Page 31 of A Love Like Pumpkin Spice (Wayward Hollow #1)

Nic

“Oh, not again,” I groan and pinch the bridge of my nose when I see Jay leaning against a tree only a few yards away.

He wears a long, dark green coat with gold accents he could hop on a runway with and holds a bottle of fancy-brand water in his hand.

Which I assume is solely because Caleb won’t serve him in his café.

I can’t remember him ever drinking anything but coffee or maybe tea. “Lauren. Incoming asshat.”

She follows my gaze, her expression immediately darkening, and her hands tighten around the small pumpkin she’s holding. We just had a little competition on who of us can build the highest decorative pumpkin tower – which I was about to lose.

“Do you want me to throw a pumpkin at him?” She throws the fist-sized one into the air to demonstrate. “Say the word. I’ll do it. With pleasure. I’ll try to make it look like an accident.”

“Don’t tempt me,” I whisper.

“You could run?” She suggests in a hiss, but I subtly shake my head. I’m not going to give him what he wants, and if I run away, it will only confirm whatever opinion he already has of me.

The autumn festival is this weekend, and Lauren and I were summoned to put up the final batch of fresh decorations, like hay and pumpkins.

The second pumpkin delivery arrived an hour ago. We’ve already spent the whole morning placing the first one along storef ronts, in the gazebo, and throughout the park, playing around with all the different sizes and colors until we’re satisfied with how they’re styled.

God, I never knew how many kinds of pumpkins actually existed. Half of them barely seem real.

And it’s taking forever.

Lauren and I are trying to make a good impression on everyone in town we haven’t gotten to know yet, and we want it all to be perfect.

Considering my ex and my sister are a thorn in everyone’s side and only here because of me, I feel twice as obligated to make these autumn fair decorations a success.

“What do you think it would take for them to leave?” Lauren asks, annoyance clouding her voice as she steps up next to me, shoulders tall and arms crossed in front of her chest. She reminds me of a Chihuahua trying to protect their owner with their aggressive aura alone.

I’d hoped they’d go away. Hell, I even researched if there was any way to get Chaos to haunt them.

Maybe some ghostly taunting would drive them away, but no such luck, since I wasn’t about to kill an innocent frog to make the questionable spell I found work.

Maybe Amanda has a better idea. I’ll need to ask her about it the next time we’re at the store.

Yes. Apparently, I now believe in ghosts and witchcraft. Although, maybe I’m only hoping the latter is real so I can get Jay’s hair to fall out or something.

But they’re still here, acting like they own the town and showing no intention of leaving.

Erik assured me the investigation is in full swing, but I’m losing hope.

I’m not sure what else he needs evidence for.

After all, Anna sent him all the proof she could gather, and Lauren even provided her recording of the scene he caused at the café that I never even realized she took.

I don’t understand what else needs to happen for him to file it as harassment and finally arrest those two.

“ I’m working on it,” he said. To his credit, he completely understood my frustration. And then he hit me with, “Would you rather I rush this and have my mistake let them walk free?” And I’m afraid he’s got a point.

And now Jay is here. Again. All arrogance and sleaziness and completely unaware that half the town would love to bury him under those hay bales.

He never was quite able to read a room.

“Karma will get him. Karma will get him,” I whisper to myself with closed eyes. Then I square my shoulders and prepare myself to listen to more bullshit as he gets closer.

“Nic,” he says in a slippery smooth voice once he’s in earshot, pretending this is a charming meet-cute and not a karmic punishment for me. “You’ve been avoiding me. Us.”

“You don’t say.” I roll my eyes at him as Lauren tries to cover her laughter with a cough.

“Don’t be a smartass.”

I scoff. “If you don’t like it, feel free to walk away. In fact, please do.”

He smiles—the kind that once meant I was home. That made my heart beat faster and butterflies run amok in my belly. Now it makes me fear to get eaten by the big, bad wolf and evokes the urge to throw up on his polished designer shoes.

It’s a good thing I’m not holding a pumpkin. The temptation to throw it at his face would be too great to resist.

“Relax. I just wanted to talk. You’re so tense. Is this place getting to you?”

I don’t answer. Lauren is standing next to us, and I have no doubt that she’s recording every word he’s speaking, letting him dig an even deeper hole. And who knows? Maybe his brain has conjured up some more helpful nuggets for Erik’s investigation that will finally push it along.

