Page 22 of Savored Sins
I stop the recording and we fall back onto the picnic bench, side by side, to watch the disaster from the cracked screen of my iPhone. We’re awful, but we’re also one hundred percent endearing.
“GhostTok is gonna love it,” I say, nudging Autumn in the ribs with my elbow.
Autumn cracks up. “Is that seriously a thing? GhostTok?”
“You bet your ass. And guess who started it?”
“Right. I should’ve guessed.”
We’re quiet a moment, letting ourselves come down from the high of shitty dancing.
“So—eight tonight?” I ask. “Or is that too late? I just… I think it’s got to be dark. For the atmosphere of the show, I mean. The actual ghosts don’t care if it’s broad daylight. They’ll show up, regardless.”
“Eight’s good,” Autumn says.
As we sit there a second longer, my mind drifts back to the pendant I bought at the thrift store the other day. I’ve been carrying it around in my pocket every day since that afternoon, trying to figure out what the hell to do with it. If I’m honest with myself, I know exactly why I bought it—who I want to give it to.
But I don’t know if I have the guts.
Drawing a deep breath, I slide the pendant out of my pocket, fingering the delicate gold chain. Now that it’s in my hand, I can feel the vibrations around it humming. Whispering. It’s like it wants something, and I’m almost positive I know what it is. I just don’t know why.
“Here,” I say to Autumn, reaching for her hand and turning it so her palm faces up. She looks at me curiously, but opens her fingers, watching as I drop the pendant into her palm. “I saw this the other day. It made me think of you.”
I look down at my feet as I wait for Autumn’s response, realizing that, for once in my life, I’m avoiding a woman’s gaze. But I don’t know how she’s going to react. From the corner of my eye, I see Autumn hold the pendant up, watching it sparkle in the summer sun. As she does, I see the pale strip of skin on her left hand where her wedding ring once was—and it hits me suddenly that, noshit,Autumn doesn’t know how to react. She’s used to actual fucking diamonds.
“Sorry if it’s weird,” I say, laughing—the only thing I know how to do. “It was cheap. I’m pretty sure it’s just glass. Feel free to throw it in a drawer and never look at it ag?—”
“Zeke,” Autumn says. “Shut up. I like it.”
I cast her a suspicious side glance. “Really?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I? It’s pretty.”
“It’s also got some kind of—I don’t know—vibrationgoing on.”
Autumn frowns. “What? Like a demon’s attached to it?”
“Wow. Here I was, worrying you’d think I wasmooching, when really you’re out here thinking I’m trying to get you possessed. Shit!” I throw my head back and laugh. “But no—it’s not a demon. It’s, like… a benevolent energy. I think it likes you.”
“Of course it does,” Autumn says, giving a toss of her head. I’m hit with a wave of coconut—along with the desire to bury myface in that luscious red hair of hers. God, could this womanbeany hotter?
“Well, anyway. If you’re still worried you’re mooching, I’d say you can stop brainstorming how to make it up to me,” Autumn says. She shoots me a smile, her fingers already doing up the clasp of the pendant chain at the back of her neck. “This right here is perfect—as long as I don’t end up cursed.”
I glance at the brilliant red gem, now tucked in the valley of her cleavage.Goddamn. It looks even better next to her creamy, porcelain skin than I thought.
I look her right in the eye. “If you end up cursed, I promise I’ll be your servant forever and for always.”
“Nah, you’d like that too much,” Autumn says, shooting me a coy smile. “See you tonight.”
Without another word, she picks up her bag, slides on a pair of sleek, black aviators, and heads off toward town.
If Autumn Carroway thinks that’s the only way I plan to make things up to her, she’s deadass wrong. I’ve got a million ways I plan to repay my debts.
And I guarantee we’ll both thoroughly enjoy every single one of them.
eleven
AUTUMN
