“...and tell ghost stories! Her house is haunted, you know,” a girl wearing a Wonder Woman costume said.
Owen grunted some incomprehensible verbiage, which she chose to ignore. “The garage door will be up and bring your own stories too, just nothing too scary.” She leaned over and batted the little girl’s nose.
“Why not?”
She chuckled. “Chief McNally gets kind of frightened by all those stories and we don’t—”
“I do not,” he said with a deep voice. “They are just stories. Not real.”
“He’s such a spoil sport, isn’t he?” Courtney felt the floor shake. Either he was fast approaching, or pacing. “See you all later.” She dumped a few more pieces of candy in each bag, and then closed the door behind her. “You know, having all the kids here keeps them out of trouble.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He reached in her bowl and yanked out a Kit Kat bar. “It gives them ideas.”
“About what? How to use a scary story to feel a girl’s boob?”
He had the gall to laugh. “That, among other things.” After scrunching up the foil wrapper, he popped the entire candy bar into his mouth and chewed.
She stared at his hard features, but she could have sworn there was something playful in his eyes.
Go for it! the voice whispered.
Don’t think now is the right time. She wanted to scream at her grandmother but refrained since Owen was currently licking a chocolate spot off his upper lip. “Why don’t you let me?”
He leaned in, inches from her face. “I’ll let you if you call off the witch pow-wow.”
Immediately, she recoiled. “That was uncalled for.”
Why was he smiling? This shouldn’t be fun for him. She took a step back when he reached out toward her.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, still with a playful gleam to his gaze.
“You have to ask?”
“You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.” He touched her chin with his thumb. “Don’t like getting called on your own game, do you?”
She shoved his hand away. “I’m not playing games with you. Not this time, anyway.”
“Really.” He stepped away from her, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’ve got a hard time believing that. You probably even knew which classes I was speaking in today.”
“Oh my God. You’re an asshole.” She reached in her bowl, grabbed a handful of candy, and tossed it at him.
“Just tell me what you want,” he said, dodging a few stray lollipops. “Be up front with me and maybe, just maybe, I’ll come back tonight.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to come back.”
“Maybe? Yes? Or is it no?” He shook his head. “See, you can’t even give me a straight answer.”
“Ugh! You’re twisting everything around.” She wanted to douse the man in ice cubes.
“I’m only playing the game by your rules.”
“You know, up until five minutes ago, I knew exactly what I wanted, but now, well, my eyes have been opened—wide open.”
He pinched his brow as if he were confused by her statement. She had half a mind to clarify what she meant, but then thought better of it. Things were so messed up, she wondered if they were fixable.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “I’m sorry I tricked you yesterday, but this isn’t a trick and don’t use that stupid cry wolf story because that is not what I’m doing.”
“It’s hard to believe considering what you did.”
“Won’t happen again. My mistake. Now if you don’t mind, I have things to do.” She pointed to the door, all the while blocking out her grandmother’s voice giving her a mental whipping for not being able to see his side. His side! Please.
No. I told you to talk to him. You’re the one who decided to play games. I was just trying to help make sure it worked.
Yeah, well, it didn’t.
“I have to file a report,” he said with a scowl.
“On what? A break-in you don’t believe happened? Please. Can’t you just go back to your office and tell them what you really think, that I’m a whack job?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Just then, the doorbell rang again. “You should go do your cop thing,” she said.
“I’ll see you later,” he said, stepping through the front door. He didn’t look back, just strode along the brick sidewalk toward the driveway with his head held high.
Well, crud. Being a bitch wasn’t going to help her land her man, but he was being a pigheaded idiot. She had half a mind to ask her grandmother what to do, but at the moment, dear grandma was yapping in her ear about how to be a lady and how to properly treat a man.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever.” She dropped a few candy bars into the kids’ bags, then closed the door.
But when she looked out the window and watched his patrol car roll down the street, she realized she needed to fix this. Soon. Tonight.
But how?
5
Owen patrolled around in the neighborhoods for the next hour, constantly glancing at his watch. The closer it got to eight, the faster his heart raced. He kept telling himself going back to her place wasn’t about her, but about keeping an eye out for the older kids who showed up, the ones who would take the stories and use them to do Lord only knew what. Besides, he was still really ticked. He couldn’t believe she’d stoop to turning over her own furniture like that. Hell, he would have come over. Hadn’t it been obvious he’d enjoyed himself last night? Hadn’t he told her he’d come by? What was she thinking?
What was he thinking?
It wasn’t her this time, and you know it. It was others. What happened to your gut instincts?
They’re confused with my head.
No, they’re not. Just stop fighting it.
Maybe.
He rolled his vehicle to a stop at the end of Courtney’s driveway. A group of people already gathered in her garage. The grown-ups stood around a small table covered with Courtney’s creations and cups holding some steamy liquid.
His mouth watered, assuming it was Lilly’s homemade hot apple cider,
