Chapter 3
The local dress shop was bustling with people.
The Halloween thing at the brewery had grown, and the whole city was getting in on celebrating, setting up and organizing various activities throughout town. There was even a scary movie night at the park and not-so-scary movie night for families with younger kids.
The shop was packed with women, kids, and some men looking around the store.
All of them searching through the side of the shop that was designated to costumes.
Some simple ones, others more elaborate and pricier than I could have imagined.
Did people really spend that much on costumes?
My abuela, who had raised me from the time I was eight to nineteen before she passed, had done her best with what she had, which wasn’t much.
She’d always get creative, and even with the money I had, I couldn’t imagine spending so much on a costume you could only use for a couple of hours.
There was a wall lined with pretty masks sitting right next to creepy ones at the far end of the shop by the registers. I shivered and crossed my arms. This is definitely not my scene.
But as I turned and scanned the bustling store, I caught how my friends were all enjoying themselves.
Picking up things, laughing and smiling.
Even oooing at a couple of things. They were totally in their element and loving the excitement I couldn’t deny sparked for me.
I wasn’t going to pout and ruin their shopping trip.
I turned and focused my attention on a rack filled with what seemed to be sexier costumes while I tried to keep a smile on my face. I was going to make the best out of the situation. The whole point of our activities was to be together.
Even if it meant doing something scary.
I picked up a sexy cop costume and wondered where the rest of the dress was. I tilted my head trying to picture myself in it, but I couldn’t. I was a fourth grade teacher, for god’s sake! I couldn’t be seen in that!
Jesus! When did you start sounding old? You’re only twenty-eight, a voice in my head reminded me. I exhaled slowly. It wasn’t like I was going to wear it in my classroom. Just to a haunted house. My stomach tightened at the thought.
I didn’t like scary stuff.
My mom had loved everything creepy and gory. I shook the thought away. I wondered if she and my dad hadn’t been struck by that drunk driver, would I have ever got into the whole spooky thing they had loved once upon a time?
But if they had lived, would I have found Ember, Abby, and Rosie? Would I have known the beauty Moonlit Pines held? I glanced out the big window of the store that stared into the parking lot of the brewery, where all of this was going to be held, and tried to breathe.
Think happy thoughts, I reminded myself.
Hay bales were stacked high up, like walls, and set up like a maze. One that I would have to go through in the dark, waiting for things to jump out at me. So much for happy thoughts. I sighed.
“Hey! That’s cute!” Rosie popped up behind me. We both looked at the short, very short, dress. “But you can’t be a cop.” I turned to her.
“Why not?” I found myself asking even though I had no plans of buying it.
“You need something with a mask.” She took the dress that was more like lingerie from my hands and hung it back up on the rack.
“Oh, that’s right.” I pressed my lips together. “What about one of those pink jumpsuits and the sparkly pink ghost face?” I asked, half-joking, and she poked my side.
“No!” she laughed. “Something cute. Sexy.”
“You don’t think I would look sexy in that cat suit?” I gave her my best puppy dog eyes. She rolled her eyes, immune to my charms.
“You’re sexy in anything you wear. Sexy is a state of mind.”
“Pfft,” I snorted. If only it were that easy. I groaned, letting my fake-it-till-I-make-it mask slip. She hip-checked me.
“Hey, I’m serious.” I nodded as if I agreed. “For reals.”
“Rosie,” I deadpanned. She’d known me since I had moved to town as a scared eight-year-old. We’d gone through our awkward teen years and grew into ourselves together. She knew me.
“You’re beautiful,” she said softly. Her blue eyes almost twinkled before she winked. “We’re all hot shit.”
Staring at her, I could see why she thought that.
Rosie Baker dripped sexiness. Red hair, light, fair complexion that turned the prettiest pink when she blushed or got too much sun,, and the brightest blue eyes known to man.
She turned heads wherever she went. Not that she ever let the attention go to her head.
Even when she did some modeling, it was just something she did. A job.
