Page 45 of A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love

Until the Store Closes

Christina

The days blur together in a mix of school, haunted house, and spending time with Pepper.

A perfect blend of sweet and hot—a recipe that I would never get tired of.

I didn’t mention the thing that happened at Take It Cheesy.

I don’t know how to even bring it up without sounding completely bananas.

Plus, we’re coming down to the final days—finishing up projects and getting all our last preparations in order for the big show.

Today Pepper is helping me and two of my students put the final touches on the mural—the one that got destroyed by the pipe bursting—in the “examination” room.

I envisioned Skylar being devastated when I told her what had happened. But she shrugged it off and said she’d fix it as soon as she was allowed—which is today.

The plaster is finally completely dry, so she’s been hard at work quickly turning disaster into art. She’s a born leader as well as talented—this kid will be going places.

Skylar and her friend Tawny lead the charge, instructing Pepper and me in exactly what needs to be done.

Pepper cleans up some of the white lines since she has a steadier hand than I do.

She focuses so intently on her project, the tip of her tongue pops out of her mouth from time to time, and I can’t help my mind from wandering into dangerous places—like last night when she did things with her tongue I had only read about in romance novels.

Pepper glances at me from the corner of her eye and smirks like she knows exactly what I’m thinking. My cheeks heat up immediately, announcing to her that she’s correct. She lifts her brows and shakes her head at me.

What? I mouth.

You’re bad , she mouths back.

Paint runs down my hand and arm from holding my brush up too long. “Crap.” I drop it by my side, and the paint runs back in the opposite direction.

“Someone’s going to need a shower when we’re done.” Pepper winks at me, and the thought of her in my shower with me pops involuntarily into my head. How much longer until we can clean up and head home for the night?

“Oh my god. Same,” Tawny says. “I don’t know how anyone paints and doesn’t get it all over themselves.” She has on a pair of overalls that when we started preparing for this event months ago looked almost brand-new, and now they are covered with paint and fake blood and god knows what else.

“Some of us don’t have that problem,” Skylar says.

She’s in leggings and a T-shirt, but she doesn’t have even a speck of paint on her, and she’s the one who’s done the most on this project.

I’m not sure how it’s possible. I’ve just started and already am close to ruining another shirt—luckily this one isn’t designer—even with this skeleton apron on. I learned that lesson a long time ago.

“Not all of us are professionals,” Tawny shoots back.

“Even Ms.L has paint everywhere.” Tawny’s red hair is pulled up away from her face, and there’s a mixture of blue and black paint smeared across her cheek and onto her ear.

The shirt she’s wearing also has a rainbow of colors from all her time working in the house, much like the overalls.

That’s what most of the kids do, wash and wear the same clothes over and over so they don’t ruin everything.

“What do you think, Ms.L?” Skylar asks as she steps away from her work.

“It’s impressive. You can’t even tell the wall has been cut out and put back together.

” It’s like there was nothing there before at all.

It’ll be a shame when we paint over this for future Halloweens to come.

At least I probably won’t be here to see it happen.

I’ve been thinking about Dad’s proposition, and with everything going so well with Pepper, it feels like it could be the best time to take the next step in my life. I need to talk to her about it.

“Do you think something is missing in their eyes?” Pepper steps back and inspects the piece with us.

“I could add the fluorescent paint, and then when the black light hits them, they’ll really glow,” Skylar says. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”

“I just posed the question,” Pepper says. “It was your idea.”

Skylar nods—a huge smile on her face.

Pepper has a way with the kids that even I haven’t mastered.

I honestly think she might have missed her calling—she would be an amazing teacher.

Much better than me, that’s for sure. Maybe she could take over for me here, and then when things are more settled at home and I’ve built up a little inventory, I could come back up this way and open a store on Artichoke Street.

We wouldn’t be too far away from each other for too long—the drive isn’t terrible. It could be perfect.

Skylar goes back to painting the eyes with some of the glow paint, and Pepper bumps me with her hip.

