by Marie Harte
But what if none of it was real?
Chapter Fifteen
Ann spent the remainder of her day in a weird funk. The kids must have picked up on her mood, because she had to break up several fights and threaten the class with no Halloween party on Monday if they didn’t stop the nonsense.
Fortunately, she made it to the bell without any blood being spilled, and even better, Josh showed no sign of knowing where his uncle had spent the night.
That evening she took a small break from Jack. She needed the time to convince her friends not to kill her for volunteering their help with his move. Especially since she had a feeling the Blacks would show up as well. She hadn’t missed the way Dex had leered at Maya. Those two were ticking bombs likely to could go off at any time.
She arrived at Riley’s bearing her usual cheese platter spruced up with a side of expensive Honeycrisp apple slices.
Maya answered the door and dragged her inside. “Her highness is making pumpkin bread. I love Halloween.”
“Me too.” Her favorite holiday. She still had to decorate the house, but with all the excitement and stress of having Jack in her life again, she’d put off everything, even carving her pumpkin.
They joined Riley in the kitchen, watching her work. The woman had an economical ease of movement, multitasking and making it look easy.
“It’s so annoying that she can cook like this and still mouth off while doing it,” Maya complained.
Ann grinned. “I know.”
“Don’t hate, Maya. We can’t all have my mad skills.” Riley blew her a kiss, and Maya told her to do something to herself that usually required a partner or at least a rubber toy.
“Ah, I missed this. Such deep friendship.” And there was the finger from Maya. “Our loving way of signing how we feel to one another.”
Maya snickered. Riley nodded to the fridge. “Grab me some milk, would you?”
“I don’t know, Riley,” said Ann. “Are you driving anywhere tonight? You can be such a lush.”
“Smartass.” Riley laughed. “Now talk. Maya and I have some concerns about you and Jack Bloom.”
“Some? Try a ton,” Maya added. “And by the way, you can tell him I don’t need any messages from Dexter Black in the future.”
“Ah, okay.” Ann toyed with the cheese plate in front of her, peeling off the plastic wrap, then putting it back.
“Ack. Stop it.” Maya grabbed the tray away from her. “Talk, woman.”
“I think I love him,” she said in a rush.
“I knew it,” her friends said at the same time. Riley sounded triumphant. Maya looked as if she might cry.
“I can’t help it. He’s amazing in bed. He calls me. He texts me sweet messages. And he’s been so terrific. I had dinner with his family last night. Then he slept over, and I wanted him to be there tomorrow. And the next day.”
“The kiss of death.” Maya groaned. “You’re toast.”
“Pay up,” Riley demanded of her. “Ann, falling in love is a good thing. I never thought you’d go through with that stupid revenge plan. I mean, revenge for what?”
Maya frowned. “For him dumping her for Thorpe, remember? Publically. What did he say about that, anyway?”
“Well, that’s just it.” Ann swallowed. “We haven’t exactly talked about it yet.”
Riley scowled. “Why not?”
“What’s he hiding?” Maya wanted to know.
“I don’t know. It’s not just him. I kind of don’t want to talk about it either. There are old wounds there, and we’re new and having fun. Being with him makes me so happy. Do I really want to go dredge all that up?”
“Yes,” Riley surprised her by saying. She would have pegged Maya as someone to indulge conflict, but not easy-going Riley. “Because as much as it’s fun and games now, you won’t be able to let it go. I know you, Ann. You need to know why, at least. He never mentioned why he left in all the time you guys were apart. Just get it out and let the old wound heal.”
Maya nodded. “What she said. I would have said it another way, but yeah. Deal with it. Ignoring it never makes it go away. Hello? Me and my mother issues? Not going anywhere.”
“I know.” She groaned. “I’m just afraid of ruining this. I tried not to love him. I really did.”
“Sure… Were your legs open or closed when you were trying so hard?”
Riley sputtered with laughter. “Maya.”
“What? Girl got hooked on that boy’s—”
“Do not say dick,” Ann snarled. “I am not so hard up for sex that I’d fall for any man with more than six inches of steel.”