So, I let him talk.

He takes a slow sip of the overpriced water bottle in his hand. “You know, when you left, I really worried about you. Everyone did. You were … almost spiraling, weren’t you?”

My jaw tightens. “I wasn’t spiraling. I broke up with you, and you’re throwing a fit about that. Big difference.”

“Right,” he says gently, with a tone that tells me he’s only humoring me. “That’s how you remember it.”

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“You were under so much pressure the past few years. Overwhelmingly stressed when your career was taking off. Remember how you said some extremely unkind things about your coworkers, Nic? I took some interesting screenshots and recordings of voice notes you sent me over the years—of course, I never would use those against you,” he adds quickly, his voice slimy with fake reassurance, “but, you know. Just in case something happened.”

I lift my eyebrow at him, unimpressed. He’s not trying to use them against me but uses “just in case” less than ten seconds later? I glance at Lauren, who appears to be just as dumfounded as I am. We both know I’m the kind of person who bitches about coworkers in person while sipping a cocktail.

God, I would love to learn more about how his brain works. That level of delusion and unrecognized hypocrisy would make life a lot easier. Who cares about facts?

He steps closer, dropping his voice and from the corner of my eye, I see Lauren subtly step closer too.

I have no idea how he doesn’t see the phone in her hand, but I’m not questioning it.

And when she slips it into my hand, I hide it in my sleeve and subtly bring it up higher to catch every word leaving his mouth.

We would make a good spy team at this point.

“But if the public sees those messages now? Or those late-night voice notes? They’re not going to think, ‘Oh, she was under pressure.’ They’re going to think you’re unwell.

Maybe even dangerous. And if someone tells them our relationship broke because of cheating, you know how fast the internet turns on people. ”

“You’re twisting everything,” I say with an annoyed sigh and roll my eyes. “Then again, that’s nothing new. Now your plan is what? To get former coworkers to hate me? To get me under a conservatorship?” I can’t help but giggle. “Please, Jay. That’s a dumb plan, even for you.”

“Come on, Nic,” he says softly—almost pitying—and a wave of disgust washes over me. “I’m trying to stop you from making things worse for yourself. If you walk away from this? Drop the charges? We both move on. No damage done.”

“No damage?” I echo, incredulous, trying my hardest to not break into hysterical laughter. Does he seriously think I’m going to let this go?

“You lied to me. You used me. You and Marissa planned to scam me, and when that didn’t work, you stole my identity and committed fraud. That’s not a misunderstanding, Jay. That’s a crime.”

He sighs, casting himself as the wronged one, who’s exhausted by my antics. “See? This is what I mean. You keep rewriting things in your head. You need someone to blame. It’s easier than facing what’s really going on with you.”

He leans in, brushing imaginary lint from my shoulder, and it’s taking every ounce of my willpower to not flinch when he touches me.

“Let’s keep this quiet. Let it all go. Pay what’s fair.

You don’t need a headline calling you hysterical and a cheater, along with pictures of your new friends.

I don’t think they’d appreciate being in magazines all over the country.

Or hordes of paparazzi running all over your little town here, trying to get interviews. ”

I stay where I am, lifting my chin and giving him the most pitying look I can muster. Every nerve in my body is scream ing, and my hand is tingling with the urge to slap him, but my voice comes out steady.

“Your bluffs don’t work on me anymore,” I say as calmly as I can.

“But honestly, if this is the one thing you see through, I’d be surprised.

You couldn’t manage to do the same with a job.

Or a relationship. Go ahead. Leak what you want.

Make your threats. I don’t care. I know you're lying and who do you think people will believe? A vindictive ex or the person they've worked with?” I subtly glance over at Lauren, who’s giving me an equally subtle thumbs-up.

“Next time you try to blackmail someone in their former industry, don’t pick the person who still knows all the right people. This isn’t going to go how you think.”

Jay stares at me for a beat. Then smiles. A cruel smile that sends a shiver down my spine.

“You always did have a flair for drama.”

“And you always underestimated me,” I shoot back, then turn around and walk away, with my heart pounding and my mouth dry.

Lauren is right with me, linking her arm with mine, and I hand her back her phone. I force myself to take deep breaths, willing my thoughts to stop running at a mile a minute, and try to repeat the same thought over and over again as I remind myself to breathe.

Everything will be okay.

It has to.