“I saw some stuff on the tour last night I want to take care of. Just a few things here and there.”
“Don’t clean up all our decay, now. That’s the main selling point.”
He laughed. “No chance of that. The decor last night really brought out how rough-looking some of those rooms are.”
“Don’t I know it,” I said dryly.
“Are you worried? Tonight is going to be great. I’m feeling really good about this.”
“And you should. Because you did everything, Landon. There’s no way I could have pulled all this together by myself.”
“Oh, you put in plenty of sweat equity.” He shot me the Fireworks.
His smile made me want to taste his lips again. I barely restrained myself.Take it slow, idiot.“I wanted to clean up the kitchen a little bit. Just make sure the caterers can use the sink if they need it. Though Millie says they’re bringing a truck.”
“She’s a whirlwind. I think you’re in good shape. Great, actually.” He scanned my body, my shorts and tight little T-shirt, and my face heated.
I had no idea how I was going to get through this. My emotions were popping like popcorn. Lust. Fear. Like. Deep like. Not the other “L” word. I couldn’t articulate that yet, but it was there, just under the surface.
But we managed to keep our hands off each other, mostly, as we did the last-minute jobs to get the house ready for visitors. Landon had an extra portable toilet brought in, so now there were two for guests; only the VIPs and our performers were allowed to use the one in the house, which had been minimally renovated in a retro style under Landon’s guidance, with secondhand fixtures.
Separately, we went home to get ready for the night, but he volunteered to drive us both over after we changed into our costumes.
It was almost Halloween. We had to have costumes.
I was a spider woman, dressed in a short, tight, sleeveless black dress printed with sparkly white webs that was a thousand times more daring than my usual garb. It went up to my neck, but it barely came below my ass. My legs were clad in webby black tights, and I wore black flats just in case I had to run from any ghosts. My hair was swept up in a sparkling spider clip to complete the look, and I went dramatic with the makeup. Considering I hardly ever wore makeup, it was definitely dramatic.
Landon visibly did a double-take when he saw me emerge into the living room.
I did the same, because he was dressed in an outlandish two-piece suit. It was black, covered in cartoony white skulls, and had broad black lapels. He wore a red shirt beneath with a black bow tie and his black high-tops. He was ridiculous. Yummy. Ridiculously yummy.
“Where did you get that?”
“Damien hooked me up. Apparently he has a thing for crazy suits.”
“It’s too bad I don’t have the time to undress you,” I said, then clapped a hand over my mouth.
Landon’s easy, deep voice almost stripped me of its own accord as he walked slowly over to me. “I could make the time.”
We had a volcanic stare-off, and then my phone buzzed in my little black purse. I held up a finger, pulled it out and glanced at the screen. “Text from Millie. She says all the ghouls and staff are there and ready to go and where the hell am I?”
“Guess that solves that little problem,” he said, his voice a low growl. He leaned in, slipping an arm around me and —hello!— under my short hem to grab my behind, and then he kissed all my lipstick off. “I’m driving,” he said when he let go.
“OK,” I squeaked. At this point I just wanted to skip the haunted house and fuck his brains out.
Instead, I fixed my lipstick on the ride over, and we made an entrance, since several of the VIPs had already arrived. Tours hadn’t started yet, but Ez and the Emeralds were rocking in the ballroom, and the food was making the rounds. Neil and the Bohemia Bartenders were doling out delicious cocktails. One was a variation on the Dark and Stormy with rum and ginger beer, garnished with disgusting-looking eyeballs made from lychees and cherries, and that’s the one I opted to try first, carrying it around as I met the well-heeled of Bohemia.
There was a whirlwind of introductions as Alex brought us to a lot of the people he knew from the fundraiser circuit, and they were eager to talk about my plans for an event space. Some of the VIPs were dressed in Halloweeny garb, but most just went with black. It appeared most of the women had taken the advice we’d given them and worn semi-sensible shoes, though there were still a few heels. Hey, some women could run marathons in them, so they’d probably be fine going on the scary tour. Personally, I’d break a leg.
There were a lot of comments on how Landon and I matched and how good we looked together. They were treating us like a couple. It was so weird. I hadn’t been in a couple in a while, and to be fair, I still wasn’t in one. But this moment of couplehood felt so much better than anything in the past, and I wondered if there was any chance of this feeling in the future.
I was way, way out on a limb on a tree I’d sworn I’d never climb again.
Annabel and Andy, my newfound stepsiblings, had shown up, and they were enthusiastic about all the work that had been done with the place. I thanked them for what they’d done — Annabel had made good on her word and sent over professional help a few times in the past few weeks — and I promised I wouldn’t be a stranger. They even had a friendly conversation with my mom and grandma, which was totally weird, but their mom wasn’t there, saving us all what I suspected would’ve been a supremely awkward moment.
There was no sign of Max, and when I met Marla and her boss, they said nothing about my little note about his stolen footage. But Marla was super-nice, so at least I’d made a friend, I told myself, even if I didn’t get the job.
Landon introduced me to his father, Paul Putter. I could see traces of Landon’s good looks in his father’s face, though his dad was a lot more sunburned — from construction or golf, I couldn’t say. He was friendly and polite, and I caught him giving Landon a look I found hard to define but wasn’t particularly happy with. I think it said, “Yeah, I’d hit that. Way to go, son.”
