Hating Halloween by Elizabeth Coldwell

Author:Elizabeth Coldwell [Coldwell, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2023-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

A knock at the door startled Poppy as she prepared her lunch. She put down the knife she’d been using to slice a tomato for her sandwich and went to answer it.

“Hey, Miranda, did I forget to…?”

The question died on her lips. Instead of her boss, Finn stood on her doorstep, a cheeky grin on his handsome face. A thicker growth of stubble than usual covered his chin, and he had a rumpled look in his red-and-black plaid shirt and faded jeans, as if he’d just rolled out of bed.

“Finn, what are you doing here?” She tried and failed to keep the surprise out of her voice.

He put his hands on his hips in mock indignation. “And good afternoon to you, too.”

“I’m sorry.” She moved aside to let him step into the hallway. “It’s just…you’re the last person I expected to see right now. Shouldn’t you be at the tavern?”

“Oh, my shift doesn’t start until four. And it’s a good thing, too. We had a bit of a late one last night. An after-hours birthday party for one of the guys who’s setting up the haunted house on Memorial Field. In the end, I didn’t get to bed till after two o’clock.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Not even you’ve been keeping me up so long…though I wouldn’t mind if you did.”

She ignored the blatant come-on in Finn’s words. “Haunted house?”

“Yeah, a few of the towns around here organize the same kind of attraction, but the one in Holiday Falls is the spookiest and the best. It opens every year in the week leading up to Halloween. The story behind what’s haunting the house changes every year, and this time it’s supposed to be set in an old sanitarium where all the patients died from some hideous, disfiguring disease and now their ghosts roam the wards and trap anyone who’s unwary enough to wander inside. Some of the local college students volunteer to play the monsters and ghoulies, and all the money that’s raised goes to charity. It’s a lot of fun.”

It doesn’t sound like my idea of fun. More like my worst nightmare come to life.

Poppy kept her thoughts to herself. Finn spoke with such enthusiasm about the event and the hard work that went into organizing it, she didn’t want to tell him how determined she was to ignore everything connected with Halloween.

“Well, you caught me in the middle of making myself something to eat. Can I get you a sandwich?”

Finn shook his head. “I grabbed a breakfast burrito from Shelby’s Diner on the way over here. But thanks for the offer.”

He followed Poppy into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, watching as she assembled her sandwich. She piled tomatoes, lettuce, avocado and jarred bell peppers onto wholewheat bread and topped everything with a dollop of mayonnaise.

“Looks good,” Finn commented.

“Are you sure I can’t get you anything?” Poppy asked as the kettle boiled.

“A cup of coffee would be good, thanks.”

She made coffee for Finn and green tea for herself, then sat at the kitchen table.

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