Page 30 of Trick or Tease

GARRETT

I sat at the kitchen table, nursing a cup of coffee while Billy worked the stove, flipping pancakes and humming.

He was wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants that I was pretty sure he had since high school.

I was wearing Nike joggers and a T-shirt.

I only put on my shirt because I didn’t want to answer questions about the war wounds on my back and shoulders.

Sabrina had gotten a little carried away. Not that I minded.

It had been amazing.

That woman could turn me inside out. Sex with her was an experience.

It wasn’t just about getting off. It was mind, body, and soul.

And we had yet to use a bed. Last night, I thought about bringing her back to my bed, but she didn’t want to deal with the questions Billy would have.

He wouldn’t be mad but he would definitely be curious.

But I was pretty damn sure if Lucy knew, Billy knew. They were that kind of couple. They had been together forever and were best friends. And lovers. That was the kind of relationship that meant there were no secrets.

“These are all done,” Billy said, sliding a stack onto a plate and bringing it over. He dropped it in front of me with a grin. “You’re gonna need the fuel today. We’ve got a lot to get done.”

“Thanks,” I said, reaching for the syrup. “You’re turning into quite the chef.”

He laughed, sitting down across from me with his own plate. “Yeah, well, Lucy’s been teaching me. Says I’m not a total lost cause in the kitchen. I’m trying anyway.”

“You’re better than me,” I admitted, cutting into the pancake. “If it wasn’t for takeout and delivery, I would live off peanut butter sandwiches.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” he said. “Peanut butter is the best.”

“True, but I occasionally need to eat something green,” I said, grinning. “Does that mean I’m getting old?”

“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation.

I chuckled. “Thanks.”

We ate in comfortable silence, the only sound the clink of forks against plates. Then Billy looked up at me, his expression serious.

“Garrett, I just wanted to say thanks. For all your help with this whole festival thing. I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while, but you’ve really stepped up and made it happen.”

I shook my head, brushing off the compliment. “It’s not me. You and Sabrina came up with all this stuff. You’ve been putting in the work long before I came back. I’m just here to help. Right place at the right time.”

“Yeah, but it’s more than that,” he insisted. “You’ve got this way of turning chaos into order. Well, not order. These crowds have been insane. But you took charge like a damn general the other day when everyone was frozen. You really saved our bacon. Kept us from getting overwhelmed.”

“That was just instinct.” I shrugged. “You would have jumped in if I hadn’t.”

“Not that smoothly.” Billy shook his head. “Whatever, dude. I’m just saying, I’m glad you stuck around to help. It’s good to have someone I can trust watching my back.”

I hesitated, dragging a chunk of pancake in the syrup on my plate. It felt like an opening to mention the appraisal, but I wasn’t sure how to bring it up without sounding opportunistic. I needed to feel him out. See where his head was at.

“Billy, what are your goals with all this? I mean, long-term. Where do you see this going?”

He frowned, thinking it over. “Honestly? I just want to make it work. The farm’s been struggling for years, and if we can turn a profit off this, pay off some of the debts, that’d be huge. It’d take a lot of pressure off.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. I debated if I should circle around more before asking him. Then I decided I needed to jump in. “And if there was money left over? What would you do with it?”

He looked down at his plate, a sheepish smile appearing.

“Okay, to be honest, if we can make some extra cash, I’m going to propose to Lucy.

I’ve been waiting forever, but I didn’t want to ask her until I could give her something solid, you know?

A real future. A nice ring she can show off.

The wedding of her dreams and a real honeymoon. ”

I stared at him, surprised. I hadn’t expected that. “Billy, that’s awesome. Really?”

He grinned and stuffed another large bite into his mouth. “I think about proposing every day. She keeps me moving forward, even when things get hard. I’m determined to give her the life she deserves.”

“Would you ever consider selling the farm?” I asked, throwing it out there like a hand grenade. I watched, studying his reaction. It was a bold approach but I wanted to see his unguarded response.

He chewed, swallowed, and then took a drink of coffee. “Not unless I had no other choice,” he answered.

“Yeah?” I asked, waiting for him to elaborate.

“I want to live here with Lucy. We’ve talked about running the farm and bringing people together to have some fun for a few months out of the year.

Halloween and Christmas and we were talking about something in early spring.

Just haven’t figured out what to do yet.

If we can keep up the extra revenue, the farm will be okay. ”

I stared at Billy across the kitchen table. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around his dream. He wanted the farm, the festivals, the life here with Lucy. Forever.

“You really want to do that?” I asked. “The rest of your life? Just this?”

Billy tilted his head, a soft smile on his lips. “Yeah, Garrett. Why wouldn’t I?”

I hesitated, searching for the right words. “I don’t know. Isn’t there something else you might want? Something bigger?”

He laughed. “Bigger than this? What else could I possibly want? Me and Lucy have talked about raising our family here since we were sixteen.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out.

What could I say? That I’d spent years chasing promotions, climbing ladders, building a life that felt more like a series of transactions than anything real?

That I’d traded simplicity for success, only to find myself wondering if I’d missed the point entirely?