“Oh. Steel, huh? And more than six?” Maya’s eyes twinkled. “You go, Whorish Ann. You’re a lot more fun than Nice Ann.”
“Stop talking.” Ann couldn’t help it and laughed despite herself. “You get me so mad sometimes. I am not too nice.”
“No, you’re not,” Maya shocked her by agreeing. “You need to realize that. Now stop being a wimp and talk to Jack. Or I’ll get the answers for you.” Her smile suggested her way would not be pretty.
“Um, yeah. About Jack…”
“What?” Riley asked, eyes focused on her dough.
“I kind of volunteered you two to help him move.”
Two sets of shocked gazes bored holes into her. Then Riley eyed the sliced apple in her hand and put it back on the tray.
“Excuse me?” Maya glared.
“Sorry, but, well, it’s important to me. I want you there, and I want you guys to be friends with the guy I love. Dex and Anson are busy—” she hoped “—so Jack needs the help. Look, it’ll get him out of his brother’s place. Do it for me, so I can have sex away from my nosy neighbors.”
“Oh man. Why do you have to ask it like that? Of course I’ll help one of my best buds get some.” Maya’s stringent moral code—to always help out a sister who needed to get laid.
“Perfect. He’s not moving until next week anyway. So, Halloween at my place?” The girls nodded. “Great. Now let’s talk about Anson’s restaurant next to Riley’s. How are we going to handle that problem?”
The collective “we” put their heads together and tried to come up with a solution to Riley’s problem. But deep down, Ann knew she wouldn’t be able to relax until she and Jack had their talk.
Jack waited on Ann’s porch and looked around. She’d gone all out, spreading mounds of cobwebs, a jumping spider that had nearly given him a heart attack and some ghouls and goblins on her miniscule lawn.
The neighborhood was loaded with kids, so the streets had mobs of tiny monsters and superheroes roaming for candy from house to house.
He hurried to push the doorbell before a horde of ghosts could overtake him. He carried a dozen black roses for Ann, whom he knew would get a kick out of the gesture, and two white long-stemmed ones for her friends. When Maya opened the door dressed as a witch, he grinned, pleased he’d been right about her friends being there. “Trick or treat.”
She stared at him and raised a brow. “That’s your costume?”
He wore a dark black suit under a flowing cape and knew he looked damn good. For his boutonniere he wore a rotting red rose, and when he grinned, he sported two subtly placed fangs. “I’m the guy your mother warned you about.”
“Fair enough.” Maya let him in, and he found Riley inside wearing a witch costume as well. Long black dresses, pointy hats, and overdone makeup made the pair look more like sexy spell-casters than old hags. “Hey, guys, the stud Ann ordered is here.”
“Great intro, Maya. Thanks.” He handed her a white rose.
She gave him a glare, then softened and accepted it with a flourish. “My pleasure.” She turned to greet a new batch of trick-or-treaters while Riley waved at him.
“Hey, handsome. Aren’t you cute?”
“I was going for sexy and dangerous, but I’ll take cute.” He handed her the other white rose.
She looked from her stem to the dozen black ones still in his hand and grinned. “Oh yeah
. You’re definitely the man our mothers warned us about. Your witch is in the garage looking for extra spiders.”
“O-kay.” He hoped she wasn’t trying to find ingredients to make a potion. Not that she needed one. He’d already fallen under her spell, and last night had only proven it to him.
He found her teetering on a ladder and rushed to steady her.
“Thanks—oh. Hi, Jack.” She smiled at him, and like her friends, she made witchery look sexy.
“Are vampire-vitch relations okay with your vitch council?” he asked in a spooky accent. “Because I vant to suck your blood right now.”
“Tell you what. As soon as I get those glow-in-the-dark spiders down from the top shelf, you can suck away.”
“Come down from there.” He yanked her over his shoulder and gently set her down. Jack handed her the flowers, then used the rickety ladder to fetch her box of spiders. “Plastic. Thank God. I thought you went native and were after the real deal.”
