Page 31 of Halloween Haunting
But it couldn’t get crazier than that.
Grace followed as Caroline gleefully ran up to the attendant beside the wide dunk tank. The water container was see-through, allowing the audience to see the victim get dropped into the chilly punishment below. An older woman with greying hair sat poised on the chair within the dunk tank, the tips of her toes just barely dipping into the quiet water. Her eyes lit up as Caroline drew nearer, an excited smile slipping across her face.
“Well, well! If it isn’t Caroline Shepard. Come to test your luck?”
Caroline handed over a few dollar bills and got a ball in exchange. She tossed it over her head a few times, catching it without batting an eye. Adrenaline glinted in her eyes as she glanced over her shoulder at her audience, wiggingly her brow teasingly. “I’ll do more than test it out, Councilmember Maggie,” she called out. “I’llproveit!”
“That’s a Councilmember of Holiday Hollow?” Grace murmured to no one in particular.
Anna nodded. “Sure is. She’s been a councilmember for…well, maybe that’s a talk for another night.”
“Another drunk night,” Olivia added, her words muffled by the enormous amount of cotton candy she was eating.
Grace didn’t bother pressing them for more information. By that point, if they insisted on having a few shots before revealing more truths, Grace wouldn’t dare argue. There were some things, she realized, that only went down better with a glug of liquor to wash it down. And in Holiday Hollow, that meantall thingswent down easier with a swig of a drink.
Caroline released a whistle as she flung the ball through the air. It landed squarely in the target, slamming into it so hard that the plastic rod twirled and twirled minutes after the impact. The councilmember released a startled shout as the chair gave out from underneath her bottom, and she crashed into the icy cold water.
Applause sounded across downtown, everyone who passed joining in on the celebration. Even Councilwoman Maggie, as she straightened back out, entirely drenched from head to toe, did her best to clap from within the dunk tank.
Caroline bowed and curtsied. “All that applause, for little old me?” She fluttered her lashes and leaned forward provocatively, taking a scoop of cotton candy and plunging it flirty between her lips. She sucked the sweet treat clean and grinned, flashing a wink toward the younger gentlemen who were gawking as they passed by. “You’re alltookind.”
Grace fell into their bout of laughter as they continued their walk through the festival. As they all came up for air, lingering in the comforting silence as the rowdy excitement continued around them, Grace found that she was smiling without reason, like a lunatic who couldn’t wipe it off her face.
“Look at you, Miss Sunshine,” teased Anna from her left. “What’s got you beaming like that?”
Caroline pinched Grace’s cheek like a doting grandmother. “Let me guess: Bryant’s coming, isn’t he?”
“Oh, don’t start with that!” Grace brushed their hands away and laughed, feeling the heat swarm to her cheeks at the Sheriff Deputy’s name. Now was not the time or place for her to relish in the crush that was quickly growing for the man she worked for – or was it? Grace had no idea, either way, still had her blushing and squirming like a lovesick teen.
“Then what is it?” Anna pressed. “Not that we don’t love to see that gorgeous smile.”
Grace let out a deep breath. “This is just new to me, you know?”
“New in a bad way?” Caroline asked.
“Not at all!” She licked her lips as she struggled to find her will to say the things she hated to say out loud. But as her friends surrounded her, making her feel seen and heard in every sense of the words, Grace found that talking to them wasn’t that hard at all. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever really had friends.”
“Ever?” Olivia gaped and shook her head in disbelief. “That can’t be true. I mean – have you ever evenmetyou?” She paused and tapped her chin at how odd that sounded. “Scratch that. You know what I mean.”
Grace chuckled lightly. “My Father was in the military. We were never in one place long enough for me to be known as anyone other than the ‘new girl.’ I don’t think I ever fully unpacked a suitcase. Not till Chuck, anyway. But by that point, it felt like I was too old to make friends. Too far in life to make connections, too riddled with time to be welcomed anywhere. I mean,” she paused and looked between them all, “thiseven feels unreal to me at certain points.”
“Unreal how?” Caroline asked.
“As in, it won’t last.”
Caroline paused in the middle of the street, not caring for the people that had to cut around them. A deep and unavoidable sincerity filled her face as she grasped onto Grace’s hands tightly. “Now you listen to me, Grace Baker. The three of us were born and raised in Holiday Hollow. We’ve never known anything except this place, except for each other.”
Grace felt her shoulders begin to fall. It seemed as though Caroline was only confirming her greatest fears – whatever she had with them wouldn’t ever be as strong as what they would have with each other. She didn’t have the luxury of being raised in a small town, where everyone knew everyone else for all their lives. At that moment, Grace had never wished for a different childhood more.
“But nothing ever made total sense.”
Grace’s head lifted. “What?”
“There was always something missing,” Caroline continued. “Between the three of us, I mean. Like we weren’t whole yet. Like we were waiting for the missing piece before it could be how it should be.”
Anna stepped closer, her hand resting over Grace’s left shoulder. “Holiday Hollow has always been a wonderful place, Gracie. But not perfect.”
“Not until now, anyways.” Olivia beamed as she took Grace’s right shoulder next. “Everything’s just fitting together, isn’t it?”