I want to throw my arms around her and tackle her to the ground, but of course I don’t. “That was really sweet of you,” I whisper instead.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says. She really is too modest.

“You’d make a great teacher,” I tell her, to plant the seed.

“You should autograph this,” Tawny is telling Skylar.

She glances at me then back at the wall. “Don’t you think that would be weird?”

I shake my head. It’s her masterpiece. “I don’t think so.” She should be proud of what she’s done—twice now.

“I don’t know,” Skylar says.

“You could do it in black paint in the bottom corner, so it’s there but isn’t totally noticeable and doesn’t take away from your design,” Pepper suggests. Another great idea.

“Maybe if everyone who worked on it gets to sign it, too.” Skylar looks at me again. “Would that be okay?”

“Yes, of course.”

Skylar crouches down and paints her name in the far corner, then she hands the paintbrush to Tawny. “We need to find Hallee,” Skylar says, a big smile on her face.

Tawny finishes and hands the paintbrush back to Skylar. “I’ll go find her.” And she runs out of the room.

“Your turn.” Skylar goes to hand me the paintbrush.

“Oh, that isn’t necessary.” I shake my head. It’s so sweet, but this is her masterpiece. I’ve barely done anything.

“But you have to,” she says.

Pepper presses her lips together and gestures toward the corner with her head—like I shouldn’t argue.

“Fine,” I relent. There’s plenty of room down here for my whole name, but instead I paint my initials with an extra little heart looped into my L.

“Supercute,” Skylar says. “Now you.”

“Me?” Pepper says.

“Yes, you,” I agree, handing her the brush. If I have to do it, so does she.

Pepper crouches down as Hallee comes into the room. “Wow,” she says, inspecting the finished product.

“Right?” I say.

“And when we turn the black lights on, their eyes will glow.” Skylar goes over and points at them on the wall.

“I believe you’re next.” Pepper hands the brush to Hallee.

“This is such a cool idea,” Hallee says as she bends down to where we’ve all already signed.

The alarm on my phone goes off, pulling my attention away from Hallee. “Cleanup time,” I announce.

It’s a rush to rinse brushes, put things away, and make sure the kids get picked up—the ones who don’t have their own cars or aren’t walking home.

Thirty minutes later, Pepper and I are doing the final walk-through of the night to make sure paint cans are closed and no one left any snacks out.

“I think it was a successful day, don’t you?” she asks.

“I do.” I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close. “And I think you said something about a shower earlier.”

“You caught that, did you?” She brushes her nose against mine before kissing me. “Are you ready?”

Ready to get out of here and get her naked? Yes. I pat my back pocket. “I just need to find my phone.”

Pepper laughs. “I should’ve known you would lose something while we were here.”

I walk to the other side of the room and check around the spot where I hung some intestines on the wall. “And I wanted to talk to you about something, too.”

“Oh really,” she says as she starts searching for my phone, too.

“You know how I went to my parents’ house a few weeks ago, and how my mom hurt herself?”

“Yeah, is she okay?”

“She’ll be fine, but my dad had an idea, and seeing how great you are with the kids and everything, it got me thinking…

” I go on to tell her everything Dad said about moving home for a while and supporting my art as Pepper follows me from room to room searching for my phone.

She doesn’t interrupt me—which is so sweet.

My thoughts are racing a million miles a minute, and I need to get them all out.

I tell her how she could take my job here—how she would be so great at it, the way she handled Skylar and the kids tonight.

That’s it. “I remember where my phone is,” I tell her without looking her way. “It’s in the mural room.” I remember when the alarm went off, I left it on the paint table.

I tug her hand, and we head in that direction.

She waits by the door as I walk in to grab it. “You want to move away?” Her voice is so light, I almost don’t hear her. It’s sweet she’s worried. That she cares as much as I do. But she doesn’t have to be concerned. I have a plan.

“It’s not like that. I wouldn’t be that far, and it wouldn’t be forever.

Plus, it’s a way for me to finally pursue my true passion.