Billy leaned back in his chair, his grin widening. “You’re thinking too hard, man. Look around you. This place? It’s not just pumpkins and corn. It’s family. It’s community. It’s home.”

I glanced out the window at the fields stretching toward the horizon. It was beautiful, in a way I’d never fully appreciated before.

But still, the question nagged at me. “Don’t you ever feel like you’re missing out? Like there’s a whole world out there, and you’re just here?”

Billy’s expression softened, and for a moment, he looked almost sad. “Missing out on what? Traffic? Meetings? The chance to spend my life trying to impress people who don’t give a damn about me?”

I flinched, his words hitting closer to home than I cared to admit.

“Garrett, this is my world. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

I dropped my gaze to my plate, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. He sounded so sure, so content. I almost felt guilty for even proposing the idea of selling.

I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. The city, the farm, the job, the life all felt like pieces of a puzzle that no longer fit together.

“Don’t overthink it, man. You’re here now. That’s what matters.”

“Listen, I’ve been thinking about something,” I said, anxious to change the subject.

“We need to tie all this together properly. Right now, it’s just random events.

Pumpkin chunking, corn mazes, hayrides—it’s great, but it doesn’t feel cohesive.

We need a theme, a brand. Something that sticks in people’s heads. ”

Billy raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Here’s the thing,” I continued. “We’ve got this incredible haunted house, right?

And Sabrina’s been ‘haunting’ it perfectly.

Why not make that the centerpiece? Lean into the local legend of Old Samuel Hogan, our great-grandfather.

Let’s call it Hogan’s Haunted Farm. We can market it as the place where Samuel still roams, where the farm itself is alive with ghostly energy.

We’ll play up the history, the folklore, all of it. People eat that stuff up.”

Billy grinned, nodding slowly. “I like it. Makes it more than just a festival. Gives it a story. Honors our family’s legacy.”

“Exactly,” I said, pointing at him. “And we can tie everything else into it. The corn maze becomes ‘Sam’s Labyrinth.’ The hayride turns into ‘The Ghostly Trail.’ Even the pumpkin chunking can be ‘Samuel’s Revenge.

’ We’ll make it immersive, like you’re stepping into a legend.

People will talk about it. They’ll come back year after year. ”

“Garrett, that’s genius. It gives everything a purpose, a narrative. You’ve earned yourself another pancake.” He flung a flapjack on my plate, where it immediately soaked up syrup.

“I’d say that’s fair payment.” I sliced into the pancake and shoveled it into my mouth. I never ate like this in the city. It was usually coffee for breakfast and whatever protein shake was in the employee fridge.

It felt good to eat real food after busting my ass the last few days. My body was feeling it. Today looked like it would be busier than the day before, so I wasn’t thinking about the gobs of butter I had smeared on the fluffy pancakes.

“We’ll make the haunted house the main attraction. We’ll deck it out even more. We can add more effects, more stories. Maybe even create a little ‘museum’ in the yard with old artifacts from the farm’s history. Make it feel like you’re stepping back in time.”

Billy chuckled, shaking his head. “See, this is why you need to quit being a lawyer and come home. You’re wasting your talents in the city.”

I laughed. The idea of staying here, of making this my life, felt both terrifying and exhilarating. “I don’t know, Billy. The city’s got its perks. But this has been surprisingly fun. I definitely needed a change of scenery.”

“We’ve got plenty of that alright,” Billy said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s do it. Hogan’s Haunted Farm, it is. We’ll start planning today—new signs, new marketing, the works. We don’t have much time but we should be able to get everything good and haunted before Halloween.”

We finished our breakfast and quickly cleaned up.

Billy went out to do normal farm chores while I checked in with the paperwork.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the copy of the LLC certificate in my email.

I printed it out and hung it up in the office.

It wasn’t much, but it was a start. We were making progress.

And then the guilt hit. I was giving him all these ideas and plans while also working behind his back to sell the damn place.

I stepped out onto the porch and just stood there for a few seconds.

The morning air hit me like a soothing wave, crisp and clean, carrying the faint scent of damp earth and freshly cut hay.

It was so different from the air in Manhattan.

Back there, it always smelled like exhaust, coffee, and the faint tang of metal.

And if I’m being honest, hot garbage. That shit was everywhere on the sidewalks.

I took a deep breath, letting Mother Nature fill my lungs.

The quiet was almost overwhelming. No horns blaring, no sirens wailing, no hum of distant traffic.

Just silence, broken only by the faint rumble of a tractor in the distance.

It had to be harvesting wheat or corn or maybe the last hay cutting.

I couldn’t remember the difference anymore, but things were coming back to me day by day.

I leaned against the porch railing, my fingers curling around the worn wood.

The peace here was something I hadn’t realized I’d been missing.

In the city, I was always on, always moving, always thinking three steps ahead.

Here, I could just be. The tension in my shoulders eased, the knot in my chest loosening just a notch.

I closed my eyes, letting the stillness settle over me.

For a moment, I forgot about the appraisal, the firm, the guilt gnawing at the edges of my thoughts.

All I felt was the breeze on my skin, the faint warmth of the sun breaking through the morning.

It was simple, pure, and I wanted to hold on to it for as long as I could.