Her attention was laser-focused on the rack in front of us, like she was looking for something perfect. Something she somehow knew was buried treasure and only she would know it the moment she saw it.
And she wasn’t rushing, either. She took her time as she contemplated each costume.
“You know… I’ve been meaning to tell you, it’s pretty cool how you’ve taken all this,” she said softly, and I stilled.
“All what?” I asked, even though I had a feeling I knew exactly what she was talking about.
“Our plans.”
“It’s just one day.” I shrugged. “It isn’t a big deal. Like prom.” She turned, and our eyes connected.
“Now I know you’re lying. You love book club night,” she said before quickly adding, “And you hated prom.”
“It’s fine,” I said and kind of meant it.
I’d already treated myself to half the list of titles I had been looking forward to reading anyhow. I just wouldn’t have anyone to talk about them with.
“I promise it’s going to be so much more fun than you expect it to be.” I shot her a look that made her giggle. “I’m serious!”
“I’m sure it will be… fine.” I wasn’t lying. Anytime we went to the brewery that had just opened at the beginning of the year, it had been a blast.
“Sometimes, it’s good to get out of our routine,” Rosie said, and I blinked.
“Is that how you felt about book club?” I asked, a little hurt. “It was routine?”
“No.” She shook her head, the rack of costumes now forgotten as she hugged me. “I like book club. I love the books you choose for us, and you make it so much fun! We always eat way too much.” She smiled, and her blue eyes softened. “It’s not like that’s going to stop.”
“I know.”
“I just… I think our twenties are kinda…” She paused, like she was trying to get her words right. “Well, maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t it feel like they’re flying right by us?”
“Well… I mean…” I could see how she felt that way. We were a lot closer to thirty now, something that had once felt like a lifetime away.
“And we’re all single still,” Rosie muttered, and my eyes widened.
“Is that a problem? I mean… We are single, but is that a bad thing?” She shook her head.
My heart clenched at the thought of the future.
One day, my best friends, the girls who were my family, would all be coupled off and have a family of their own.
What would life look like then? What will my life be like without them?
“No, it’s not. Not at all. I just… we should be going out more. Enjoying every moment. You know?”
“I get that.” I understood where she was coming from. It made sense. “Getting out of our routine won’t hurt,” I repeated her words. She nodded, and I saw her eyes drift behind me, then she moved. Stealthily, she pushed aside dress after dress until she found what had caught her attention.
“What about this?” She pulled out a gothic-looking dress that was shorter than I was used to but nothing scandalous. Especially with my height, it would hit just above my knee.
It actually wasn’t bad.
It was kind of pretty. The dark black dress had bell-shaped long sleeves made of sheer material and a deep V in the front.
“What do you think?” I chewed on my lip.
“A witch?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Yeah! Why not? I mean, your name is Tabitha.” I giggled. A knot of tension loosened from my shoulders.
“I don’t know…” I took the hanger from her hand and lifted it up. I hated to admit it, but it was really pretty.
Sexy but not too far out there. If I paired it with a camisole and leggings, I would even be able to wear it to work. There was a book about witches I’d wanted to do a project on with my students.
“Hold that and come over… here.” She took me by the hand and led me toward the wall of masks. And she glanced at the dress and the wall. There were so many choices, it felt a little overwhelming.
“Hmm, how about…. this one?” She reached for a delicate orange lacy mask that would cover my eyes that would definitely go with the dress.
“And that hat over there.” She pointed behind the counter, where a stack of slouchy witch hats sat.
“And you could pair it with the boots you have on,” she suggested happily, obviously proud of herself.
“These?” I asked, surprised she’d suggest them.
“What, you thought I was going to tell you to put on go-go boots or stilettos?” Rosie’s pink lips twitched.
“Maybe,” I mumbled before I cracked a smile. My attention moved back to the costume in my hands, the way it paired well with the mask that was a lot prettier than I wanted to admit. “I like this.”
“Yeah?” she asked, and I nodded.
“I do.” She squealed.
“And it’s not too outrageous. If you wanted to, you could totally wear it to work.”