“No, just the glowy ones. They’re to put on the webs on the porch. I totally forgot about them until Joey Hindenmeier told me they were missing.”
“Good old Joey.” He had no idea who the kid was.
“You brought me black flowers.” She blinked at them, then looked closer at the band holding them together. “Is this a ring?”
A piece of black satin tied the thorny flowers together, and attached to that he’d affixed his old high school ring. What he’d once given to Ann.
“I know this is your favorite holiday.”
“You remembered how much I love black roses.”
“Not hard to remember, actually. You’re the only woman I know who thinks they’re cool, not creepy.” He smiled but grew concerned to see her tearing up. “Ann?”
“Your ring?” She cleared her throat. “Kind of an odd present.”
“Not really. It was always yours.” He hadn’t planned to do this in a garage of all places, but the words needed to be said, and he couldn’t wait any longer. Time was not on his side with the witches in the house. Unable to hold it in any longer, he blurted, “I’m yours.”
“Jack?”
He kissed her, then pulled back to see her. “Honey, I’m in love with you. I have been since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”
“In fifth grade?” she rasped.
“Well, the first moment I laid eyes on you after you got boobs.”
She wiped a tear from her eye and snorted. “There’s my Mr. Romance.”
“After that first date, I knew. You were mine. It wasn’t puppy love. Not a first romance or first sexual experience that made me think you were it. I just felt it, in here.” He brought her hand to his heart. “We never talked about what happened back then. And you know, I just don’t care anymore. Terry Chapman doesn’t matter. You matter, Ann. I love you.”
“Oh my God.” Riley’s voice rang out from the doorway behind them. The door slammed shut before Maya could respond.
Just the two of them again, the way it should have been in all the years since they’d been apart.
“You love me?” Ann put the flowers on a shelf and gripped his hands in hers. “I-I love you too, Jack. And it scares me to death.”
His heart felt overfull. “Trust me. I know.”
She opened her mouth then closed it and frowned. “Terry Chapman? I haven’t heard that name in years.”
“Yeah, well, I’d rather not talk about him if it’s all the same to you.” He hated the thought that she’d gone to Chapman behind his back. “But fuck it. I have to know, then I promise we’ll never mention him again. Why him? I mean, was I that bad in bed or something?” He felt his cheeks heat, but the not knowing killed him. If she admitted he’d been lacking, he could move on. After all, he’d learned a lot since high school.
“Wait. I’m still confused. Terry Chapman?”
“Ann, I know.”
“Know what?”
He frowned. She seemed genuinely confused. “I know about you and Terry, that you slept with him.”
“Are you insane?”
“What are you talking about? Everyone knew. Selena told me—”
“Selena?” Ann’s eyes darkened. “That bitch.”
“Hold on.” The truth started to emerge. “Selena told me she’d seen you and Terry making out at the bonfire before homecoming. Tim and Darren confirmed it. Are you saying they all lied?”
“Hell yes, they all lied! Why didn’t you ask me about him? I would have told you as much.”
Dumbfounded, he barely noticed when she let go of his hands. “Really? You never slept with him? That’s why we broke up.”
“We broke up because you were seeing Selena on the side.”
“I only went out with her because you were doing Chapman. Wait, wait.” He clutched his head, his whole world turned around. “So you never cheated on me with Terry?”
“No. I didn’t.” She planted her hands on her hips, and dear God, he believed her.
“Holy shit.” He wanted to strangle Selena then toss the remains to Ann for real retribution. “I’m so sorry. I thought…”
“But why?” Her eyes pooled, bewitching, bewildered. “I loved you so much. I was devastated when you broke up with me—for her of all people. You were so cruel about it.”
As if it were yesterday, he remembered the scene in the school lunchroom. “Damn. I thought—”
“If you had asked me about it back then, we could have talked. We always used to tell each other everything. Why didn’t you ask me?”
His face felt hot. “Because I was afraid.”
“Of what?” She took his hand, and his heart raced like crazy.
He was embarrassed to admit it. “Afraid I’d driven you to him. That it was my fault. Hell, Ann. You were the only girl I’d ever been with. Sexually.”
