The bubble always popped when she was with him.
“That was lovely.” Oscar sat down on the bench next to her, and Megs started.
She scanned the area next to the firepit. “Did Colleen and the others go to get cider?”
Oscar shook his head. “No, they’re headed home. Too much excitement for one night, I guess.”
“Well, youarepretty exciting.” Megs leaned back against the bench. “You realize you just made their entire years, right?”
Oscar shook his head. “No, they made mine. It’s women like that who’ve given me this career.”
Megs smiled. “And here I thought you’d be annoyed.”
“Why would I be annoyed?”
“I don’t know because people are probably always coming up to you and wanting to know more about your books or your writing process.”
Oscar laughed. “That’s the beauty of being an author. There aren’t that many people who know what I look like.”
“True.” Megs shoved her hands in the pockets of her puffy coat. All in all, the weather was kind of perfect for a night out. She looked up and saw the first few stars winking out.
“Come on, let’s do the corn maze. Gideon and Alli just went in, and I think we have to beat them.”
“Uh, no. I don’t do corn mazes.”
Oscar stared at her. “You’ve never done one?”
“No, I did one and that’s why I don’t do them.” Megs shuddered as she thought back to the time Bobbi and Haley had forced her to do the maze here at this same fall festival when she was fifteen. People dressed in hockey masks carrying chain saws jumped out at them, and Megs had had nightmares for weeks.
“Did you get stuck?”
Megs’ eyes widened. “No, I hated the people that jumped out and pretended to murder you, but getting stuck is an option?”
“Not if you have a map!” Melissa flapped a folded piece of paper at them as she, Sean, and Layla jogged past to the entrance of the maze.
“A map is cheating. It’s way more fun to try to figure it out. C’mon.” Oscar pulled on her arm, and Megs groaned and stood up.
They walked between the columns of corn stalks, and she already hated everything about it. Even with the flood lights overhead, there were too many shadows and dark corners. Oscar grinned at her, and he suddenly looked like a seventeen-year-old boy.
“Why do men like to be scared?” Megs looked down at the path ahead of them so her imagination wouldn’t create horrors where there weren’t any.
“Because it’s exhilarating. You know nothing bad is going to happen, but your body doesn’t. It makes everything feel bigger.”
“Which is why you chose this setting for your novel.”
His grin somehow grew wider. “Exactly. It’s the perfect opportunity for emotions that people are holding back to come roaring to the—”
A grim reaper lunged from the stalks, its face a grotesque mask of rot and decay. Megs screamed and bolted, not at all aware of where she was going. She stopped at a dead end, panting for breath.This was why she hated corn mazes!
She never should’ve let Oscar convince her to—Oscar.Where was he? Megs started to panic. She sucked in a lungful of air to force her heart to slow, and was about to run back the way she’d come when she heard a voice.
“I’m not in a bad mood.”
It was Gideon.Megs froze and listened, trying to figure out where his voice was coming from.
Alli sighed. “You haven’t said a word practically all night. Is it something I did?”
Behind her.They were walking down the aisle on the other side of the wall of stalks. The corn was planted too close together for her to see them, but she turned her ear in their direction.
