Page 5 of Promises & Pumpkins (Haunted in Hazy Cove #1)

Harper

“Icannot believe you’re dragging me here.

” I cringed when someone wearing a clown mask walked up to us; next to me, my sister laughed maniacally.

“I hate this!” When I put my hands up in front of me like a makeshift shield, the clown laughed again and walked off to terrorize the next group of people walking through the gate.

I hadn’t even been there for five minutes yet, and I already regretted letting my sometimes-a-bully sister force me into it.

“Don’t be such a scaredy cat,” Bridget said, skipping ahead of me a few steps.

I considered turning around and hurrying back to the car.

If I went quickly enough, she wouldn’t be able to stop me.

But when I turned around, there was another actor in another mask meant to startle me.

It worked enough to make me stop, giving Bridget enough time to grab onto my arm.

I sighed. “I’m not scared,” I lied. It was obvious to anyone that could see us that I was more than scared. “But I’m definitely not going in there,” I added, pointing to the haunted house. When I heard a girl scream, it made my blood run cold.

“Oh at least keep walking.” Bridget forced me to take the next step. When we saw a group of teenage boys walk out of the haunted house with their arms linked, she held mine tighter. She was going to make sure there was no way for me to run. “Don’t be a buzz kill. This is fun!”

“There is nothing fun about this,” I grumbled, glaring at her from the side of my eye. We kept walking between groups of people either anxiously waiting for their turn to go into the house or those who had just come out of it and their adrenaline was still too high for them to go home.

“All of this is fun! You just need to have an open mind.” Bridget looked around us with the opposite of my dread painted on her face.

Her excitement was thick in the cold fall air.

“Let’s have your fortune read.” She pointed to an open canopy with a table and a couple folding chairs.

Sitting at the table was a woman next to a sign that promised palm readings.

I shook my head and stuck my hands in my pockets. “I don’t think so.”

“Come on!” She nudged me, causing enough of a scene that the woman at the table looked at us. The woman cocked her head and smiled.

“Come in, come in. Let me see what your future may hold.” The sign next to her said Lady Matilda. She rubbed her hands together, and I wondered if that was her real name. Surely she made it up as part of a persona.

“No, thank you.” I tried to take a step, but Bridget gripped my arm tighter, holding me still while she practically buzzed next to me. My stomach sank when my sister took a step toward the tent.

Lady Matilda laced her fingers together and rested her hands on the table. “You may be surprised what secrets are carved into your hands. I could reveal something about yourself to you.” I shook my head again, but Bridget nodded.

“Oh, I think you’re doing it. You need to have some fun.” She dragged me to the chair, all but forcing me into the seat. “How much is it?”

“Twenty dollars.” Lady Matilda held out her hand, taking the cash Bridget eagerly offered her.

She folded it twice and tucked it into her bra before she took my hand and forcefully flipped it over in hers.

I lifted my brows when she spread my fingers apart before tracing her thumb over the lines in my palm and humming.

“Mmh so interesting. So very interesting.”

I lifted a brow, trying to hide my annoyance. I never believed psychics or fortune tellers—especially not ones sitting in metal folding chairs outside a haunted house. “What is?” I asked, staring at my hand and seeing nothing unusual.

“You have a lot of tension. A lot of tension.” Lady Matilda hummed again, flipping my hand over and back, and I rolled my eyes. Tension wouldn’t be far off after moving to a new town and getting a new job at a new dance studio. Any change came with some tension. Didn’t it?

“I just moved to town,” I said, justifying the tension she apparently saw in my palm even though the details in my hands didn’t change with my stress levels. “It’s been a bit stressful.”

“No, not that kind of tension.” She looked up at me, holding my hand tighter. “How long has it been since your last release?”

I choked on my next breath, coughing and sputtering for air. “Excuse me?” I asked when I regained my composure.

Lady Matilda gave me a knowing smirk that suggested somehow the line she traced on my hand told her that I haven’t had sex in over a year and that the few times before then had been lackluster.

If I wasn’t careful, she was going to guess how many times I had faked it—and I didn’t want her to be right.

“It has been a long time since you’ve had an orgasm.

