Page 55 of Trick or Tease

“Okay.”

She was placating me because she knew damn well I wasn’t just going to stop thinking about the asshole. He was under my skin and I couldn’t stop it.

I decided to change the subject. Steer it far away from Garrett.

“Lucy, what do you think about incorporating the whole haunted house legend into the hayride? I mean, we’re already taking people up to see the old Hogan house. Why not play up the ghost story angle?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Well, everyone in town knows the stories about old Samuel Hogan haunting the place, right? What if we created some props around that? Maybe a figure in one of the upstairs windows, or some kind of ghostly apparition near the house?”

“That could be really fun and scary,” Lucy said slowly.

I was getting excited now, my mind racing with possibilities. “We could even do a whole backstory thing. You know, have the tractor driver tell the story on the way up. About how Samuel Hogan died in that house back in the 1800s, and how people still see lights in the windows sometimes.”

“The kids would eat that up,” Lucy agreed. “And it’s not like we’re making anything up. Those stories have been around forever. You just embellished them to scare your classmates.”

I hesitated, suddenly wondering if I was crossing a line. “Do you think it would be weird though? I mean, making fake ghost props of Billy and Garrett’s great-great-grandfather? Is that offensive somehow?”

She looked thoughtful. “You know what? You should probably ask Billy about that one. I mean, they never knew the guy personally, and Billy’s always been pretty casual about the ghost stories. But still, it’s their family.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t want to do anything that makes them uncomfortable.” I made a mental note to bring it up with Billy tomorrow. “But if he’s cool with it, we could really make something special. Maybe get one of those projection things to make it look like there’s movement in the windows?”

“Now you’re thinking like Billy.” Lucy laughed. “Always going bigger and more elaborate.”

I grinned. “Hey, if we’re doing this, we might as well do it right. People are going to post about this on social media. We want them talking about how amazing it was, not how half-assed it looked.”

“Speaking of doing it right, have you figured out the tractor situation? Last I heard, Billy was still trying to round up enough flatbeds.”

“Actually, yeah. Mr. Peterson said we could borrow his big John Deere, and the Millers are letting us use their flatbed trailer. We’ve got hay bales to make seating, and I found some old quilts in my mom’s attic that we can use as blankets if it gets cold.”

“How many people can we fit per ride?”

“Maybe twenty? Twenty-five if we squeeze. Figure we can do runs every half hour once it gets dark.” I was already doing the math in my head. “If we charge five bucks a head, we’re going to make bank.”

She laughed. “You sound like the man we shall not name.”

“No,” I groaned. “Don’t say that.”

She grinned. “Okay. I won’t.”

“I hate you.”

“Finish that tombstone. We’re going to be working all day tomorrow. No time for mooning over unavailable men.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed.

I was glad for the workload. Hopefully, it would keep me from losing my mind.

20

GARRETT

Ipoured myself another finger of Dad’s cheap scotch and grimaced as it burned down my throat. The stuff tasted like paint thinner compared to the eighteen-year-old Macallan I kept in my apartment, but it was doing the job of keeping me sane while I worked through Billy’s legal nightmare.

The farm’s little office was cramped and outdated, with a desk that had probably been here since the eighties and a filing system that seemed to consist of shoving important papers into whatever drawer was handy.

My dad and computers were apparently not a thing. I knew he liked ledgers and shit, but I would have thought Billy would modernize stuff. There was a computer program with their books but it hadn’t been updated in almost a year.