Page 14 of Charming the Cowboy
“I have my giant spider.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’ve made that very clear.”
“I think you’ll like it.”
“I think that you are projecting a little bit too much onto my feelings about Halloween.”
She looked at Cooper, shocked. “Do you not like Halloween?”
“I don’t have any feelings on it one way or the other.”
“What do you mean? It’s the most wonderful night of the year! Didn’t you love going around to all the different houses when you were a little kid and getting candy?”
“We never did that,” he said, shrugging. “We live too far away from town. My mom would just buy us a big bag of candy and let us eat it. I did like that, actually.”
“What about the trick-or-treaters?”
“Nobody comes and rings the doorbell out at a place like ours. Nobody is out there walking on a rural road, and nobody’s going half a mile up a dirt driveway to ring the doorbell.”
She wrinkled her nose. The rambling house that she and her family lived in was a hotspot for trick-or-treaters. First of all, because there were rumors about her family being witchy and spooky, which made the house even more attractive to people looking for a fright. Also, they gave out full-size candy bars because they enjoyed having the kids so much.
But of course, it made sense that Cooper didn’t get trick-or-treaters.
“You should come to our house on Halloween.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah. We’ll do the last hayride, and then you can come to my place and help give candy out to the kids.”
“Did I say that I wanted to do that?”
“Maybe not. But I think it would be fun. You can dress as a cowboy.” She smiled.
“I am a cowboy,” he said.
She smiled back. “And I’m a witch.”
“I take your point.”
“I’m not sure that you do.”
“Does it matter to you either way, or are you off and scheming regardless?”
She chuckled. “I think you already know the answer to that, Cooper.”
They started to walk back toward The Water Witch. “One thing that is strange to me,” he began, something hesitant in his voice.
“Justonething, Cooper?”
“Yes.” He hesitated for a moment. “You seem to get everything you want. You talked me into doing haunted hayrides, you got the City Council to agree to serve my beer, and I have a feeling that if you ask, you’re also going to get them to agree to give me that permit. You’ve got… some kind of charm where all that stuff is concerned.”
“Oh, and it makes it hard to believe that I strike out every time I try to get laid?” He was the one who had brought it up again. He didn’t like talking about it, he shouldn’t have said anything.
“I was going to say it a little bit more tactfully.”
“Why bother? It’s not exactly a tactful topic.”
“I guess not.”