” She held my hand tighter when I tried to pull it away.

“But there is an older man that is going to change all of that for you very soon.”

“Okay,” I said, dragging the word out and tugging my hand away from her.

I put it in my lap beneath the table as if hiding the lines in my palms would hide the embarrassment on my face too.

“I think I’m done now. Thank you. This has been…

fun.” I stood up, cradling my hand in the other and spinning around.

“Harper?” Miles was standing outside the tent when I took my first step, and my stomach crashed against my rib cage. How much of that had he heard? “I thought you hated all things scary.” He smirked, making me think that he’d heard too much. Great.

I put my hands up in front of me before remembering what Lady Matilda had said.

Then I curled them into loose fists and stuffed them in my pockets before Miles could read the same thing.

It has been a long time. “Oh, I do,” I said.

“My sister forced me to come here.” I pointed over my shoulder to where Bridget watched anxiously.

“Are you going to introduce me?” She stepped forward, and I swallowed the dread. Really, I just wanted to go home and hide away from the swirl of humiliation building in my core. I sighed.

“Miles, this is my sister, Bridget. Bridget, this is my new neighbor, Miles.” I pointed from one to the other.

“Ah, the one who helped you break into your house!” Bridget laughed when I shot her a glare that told her to shut up even though I knew she had no intention of doing so. When Miles laughed with her, a flood of butterflies raced from my stomach to my throat.

He smirked. “The breaking in was all this troublemaker right here. I got there just in time to stop her. It’s nice to meet you.” Miles shook Bridget’s hand before turning and looking over my shoulder at Lady Matilda’s table. “So you had your fortune read, huh?”

Panic filled me while I shook my head, desperately trying to come up with any excuse for what she said that didn’t have anything to do with my not getting laid.

Before I had to answer for myself, my sister’s fiancé walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “There you are! Are we going to go in the haunted house?” Wade nodded toward the line waiting to get in.

Bridget giggled, looking at me before she looked back at him. “Harper is too scared.”

“Ah come on, Harper! You might like it!” Wade clapped his hands together once, preparing himself to convince me to change my mind. He wasn’t going to succeed.

“No way. Not happening.” I stubbornly crossed my arms. “You go without me.”

Bridget scrunched her nose but relaxed her face when she looked at Miles. “But what are you going to do?”

“I can take her home,” Miles said before I could make an excuse about finding somewhere to sit and hide that was clown-free, and my heart started racing faster when I felt him step closer to me.

Lady Matilda’s voice echoed in the back of my mind.

There is an older man that is going to change all of that for you.

“Are you sure?” Wade asked, growing more eager to go into the haunted house. Next to him, Bridget widened her eyes, likely remembering the same words. She had listened to the psychic too.

“You really don’t have to do that.” I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be alone with him after Lady Matilda’s statement. He lifted his brow.

Miles looked at me and smirked, and my stomach twisted itself in knots. “Nonsense. I’m going right there, remember? Unless you want to go into the haunted house.” He wiggled his brows, even when I shook my head.

“I’m definitely not going in there.”

He laughed, nodding toward the parking lot. “Well that answers that then, huh, troublemaker? Let’s get out of here before that guy in the mask behind you scares the piss out of ya.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Bridget said, not even waiting a minute before she was letting Wade lead her toward the line. She winked, and I knew there was no way Miles didn’t see it. What did he think it meant?

I nodded, turning to follow him toward the parking lot. How had I walked in with my sister and somehow ended up leaving with my probably-heard-my-embarrassing-fate neighbor? Even more so, how did the butterflies in my stomach have me half convinced that this wasn’t a mistake?

“Thanks for the ride home,” I said when Miles pulled into his driveway. Relief settled over me knowing there would be nobody wearing masks and taunting me now. I got out of the car, standing there with the door open while Miles did the same.

“I was happy to do it.” He looked at my house and the front light that lit up the empty porch, then he looked back at his. “It’s still early. Do you want to come in for a drink?”

I shrugged and even though I knew I should go home, I nodded. “Sure. Why not?” When Miles smiled, I wondered if I was making a mistake, but the butterflies in my stomach convinced me to follow him to his front porch.