“No, honey, no, you’ll be okay. It’s just a precaution. Okay?”
“Okay.”
I hear papers rustling in the back before she says, “I have to get back to my homework, but I’ll call you soon.”
“All right. Be safe, Jos. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Once she’s hung up, I let the phone drop in my lap, noticing my hands are shaking. My whole body is, actually.
So now there’s Kyle, his friends,andthis new boyfriend to worry about.
I hate it. I hate it with everything in me. I also hate how scared I’ve made my little sister. Maybe there’s nothing to be scared of and my own childhood experiences have tainted my view of things. Maybe I’m the one traumatizing Josie now by making her afraid of things that likely won’t happen.
Still, I’m part of the “better safe than sorry” crew.
I go to start the car, but I’m still shaking too hard. Fisting my hands and bringing them back into my lap, I exhale slowly. My gaze roams over the empty parking lot, going over the streetlights and the letters showing the gym’s name. Far away to the left, a truck is parked in front of a row of apartments, one that looks a whole lot like the one I always see in front of the office at the farm.
I wonder what ended up happening with him. If he found his sister after all.
The expression he had when he entered the gym was actually pretty similar to the one I’m probably wearing now. Whether he wanted to or not, he showed me yet another side of him today. One that reminds me a lot of the way I am with Josie.
He wasn’t there for his cleaning gig later during the evening, so I wasn’t able to ask him anything about it. And strangely, I found myself glancing around a few times. I wanted to see that smirk back on his face, as annoying as it is.
I hope everything turns out okay for them. Along with worry, love for his sister was painted all over his face, and I know well enough what that feels like.
I misjudged this man. I’ve been seeing it for a while, but what he’s shown me tonight just confirmed it. There are more sides to him than what meets the eye. Sides that remind me of the charming man I’d initially met in Rome.
And I have to admit, I don’t dislike those sides of him. Not at all.
Chapter 10
Finn
IloveHalloween.
Ever since I was a kid and discovered the magic of dressing up as a superhero and becoming someone else for an entire day, I’ve loved the holiday. For the past month or so, I’ve been working on making it a big event at Evermore so we could start shifting the place from a Christmas-only location into a year-round profitable enterprise, and I couldn’t be more excited about the final result.
The sun is slowly making its descent, creating a halo of marigold over the trees as I look around the main area of the farm. My staff and I have been hard at work for the past two weeks, building a haunted house and a maze throughout the forest, decorated by yours truly. Next to the haunted house, which takes place in one of our bigger barns, two food trucks are setting up for the evening, the smell of fried dough and popcorn filling the air. I’d planned on going to grab some for myself before the beginning of the event, but my stomach feels a little queasy.
This is Sonder Hill. It can’t get smaller than this, there’s not much to do on a Saturday night, and I’ve advertised this event everywhere, so chances are, people will show up. Still, I can’t help wondering,what if?Maybe they know I’m the person in charge of the event, and they only remember me as the guy who accidentally burned down Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery’s pool house with a cigarette butt while hooking up with their daughter in my junior year of high school. It may have been ten years ago, but that’s not the kind of thing people quickly forget.
With one last look around, I jump back into my office to change into my homemade James Bond costume, then walk back out with my hands in my pockets so I can stop wringing them together.
Everything will be fine.It’s Halloween. My favorite holiday.
I cross the main driveway and go set up at the entrance of the farm, where I left the little bags of candies I woke up early this morning to pack. Hopefully, we’ll get a few trick-or-treaters too.
With my toy gun in my right hand and my satin bow tie glowing in the end-of-day light, I take a seat next to the box of candy and wait for people to show up.
Without anyone in sight, I take the opportunity to check whether I’ve received any texts. After what happened with Francesca, I can’t stop myself from being on edge.
We ended up searching for her for a full day before she finally called us back and admitted she was with Cameron, her thirty-five-year-old boyfriend, at some kind of party. Even when Mom pleaded with her to come back home, she refused and said she was fine where she was.
Last year, when she dropped out of college, everyone in the family freaked out, but I tried to rationalize things with my parents. She was a smart girl, and we should trust her to decide what was right. Fran was happy when I took her side and thanked me. I felt confident she was doing the right thing for herself. And, after all, I didn’t go to college either, so I wasn’t one to talk.
Except now I really fucking regret not seeing something was wrong the minute she dropped out of school. I should’ve suspected something was up with her. Immediately after making the decision, she told us she’d found this job with a guy named Cameron, but when we started asking her about it, she closed off and gave vague answers. Then, a month later, she told us she was actually dating the guy. I looked him up, and when I found out how old he was, I blew a fuse. It was a mistake—made her step away from me and stop confiding—and while I’ve tried to keep things to myself since then, I’ve always known something was wrong with that guy. My sister has been different ever since they met. She’s on edge, always asking me to stop worrying and to stay away from the two of them.