“I know.” She gave him a wan smile.
“I never seemed to last that long, and the guys always talked about how to be better in bed. About how the girls measured us by how we performed.”
“I never did that.”
“I didn’t think you had. But Terry had a rep for being a real stud, and everyone knew he was into you. Then Selena and a few guys kept talking about him and you. And there was a rumor you were done with me and wanted him instead. I was embarrassed. I thought I was a stud, and it turned out you thought I was a limp dick.”
“I did not.”
“God, I get it now. I was ashamed and pissed, so I thought I’d embarrass you instead. I had no idea… If I see her again, I’m going to—”
“No. Let it go.” She moved into his arms and hugged him, and he felt like everything might just work out. “All this time I never knew. I mean, we were so happy and the world was ours.” She paused and quieted. “Then you threw me over. I thought you’d been cheating on me.”
He pulled back to stare at her. “Ann, I never looked twice at anyone else. If I hadn’t been more interested in saving my pride, I would have known you would never cheat on me.”
“Certainly not with Terry Chapman.” She grimaced. “He was a pig. One of Selena’s throwaways, I think.”
“That ass. So you never cheated. I was good in bed even back then?” His voice lilted like a question, and he wore a grin so wide he felt the joy to his toes.
“For the record, I never cheated. You were a major stud, but nowhere near as good as you are now.”
“Good. You keep thinking that.” He kissed her, wanting her right now.
She put a hand on his chest and ended the kiss. “And you and Selena…?”
“Are you kidding? I thought I sucked in bed. You think I wanted to sleep with her and have it confirmed? We dated in public to rub your nose in it. And no, I’m not proud I did that, but at least I never fucked her.” He shivered. “Thank God.”
“Well, she is on marriage number three.”
“Four, actually.” He shook his head. “Yep. Karma’s hitting her hard. But I don’t think she’s noticed.”
“Not as hard as Maya’s
going to want her hit her when she finds out what she did.”
He grinned. “Those two really hated each other.”
She tugged his cape. “So I get to keep you, the flowers and the ring?”
“They’re all yours. The flowers are new, but the ring and I have always been yours.”
They kissed, and he knew he’d never look at Halloween the same way again. There really was magic to be had under a full moon on All Hallow’s Eve. Even in a musty garage.
Chapter Sixteen
Maya sneezed from the dust she’d kicked up. “I can’t believe he didn’t just hire someone to move him.”
“Are you still bitching?” Riley sighed and carried another box into the dining room of Jack’s new place. “I’m glad you guys finally got everything out in the open,” she said to Ann.
“Yeah.” Ann hadn’t mentioned why Jack had believed Selena, but that he’d had cause to believe his guy friends who’d lied. No sense in wounding her man’s pride.
The past week had been a magic all its own. They’d spent time at her place, but once he moved in to his, they planned to alternate sleeping arrangements. It helped that he lived so close—and that they lived apart. Their relationship had progressed too fast, and Ann needed time to process. Separate abodes gave them some distance, while only being a five minute walk from each other.
“Hey, where’s the party?” A familiar voice asked.
Ann watched with amusement as Dex and Anson arrived in ratty jeans and sweatshirts.
“Time to move some junk,” Dex said.
“Not junk. My personal treasures,” Jack corrected. Items he’d had in a storage locker until now. Ann didn’t think he had that much, but her friends had complained so much she’d have thought he had enough to fill a mansion, not a small cottage. As it was, the place had come fully furnished, and they moved only his clothes, books and sports equipment in.
“Great timing, guys,” Maya snapped. “We’re just about done with all the heavy lifting.”
Dex grinned, unrepentant. “Awesome. That means pizza without having to work for it.”
Anson arched an imperious brow at Riley. “Might want to watch those precious hands. Your bakery needs you. I need you.” He winked. “Having you next door gives my builders a reason to keep coming back every day. Place smells good, I’ll grant you that. You should expand if you want to show a profit though. I could help you with the financial planning.”
