Page 19 of Cuddling Carly

That was true, Carly thought, feeling silly but also becoming more at ease.

“Want me to take a look at your car?” Stryker asked.

“Yeah. If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.”

“Thank you!”

“He’s good with tinkering,” Harrison said. “And building things. Edgar is all his creation.”

Carly looked back at the lifeless figure and shuddered again at how real he seemed.

“That’s got to be one heck of a haunted house y’all do,” she told them. “I’ve read about it. Everyone says it’s the best!”

“You have to come,” Harrison said. “That is, if you like that kind of thing.”

“When I know it’s fake and not some crazy guy on the side of the road waiting to get me, I love it! But I love Halloween. It’s my favorite.”

They all laughed.

That bit of levity felt good. Carly was still sad inside, but her spirits were already lifting just being around Harrison and Stryker.

Something told her perhaps she’d made the right decision by going there, after all.

But deep down, she still missed Wade—and what could have been between them.

Too bad he couldn’t be in Mountainville, she thought.

Too bad indeed.

Chapter Twelve

Stryker worked some magic under the hood, and twenty minutes later, he was driving the sputtering car through the gates of Mountainville while Carly rode in a sleek black Mercedes van that had been parked around the corner from where she’d broken down.

Edgar wasn’t the only prop in there, and it felt strange to ride with a werewolf, vampire, and two zombies.

“We test them out in those hills because it keeps prying eyes away,” Harrison explained as he drove through the gates behind Stryker. “Plus, if they can walk on that rough terrain, then they can handle the surfaces of the haunted house.”

“That’s crazy that they actually walk! I can’t wait to go through the haunted house. Like I said, I’ve read about it. It’s pretty famous with Littles online.”

She watched as Harrison smiled proudly. “I just hope it makes people happy.”

Looking out the window now, Carly surveyed what she could see of the town. A smoothly paved street wound from the gate toward a red sandstone multi-story building ahead that looked like a classic structure one would find in hundreds of old towns around the United States. As they got closer, she read the sign that said CITY HALL.

“That’s pretty,” she noted.

“They gave it a retro look, but the building itself is a little less than a decade old,” Harrison explained, confirming what she’d suspected.

The road continued to a natural rock wall formed by the sheer cliff of a mountain. In front of it was an adobe building. Next to it was a craftsman style house.

Out front was a man wearing boots, jeans, a black tee, and a Stetson—reminding Carly of the hot cowboy she left back in Valley Spring.

I really should text him. Or at least check my messages. He might be worried about me.

But she still couldn’t bring herself to even look at her messages. She’d had all notifications hidden since leaving Valley Spring earlier that day because if Wade even sent her a message, it would probably be one telling her how disgusted he was. What a freak she was.

She just couldn’t bring herself to face that. Not yet.