She nodded in the direction of three girls.
Three girls who had definitely overheard, if their reaction was anything to go by.
“I think a few people care. One of the ladies who wanted your number just fainted. Two others gave me gestures that suggest if I don’t let you do that to me I’m an enormous idiot.”
“Yeah, well they never had me create a toxic fog in their bathrooms.”
“I think they would still find you super sexy.”
“Uh-huh. I bet.”
“But not as sexy as I find you.”
His head went back at that, eyes rolling up.
“Oh, say that again.”
“I find you sexy.”
“I think I could hear that a thousand times and not ever get tired of it.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to say it a thousand more.”
“Not if I get there first.”
It was his turn to kiss her then.
So long and deep that even Chad looked a little weak at the knees at the sight.
“Come on, I got a surprise for you. Over in that spooky abandoned barn over there.”
He waved in its general direction, but she couldn’t see anything. Which was probably for the best.
“You have a surprise for me. In an abandoned barn. That is spooky.”
“Do you really have to say it like I did something crazy?”
“Well, considering I last heard that line in a film called The Eyeball Eater…”
“Nobody is going to eat your eyeballs, I promise.”
She loved that he crossed his fingers, then clumsily and obviously hid them. As though he was playing on the perception of him as a big oaf, just for her. He was secure enough with her to seem like a fool.
He knew she would laugh with himand she did.
“You say that, yet used suspicious powers to predict I would be here.”
“I didn’t use psychic powers. Lydia told Brad and Brad told Chad and Chad told me.”
“I can’t believe I know two people whose names end in ad. Or that you value their information.”
“Hey, I value it because their information is solid. Look, here you are, coming with me to the place where they found a ton of cats with no eyes.”
She glanced down at her feet, and sure enough, they were walking in his direction, as he sauntered backward in the direction of the place.
“Ah, so the owner of the death barn practiced his evil trade on animals first.”
“They always do. They always, always do,” Tate said.
“You’re ridiculous. But I like it enough to tell Lydia I’ll see her later, and then join you in the probable nightmare barn,” she said as she turned to do just that. Though not before she saw him grin wildly.
Then pump his fist, like a kid who’d just won the world.
Chapter 19
He was wrong about the place. It was dark and hollowed out, but not exactly spooky. Or at least she thought so until she stood inside, listening to the wind rattle the possible skeletons hiding in every shadowy corner. She even thought she saw something very skeletonlike, over by the tarpaulin-covered monster that lurked beneath the loft.
It turned out to be just rusted tools.
That looked like they were covered in blood.
“Tate, come on. You know I’m afraid of being murdered by the scythe-wielding ghost of a disgruntled farmer. Even though I wasn’t until I saw something that looks very scythelike standing in the corner.”
There was no replyunless you counted the now-howling wind.
So she just kept talking. Loudly, so as to ward off evil.
“I mean, seriously, how old is this place that there is a scythe here? Was it abandoned in 1763? I feel like it can’t have been, considering the amount of corrugated steel. Which probably just leaves me with option three: the barn murderer is really into disemboweling people with old farm tools.”
Still nothing. Eerily nothing, this time. It made her think of movies where the girl goes to look for her boyfriend, after they decide to have filthy, sinful sex. And then she opens a door like the one attached to the only stall in the place and
“Mwahahahaha, Letty, here I come to disem your bowels!”
She did her best not to scream. And if he had only shouted such a ridiculous thing, she might have managed it. But he didn’t. He swooped in from somewhere behind her and got her right around the middle, then proceeded to lift her off her feet. The panicked shout was practically required.
The gasp that followed, on the other hand…
Well, that was something else altogether.
And if it sounded a little like excitement, that was purely because it totally was. It always made her neglected, thrill-less heart lurch into her mouth, to feel him haul her up like that and swing her around. Doubly so when she thought about what he was to her. This was pretty much her boyfriend behaving like this. Having fun with her, as if this really was a horror movie with some cool couple who’d made it to the end.