Stop Ghosting Me, page 23
Jesus, I can’t believe we’re standing here like adults, having an actual conversation. Harvest Grove really does have some magical, voodoo bullshit going on.
“You look happy here. You know, when you’re not pissed about being dragged out of this Sidney person’s bed.” Finch walks across the porch, pulling a folded-up piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and holding it out to me. “This is actually the real reason I came. The apology was just an extra bonus you can thank me for later.”
I forgot what a smartass Finch could be when he’s not being a disloyal piece of shit.
Grabbing the paper out of his hand, I unfold it, immediately recognizing the bold, cursive handwriting.
“I found this in Pops’s house before I went to New York. I saw an envelope with your name on it sitting on his desk, and I took it to be an asshole. I, uh… I met someone recently,” Finch says, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s been teaching me to not be so much of a dickhead. Convinced me I should finally give this to you and apologize.”
I whistle. “Must be some woman.”
Finch drops his head to hide his grin before quickly clearing his throat and rolling his eyes. “Just read the fucking letter, so I can stop feeling guilty about it.”
Shaking my head, I look down at the paper with my grandfather’s handwriting on it.
Ford—
If you’re reading this, I’m dead. No reason to not cut to the chase. You also know by now I left Prescott Lumber to you, instead of your father or your brother. And guess what? It’s in the shitter. I’m embarrassed to say the company my great-grandfather built from the ground up is completely screwed. I made a few bad investments, but I trust you to fix things. I’m not really leaving much of a legacy behind, but it is what it is. Don’t fuck it up.
I know you well enough to know you’re going to save those selfish pricks instead of throwing them out on the street like they deserve. That’s why you’re getting the Wicked Pub and Grub too. Consider it your reward for saving Prescott Lumber. It was my little secret slice of heaven to get away to once a year, and not have to worry about the stress back in Oregon. And it’s the only thing I’ve done right. That bar makes a nice bit of cash every year.
There’s a little firecracker there who will be good for you. Get you to stop being such a shit-ass. Make you want to take care of something worth it, instead of those selfish pricks who aren’t. Don’t be a fool like me. Don’t let them walk all over you for years, taking advantage of you until you’re dead, until the only way you can screw them over is by writing them out of your will. Screw them over now, while you’re still alive and can enjoy it.
A few rules to remember once you get to Harvest Grove:
1. Be nice to Sidney, or I’ll come back to haunt you. She’ll annoy the piss out of you every Halloween, but suck it up. It’s worth it.
2. Watch out for Penny. She’s always got a weapon hidden on her somewhere.
3. Hay is allowed in the bar, so don’t be a shit-ass about it.
4. Put aside bail money.
5. Don’t get sucked into volunteering for any of the crap they do here, or they’ll make you do it every year.
6. Don’t fuck up the jack-o-lanterns on carving night, or you’ll never hear the end of it.
7. Never, ever cheat on a woman you’re dating in this town or any town within a 200-mile radius. You will die.
8. I’m seriously not kidding, Ford. You. Will. Die.
9. Don’t ask Marcus any personal questions or offer up any personal information, or he will never leave you alone.
10. Sit back and enjoy your little slice of heaven.
—Pops
“Well, this would have been nice to have six years ago.” I laugh, shaking my head as I scan through the letter again.
“It’s crazy, right?” Finch chuckles. “It’s hard to believe Pops kept a secret like this place from us all our lives.”
Right now, I’m too busy trying to wrap my head around the fact that my grandfather knew long before I did that Sidney was meant to be mine.
“Sounds like you’ve kept your own secret for the last six years,” Finch muses. “The apple sure doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?”
There are plenty of reasons why I’ve kept Sidney a secret from my family. I’m not about to discuss them with my brother. We’ve never had the kind of brotherly relationship where we talk about our lives or our fucking feelings. I’ve accepted his apology, and that’s about as far as I’m willing to go right now.
“What the hell?” Finch mutters, stepping down onto the top step of the porch. “Are those… Care Bears running down the street?”
My mother steps out onto the front porch to cross over and stand behind Finch as I fold up the letter and shove it in my back pocket.
“Oooh, is this like one of those Salem witch trial reenactments? How fun! You didn’t tell me they did those here, Ford.” She turns and shouts back into the house, “Honey! Ford didn’t tell us they burn witches at the stake here for fun!”
Leaning over the railing to glance down the street, I quickly realize I made a very, very bad decision not sending Sidney that text, telling her not to worry.
“Oh… shit….”
Chapter 20
Ford
“My brain feels fuzzy. What’s coffee?”
“I thought I got rid of your torches two years ago.” I sigh, crossing my arms where I stand at the bottom of the front porch.
“Yeah, well, we’re resourceful and got more.” Ginger shrugs.
When I was in bed with Sidney this morning before the sun came up, warm under the covers, about ready to wake her up with my head buried between her sexy thighs when the phone rang, I never thought I’d be having a standoff with a group of multicolored bears holding medieval torches by noon.
“I see you’ve upgraded from the Tiki torches.”
