Page 72 of How to Woo a Cowgirl
A funny, opposites attract sweet romance that’s not even a little bit scary ??
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The Halloween Mismatch
(an excerpt for your reading pleasure)
“Mr. Simmons, thank you for volunteering your time. So nice to be working with a professional!” She said that like it was a gold star she’d pinned to his chest. Theo stuck his hands in his pockets. “I’m thinking our theme can be an outdoorsy farm setting, very harvesty. We’ll have all the traditional Halloween things. Big paper bats—maybe with glitter? That would be fun. Jack-o-lanterns, of course. Oh, we could make it a contest! I work at Harvest Ranch Elementary, and I know families would love to carve pumpkins for us.”
When they’d stepped out into the glittering autumn sunlight, she spun around, putting a hand with neat lavender-painted nails on his sleeve. She quickly pulled it back, however, when she saw Fester. “And Mr. Simmons—oh, my, that’s a big dog!”
“He’s friendly. Just a big teddy bear.”
“Oh…okay.” She didn’t look convinced, even though Fester gave her his most innocent face and drooled on the sidewalk. Maybe she didn’t like teddy bears. “What do you think of this, Mr. Simmons.”
“Theo.”
“Okay, Theo,” she said like using his name was proof she was easy to work with. He was beginning to doubt it. “What if we make a big scarecrow! Just to keep it with the ‘spooky’ theme we could make it look like a real person might be in there. Put on a real shirt and jeans, stuff them so they look authentic. Spooky, huh? Straw would be easy to find. Harvest Ranch has so many farms, we could ask about anybody. But we’d want to paint a nice face on it so it’s not too scary. What do you think?”
Theo looked from her hand that had reached out again to his coat sleeve to her green eyes—accented with blue mascara—and back again. He’d dealt with a lot of different planners, but something about this one left him feeling like his feet didn’t quite touch the ground. Attractive woman in a fairytale princess kind of way, but he couldn’t keep up with the nonsense.
He cleared his throat. “That’s cute, teach, but you know that’s not what they want.”
He didn’t think he’d said it in a way that would offend her, but she froze. Deer in headlights, stunned, gobsmacked. Wow, she really was used to being the boss.
Her blue lashes blinked like twin butterflies. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
He didn’t want to laugh at her—she was kind of adorable in a way he’d never seen in a grown woman—but he knew his business, and it wasn’t glitter and straw. “You’re going at this all wrong, lady.”
“Miss Daniels.” She actually looked offended but shook it off and smiled. “Daisy.”
“Fine, Daisy. When your committee says they want a spooky walk as a fundraiser, they aren’t talking about a jack-o-lantern contest or a scarecrow that’s about as creepy as cotton candy. They want some real scares.”
She laughed, and even though he could see she was about to disagree with him, he liked the sound. It was a good laugh. She even looked sweet when she laughed at him. “I’m sure there are places that like scarier things, Theo, but Harvest Ranch isn’t like that. People here are pretty mellow. You’ll find that nobody likes that gory, awful stuff.”
Her dancing eyes dropped to his chest, started to move away, and then stuck there. The smile dimmed. Miss Daisy Daniels leaned forward, like she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. For a second he thought maybe the muscles he worked so hard at managed to bulge through his shirt after all. A small thrill went through him. This attractive woman had noticed he was fit. But then he remembered what he was wearing: his favorite haunt t-shirt, morgue feet with a toe tag.
He pulled back his blazer so she could get a better look. “Like it? I got this from a place I’ve been working at the last couple of years, over in Charlottesville. Cool haunt.”
“‘Haunt’?”
“Yeah.” Did he stutter? “The automations are pretty good, but it’s really the rhythm and placement of the scares that makes it a great haunt.”
He could add that he designed it, but that would be bragging. Still his chest puffed out a bit.
“Are you saying ‘haunt’?”
He let his blazer drop closed. “Yes, I am. Why?”
“Haunt, as in what ghosts do?”
Was she serious?
“No,” he said, treading carefully into the conversation. “It’s just a nickname we use in the industry. A haunt is a haunted house attraction that you pay to go through. A spook alley, that kind of thing.”
“I see.” Did she?
“There aren’t any real ghosts,” he said slowly.
“Okay.” Daisy’s eyes had grown as big as…well, daisies. They stayed transfixed to the shirt but her chin drew to her chest and the smile haddefinitelyturned upside down.
Guess she wasn’t a fan.
