “Ihate this!”When I put my hands up in front of me like a makeshift shield, the clown laughed again and walked off to terrorize the next group of people walking through the gate. I hadn’t even been there forfive minutes yet, and I already regretted letting my sometimes-a-bully sister force me into it.
“Don’t be such a scaredy cat,” Bridget said, skipping ahead of me a few steps. I considered turning around and hurrying back to the car. If I went quickly enough, she wouldn’t be able to stop me. But when I turned around, there was another actor in another mask meant to startle me. It worked enough to make me stop, giving Bridget enough time to grab onto my arm.
I sighed. “I’m not scared,” I lied. It was obvious to anyone that could see us that I was more than scared. “But I’m definitely not going in there,” I added, pointing to the haunted house. When I heard a girl scream, it made my blood run cold.
“Oh at least keep walking.” Bridget forced me to take the next step. When we saw a group of teenage boys walk out of the haunted house with their arms linked, she held mine tighter. She was going to make sure there was no way for me to run. “Don’t be a buzz kill. This isfun!”
“There is nothing fun about this,” I grumbled, glaring at her from the side of my eye. We kept walking between groups of people either anxiously waiting for their turn to go into the house or those who had just come out of it and their adrenaline was still too high for them to go home.
“All of this is fun! You just need to have an open mind.” Bridget looked around us with the opposite of my dread painted on her face. Her excitement was thick in the cold fall air. “Let’s have your fortune read.” She pointed to an open canopy with a table and a couple folding chairs. Sitting at the table was a woman next to a sign that promised palm readings.
I shook my head and stuck my hands in my pockets. “I don’t think so.”
“Comeon!” She nudged me, causing enough of a scene that the woman at the table looked at us. The woman cocked her head and smiled.
“Come in, come in. Let me see what your future may hold.” The sign next to her said Lady Matilda. She rubbed her hands together, and I wondered if that was her real name. Surely she made it up as part of a persona.
“No, thank you.” I tried to take a step, but Bridget gripped my arm tighter, holding me still while she practically buzzed next to me. My stomach sank when my sister took a step toward the tent.
Lady Matilda laced her fingers together and rested her hands on the table. “You may be surprised what secrets are carved into your hands. I could reveal something about yourself to you.” I shook my head again, but Bridget nodded.
“Oh, I think you’re doing it. You need to have some fun.” She dragged me to the chair, all but forcing me into the seat. “How much is it?”
“Twenty dollars.” Lady Matilda held out her hand, taking the cash Bridget eagerly offered her. She folded it twice and tucked it into her bra before she took my hand and forcefully flipped it over in hers. I lifted my brows when she spread my fingers apart before tracing her thumb over the lines in my palm and humming. “Mmh so interesting. So very interesting.”
I lifted a brow, trying to hide my annoyance. I never believed psychics or fortune tellers—especially not ones sitting in metal folding chairs outside a haunted house. “What is?” I asked, staring at my hand and seeing nothing unusual.
“You have a lot of tension. Alotof tension.” Lady Matilda hummed again, flipping my hand over and back, and I rolled my eyes. Tension wouldn’t be far off after moving to a new town and getting a new job at a new dance studio. Any change came with some tension. Didn’t it?
“I just moved to town,” I said, justifying the tension she apparently saw in my palm even though the details in my hands didn’t change with my stress levels. “It’s been a bit stressful.”
“No, not that kind of tension.” She looked up at me, holding my hand tighter. “How long has it been since your last release?”
I choked on my next breath, coughing and sputtering for air. “Excuse me?” I asked when I regained my composure.
Lady Matilda gave me a knowing smirk that suggested somehow the line she traced on my hand told her that I haven’t had sex in over a year and that the few times before then had been lackluster. If I wasn’t careful, she was going to guess how many times I had faked it—and I didn’t want her to be right. “It has been a long time since you’ve had an orgasm.” She held my hand tighter when I tried to pull it away. “But there is an older man that is going to change all of that for you very soon.”