“Got them from a woman online who used to cosplay reenactments at Renaissance fairs.” Penny smiles as she lowers her arm, pointing the hand-carved wooden handle with a steel cage engulfed in flames attached to the top directly at my chest from ten feet away. “Fun, right?”
“See? I told you they do reenactments!” I hear my mother say from the porch. “I don’t understand who the witch is though. Ford! Are you the witch?”
Ignoring her, I stare at the blue bear with a storm cloud on her stomach leading the charge.
“You really gonna burn down your sister’s dream house?”
Penny scoffs. “No. We planned on dragging you out of it and burning you down. Thanks for stepping outside and making it easier. I’ve heard flannel is super flammable. We’ll be nice and give you a ten-second head start.”
“Should we be cheering for Ford, or the bears?” my father asks. “When does the actual trial start? Will there be refreshments? I could use a Perrier.”
“I never thought I would actually be happy about making us all come to this weird town.” Finch laughs. “This is fascinating.”
By now, a tour group has stopped on the sidewalk on the other side of the black wrought-iron fence. They’re watching what’s happening on the front lawn of the Gore House with their phones up, recording it all like this shit really is some kind of fucked-up, bear-witch trial.
Christ… I really should have stayed in bed with Sidney this morning.
“Look, I’m guessing there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. Can we not do this right now? I’m a little busy.”
“You okay over there, Ford?” Kenny shouts from over by the tour group on the other side of the fence, putting his hand on his holster.
Even though his holster is empty because guns scare him, and he’s afraid it will go off on accident and shoot him in the foot.
“Not really, Kenny,” I shout back as the group of angry bears takes a step toward me, all of them holding their torches in my direction.
“Looks like you’ve got it under control! I’ll just stay back here.” He waves at me, then turns to smile at the tourists. “Anyone want some cookies? I made a fresh batch of pumpkin molasses this morning.”
“There’s no misunderstanding, dear.” Aunt Dawn shakes her furry head at me, pulling the torch back momentarily. “We’re definitely here to burn your ass.”
Leaning around me, she waves the torch at my family up on the porch.
“We’ll be done here in a jiffy so you can get back to your family time, no worries!”
“Did that green bear just speak to me?” my mom asks quietly. “Am I part of the reenactment now? I didn’t pack the right clothes for a stage performance.”
“Listen, asshole.” Penny glares at me. “Ginger and I trusted you to do the right thing with the information we so kindly provided you out of the goodness of our hearts.”
“You only gave me that information to fuck over your sister,” I remind her.
“When we fuck her over, everyone has a good laugh about it. When you fuck her over, you make her wake up alone in bed, sad, broken, and miserable, because your family came to town, it’s been over four hours, and you haven’t told her.”
“She was quite inconsolable when we left.” Sidney’s mom nods.
Fuck.
“The only reason she’s never trusted your ass in six years is because you make her feel like she’s only good enough for you when you’re in Harvest Grove,” Ginger adds, and she might as well just shove that torch right into my chest at this point. “And here you are, ghosting her in bed to hang out with your family. She thought you were out getting donuts, not keeping her apart from your life again, like always.”
There is no goddamn way my family is screwing up my life again.
Who am I kidding? I screwed this up all on my own, thinking I was doing the right thing.
The screeching of tires has everyone’s head turning to look at the street, and my heart starts pounding as soon as I see a familiar piece-of-shit Honda come flying up to the curb. Sidney scrambles out of it, and it takes her four tries before her driver side door will close. She finally has to take a step back and kick the hell out of it to get it to latch.
Now is definitely not the time for my dick to wake up, but as soon as I see her rushing through the gate, pausing to wave at tourists and apologize to them for not having any cider, it’s impossible not to get turned on. She’s wearing a pair of ripped skinny jeans hugging all those curves I had my hands and mouth on last night, and my flannel I left on her bedroom floor is tied in a knot at her waist with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She’s so beautiful I almost need to bend over and put my hands on my knees to take a couple of deep breaths, completely in awe that she’s mine.
At least, I hope she still is.
Sidney continues walking through the gate, the foam candy corn pieces on her headband bobbing as she skirts around pumpkins, charging across the lawn toward me with her orange Converse stomping through the leaves and grass. The same orange Converse she never took off yesterday while I had her leg hooked over my arm, trying my hardest to fuck her through the kitchen counter.
I’m so hard for her picturing her naked right now—except for those shoes—I want to kick the pumpkin next to my foot that we’re not alone at this house so we can do it again. This time with the headband on, so I can see it bobbing around above her head while I try to fuck her through another surface in the house.
“I’m buying you a new goddamn car,” I mutter to her as soon as she walks around the bears with torches and can hear me.
Sidney doesn’t say a word, and my chest feels like someone just kicked it. She walks right on by me without a glance, disappearing around the side of the house.
“Oh, you’re fucked.” Penny snorts, resting the handle of her torch on her shoulder.
Before my worry can get too out of control, Sidney’s family of bears all start screaming at the top of their lungs. As Sidney comes marching right back from around the side of the house with the garden hose nozzle held up high in front of her, shooting 60 psi of water pressure all over the bears and their torches, thanks to the larger copper pipes I had installed in the house three weeks ago.
