I wasn’t feeling very heroic right now. Amber’s long legs in that skirt were giving me far too many bad thoughts. I pulled at the neck of the costume. “Do I want to know what you’ve heard?”
“Guess I’m not the only millionaire from Haven these days.”
I laughed. “Nope, there’re a few of us now.”
She put the glasses back on as a group of kids burst into the area.
Instinctively, I pulled her out of the way. She stumbled into me and even behind the tinted lenses, I saw her eyes go wide.
“That’s not padding under that suit,” she muttered.
“No, it’s not.”
Her face went red. “Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. I may not be a farm boy anymore, but I do a lot of heavy lifting around here.”
“So, I see. You did all this yourself?”
“Definitely not. I have a whole team.” I pushed away a flap in the maze. “Need a break from the ROUS and fog?”
“Yes, please.”
I flicked down the canvas panel and cool, crisp air hit us. We were at the back of the farm near the fence line to my dad’s place. Fat Edison bulbs hung from the fence lighting the rapidly falling darkness.
She pushed her glasses to the top of her head. “Whew. Thanks.”
“No problem. I can’t believe you’re here.”
She tilted her head. “Are those horns?”
I laughed. “Yes.” I pulled off the half mask, my hair a sweaty mess of curls.
“Damn, Tate. You grew up.”
“It hasn’t been that long since you’ve seen me.”
“I think the last time was at the tree lighting at least four years ago.”
“More like six years.” I raked my fingers through my hair to try and get it into some semblance of order. “It was just after you had that big Christmas song.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Her face fell. “Lots of stuff changed after that.”
“For the good, right?”
“Sure.” She put on a fake smile.
“Don’t have to lie to me. I won’t tell.”
She huffed out a laugh. “It did amazing things. I just haven’t had a break in...a long time.”
Under the costume, I noticed that she was definitely a bit on the thin side. Not the fit kind of thin. There was a bit of paleness to her cheeks under the carefully applied makeup and her high cheekbones were even more hollow.
I had the strangest urge to gather her into a hug.
We’d known each other a long time, but it was more neighborly waves and surface conversations when we ran into one another.
Except that one night.