“True,” I agreed, because she wasn’t wrong. “Okay.” I smiled. For some reason, I honestly looked forward to doing something different. “A witch it is!”
“Sexy witch!” She grinned, and I rolled my eyes.
“What about you?” I asked. Rosie led me through the shop, talking a mile a minute about the options and choices she’d thought of and how she was between three. But that was Rosie—always weighing the pros and cons before going with the sensible option.
Ember called her, and she left me standing by the big window that looked out at the brewery.
A man who stood there called my eye. He wasn’t dressed like the rest of the people out there in jeans and T-shirts.
No. He had an air of dominance to him. Tall and built, the sexy stranger wore a white dress shirt with his sleeves rolled up, holding a clipboard.
From where I stood, I couldn’t make out who he was, but my heart did some flippy thing inside my chest at the sight of him.
My body had never reacted to anyone like that.
Especially someone I hadn’t even fully seen yet. Not really.
I had no idea who he was, but there was something about him, the way he seemed to be in control, directing the other people dressed a lot more casually.
It was kind of sexy. His arms dropped to his sides as Onyx Trejo and Austin Hart walked over to him.
I couldn’t make out the features of the sexy stranger’s profile when he turned and spoke to them, but I had a feeling he was beautiful.
The definition of masculinity. Definitely a man a romance author would write to life. My face heated at the thought.
“Ooo, who are we checking out?” Abby asked. Her lips tickled my ears, and I almost jumped out of my skin.
“Jesus, Abby!” I shouted. My face turned hot at the attention we got as she laughed.
“Relax! Oh my god! I forgot how jumpy you can get this time of year,” she teased. I rested my hand over my chest.
“You almost gave me a heart attack,” I mumbled, and her sparkling eyes softened.
“I really didn’t mean to do that.” She winced, regret shining in her eyes.
“It’s okay.” I sighed.
“But seriously, who are we looking at?” Her eyes moved towards the brewery. “Austin?” she guessed then fanned herself. “He’s hot.”
“You don’t even know him,” I mumbled. We didn’t, but everyone in Moonlit Pines knew them.
“I ordered us a round of margaritas from him last time we went to karaoke.”
“Oh, well, in that case.” My lips twitched. “That practically makes you besties.”
“Shut up.” She laughed, hooking her elbow with mine. “Not knowing him doesn’t make him any less hot.” She sighed as we stood and admired the men talking. “Too bad he’s cursed.” I rolled my eyes.
“Curses aren’t real.”
“Tell that to the Hart men,” she countered. “Onyx isn’t bad, either,” she said. “Total eye candy.”
“Hmm,” I noted, trying to figure out a way to ask if she knew who they were with without making it obvious.
“Abby! Tab!” Ember called, and just like that, the men setting up the haunted house were forgotten.
We headed towards the dressing rooms, where we helped each other decide on what to buy and how to do our hair. By the time we were done and heading to our cars, it was late.
“Bye!” I waved at my best friends.
Two were walking to their own cars while the other was walking down Main Street with her bags in hand since she lived in an apartment above the small bookstore in town that had just opened.
A whisp of white caught my eye just intime to watch the same man I’d been checking out earlier walk to his Jeep. His back was still all I could see, and I stopped mid-step. There was something about him, something that made me wonder things I had no business thinking about.
Things like, what would it be like to have him hold me? Especially when I was scared, which happened a lot more than I ever wanted to admit. A small noise in my apartment creeped me out to the point where I hardly slept.
If it weren’t for Rosie, Abby, and Ember, I would be all alone in the world. A reminder that creeped into my head when I got scared. It was why spending the holidays together was always so important to me and why I’d been bummed out about the Halloween Book Club being cancelled.
But it was okay.
Maybe Rosie was right about shaking things up? Living a little louder and bolder? Being adventurous. I smiled at that point, shaking my head as I continued towards the car.
Somehow, the girls had talked me into believing that this haunted house-slash-party would actually be fun. I was looking forward to it.
I just had no idea just how much that choice would change my life forever.