“Ugh, you are always ruining our good time!” a sopping-wet Ginger shouts, tossing her extinguished torch to the ground.
The rest of the drenched bears all start complaining at the same time, while Sidney tosses the hose to the ground.
“I cannot believe you tied me to a chair!” she shouts at them, putting her hands on her hips and making this hard-on situation get a little out of control seeing her fired up.
“And I can’t believe you didn’t retain anything from that self-defense class I made you take in high school.” Her mom sighs, unsuccessfully trying to swipe water off her face with a wet, furry hand.
“How did you even get loose?” Penny complains. “You were wearing a flannel with nothing underneath it when I sat on you, so Ginger could tie the knots. Do you hide weapons in your vag now?”
Do not think of Sidney in her kitchen with nothing on under your flannel, Ford. You don’t deserve to have those thoughts in your head when you left her alone, sad, and miserable in bed.
“Where are they hiding weapons?” my father asks, and my mom immediately shushes him.
“Lucky for me, my boyfriend keeps a Swiss Army knife in his flannel pocket at all times, you dicks.”
It sounds like Sidney’s piece-of-shit car just screeched up to the curb again in my head.
“What did you just call me?” I whisper, my heart beating a mile a minute in my chest.
Sidney lets out a long sigh before her gorgeous brown eyes finally meet mine. “I thought we were going to work on our communication skills, Ford Prescott.”
My mouth tips up when her hands remain on her hips, and I wonder what she would do if I got down on my knee right now and begged her to marry me.
Probably kick me in the mouth. I’ll hold off on that for now.
“I thought you were at home sad, broken, and miserable.”
“And I thought I told you I was paying attention now.” She glares at me.
Christ, I love this woman more than she could possibly know.
Sidney looks away from me long enough to point at her family, all stripping out of their wet bear costumes right in the middle of the yard. Thankfully, they have clothes on underneath. Too bad they’re just as wet as the costumes they’re shedding.
“That’s it. All of you are done!” she scolds them. “Stay out of our business from now on. No more telling secrets, no more background checks, and no more making assumptions. I was not sad, broken, or miserable.”
“Well, it was implied.” Her mom sniffs.
“Thank God.” I take a step toward Sidney to finally put my hands on her, but she swings her stern, pointing finger at me.
“Oh, no, big guy. You’re not getting off that easy.” Dropping my arms back down to my sides, I take my punishment like a man. “I’ll admit, for like… a handful of minutes, I got scared, and I was really, really hurt you just left me there and never said a word about your family being in town.”
“Sidney, I swear I—”
She steps right up to me and clamps her hand over my mouth. “Let me get this out, okay?”
I just nod behind her hand until she finally drops it.
“I got scared for a few minutes, and then I remembered you promised you would never hurt me. You said you’d rather die first.” Taking a chance she won’t knee me in the balls, I bring my hand up between us and rest it against the side of her neck, waiting for her to talk this through. “And, well… you’re still alive.”
“Not for long,” Penny mutters from somewhere back in the yard.
“You didn’t leave me out of the loop to hurt me,” Sidney continues, and I slowly shake my head back and forth, because she’s almost there. “You did it to protect me. You’re taking care of me right now, aren’t you?”
“You really are paying attention.” I let out the breath I was holding, wrapping an arm around her waist and finally pulling her up against me so I can feel her and keep reminding myself this is real.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you what I was doing when I left this morning. Fuck, I should have brought you with me and avoided all this shit.” I pause to take a couple of breaths, glancing around, really wishing we didn’t have an audience right now. “I thought I could take care of it and get them out of here before any of their bullshit touched you this morning. I’ve told you enough over the years that you know how they are. I didn’t want them judging you, judging this place, or making you feel defensive or uncomfortable. I didn’t want them bringing any of their negativity anywhere near you. I don’t talk about them a lot, because nothing else matters when I’m here with you. Not because you’re not good enough to be in that part of my life. Baby, it’s the other way around. That part of my life isn’t good enough to be in yours.”
“I feel like we should be taking offense to this,” Finch pipes up from the porch.
“And I feel like you should shut the hell up before I let my family torch your ass, you disloyal piece of shit,” Sidney fires right back at him, making my dick throb in my jeans as she glares at him.
“Oh, I like her. I like her a lot.” My brother laughs.
“Burn, baby, burn! Looks like the weenie roast is back on!” Ginger shouts, which makes the whole crowd of tourists, including Kenny, let out a cheer.
“I know your brother slept with your fiancée, and that’s why you haven’t spoken to him in six years.” Sidney sighs, and I wonder if we’ll ever get this communication thing down.
“I take it they gave you the rest of my background check.” I wince.
“They left your file open on the table in front of me after they tied me up.” Sidney shrugs, resting her hands on my stomach. “I needed something to do while I sawed through that rope. You should have told me. Especially when Penny and Ginger told you I only slept with Whistle Winston because I knew you’d been engaged.”
“Who’s Whistle Winston?” my mother inquires in a loud whisper. “Is he another character in this witch trial? I can’t be expected to put on a good performance if I don’t know all the actors.”