I was never supposed to teach here forever.

” I chuckle. “I’m actually surprised I’ve lasted this long.

” Three years. It’s already been three years, although it hardly seems that long the way time flies by.

The mural really turned out great, and painting our names was such a sweet touch. I still can’t believe Skylar wanted me to be a part of that, and Pepper, too. That’s why she’d be perfect here with them. That’s why Pepper needs to consider this idea.

I glance down to the corner, and my breath catches.

No. It can’t be.

There, next to Skylar’s name, is a PW and a simple little flower—a swirl in the middle of five petals. I glance at Pepper and back to the wall again. The same one that I’ve seen over and over. The one that’s been following me like some kind of sign.

“You can’t leave,” she says, but I can barely hear her over the ringing in my ears.

My gaze is glued on the corner. “Do you know where that came from?”

“What?” she asks. “Let’s talk about this plan of yours. You can’t move away from here.”

“I need to know how that drawing got here.” I point.

“The little flower? Does it really matter?” She pushes out a loud breath. “I guess I did that when I painted my initials. It’s kind of like a habit anytime I have any kind of writing utensil in my hand. But this is serious, Christina. We need to talk about you wanting to leave Clover Creek.”

“You did that?” She told me she did, but I don’t understand. It’s just not possible.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. Was that not okay? I can paint over it if you want.”

I race out of the room and grab my bag, pulling out the folders. It’s in here somewhere.

“Hey, wait!” Pepper rushes after me. “We need to talk.”

I snatch the old receipt and hold it out to her. “Did you do these, too?”

Her gaze floats to the paper in my hand and back to me, and she nods. “I must have when you were at the store.” Her voice is tight. “Christina, you can’t move away from here.”

My head moves up and down, but words get clogged in my throat. This isn’t possible. It doesn’t make any logical kind of sense.

“Say something, please,” she says, but I’m still staring at her—the girl who I thought I met the day the Halloween store opened for the year—and the air gets so thin, I can’t breathe.

“Have we met before?” I croak out.

Pepper’s face morphs like she’s been punched in the stomach. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” I thrust the receipt toward her. “How is it that you drew on this?” My voice is getting louder, and Pepper is shaking her head.

“It’s just a habit—”

“This is from three years ago!” That’s the date on the receipt. That’s when I purchased these items myself—it’s the last four digits of my credit card number printed here.

Pepper’s face loses all its rosiness.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I’m yelling now because this is more terrifying than ghosts or zombie patients.

“I can explain.” She puts her hands up and slowly walks toward me.

“Explain how you drew on this three years ago, but also we somehow just met two months ago?” It sounds too wild to be true—and if I weren’t looking at her and didn’t have this paper in my hand, I wouldn’t believe it. “How did you do this?”

Demons. The story Eli told in this very room weeks ago rushes to my mind.

“Because we have met before. You just don’t remember.” Her voice has changed into something calmer, and she sounds like normal confident Pepper—so sure of what she’s saying, but how could that be?

Tears sting the backs of my eyes, and I shake my head again. No. That’s not right. “Whatever you’re playing with, I don’t like it.” I grab my bag and sling it over my shoulder. I need to get out of here.

“No. Please don’t go,” Pepper says. “You can’t move away.

You can’t leave me. I can’t lose you again.

” Her breath hitches. “I can’t lose you forever!

” She wraps her arms around her stomach like she’s shielding herself from some kind of terrible beast as she crumbles to the floor.

Pepper, the woman I’ve come to know that isn’t afraid of anything, looks so small and scared. My heart cracks wide open.

She reaches out to me. Her hand trembling.

Her eyes pleading. I may not know everything about her, but this feels vulnerable and real.

This is a side of Pepper White I haven’t seen before.

I find myself taking her hand and kneeling next to her.

She draws me closer and runs a finger along the scar on my arm. “I know how you got this,” she says.

A chill races up my spine. I don’t know the story; just one day I woke up and it was there. “Tell me.”