Fates dark shadows a sta.., p.8
Fate's Dark Shadows: A stand-alone age gap small-town romance,
p.8
The sweetness takes my breath away.
I’m so well looked after that I burst into tears.
Immediately he clasps my face. “Are you hurt?”
I shake my head. I don’t know why I’m always crying around him. He’s shaken something loose. So many things have come loose that I can’t even identify what they are anymore.
I reach up to cup his face to his and kiss him tenderly. “You spoke.”
“I broke my vow. It’s over.”
More tears flow.
“I hurt you! Maya, tell me where I hurt you.”
“No. I’m crying because I never thought I’d hear you say my name.”
For the first time, I see tears well in his eyes. His entire face softens, and he admits, “The screaming’s gone. You have to stay with me now. There’s no one else who can do that.”
“Of course I’ll stay.”
“I mean forever. In here. In this house. With me.”
“I have to go to work tomorrow,” I laugh.
“You’re not going back there.”
“Ruby will wonder where I am. She’ll have to hire someone else.”
“You’re mine. You’ll never want for anything again. If you are in my world, then you have to do as I say.”
“Are you my new daddy?” I tease.
He laughs. How I love to hear that rare laugh.
“Yes. You need to stay here and make this house a home. Help me make new memories.”
Is it Christmas? I feel like this is the combination of every birthday and Christmas I ever wanted.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Doyle
The morning after the fiber festival, I email the town council to tell them I won’t be doing the ghost tour for Halloween.
I have bigger plans.
I’m taking Maya out of town. I have a meeting to close on the sale of my apartment in New York, once and for all. I need to tie up loose ends and start my new life in Fate as soon as possible.
Maya has agreed to accompany me to New York. Before she left for work this morning, she agreed on one condition. “But just remember if you begin to feel panicky from the noise, you tell me right away, and I’ll help you, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I love the sound of us talking.
Other people who are used to my silence might need retraining. I have shocked no less than seven people on my stroll this morning. Town matriarch Ernestine Jenkins is one notable encounter.
“So you’ve decided to speak all of a sudden, and the first thing out of your mouth is to resign from our beloved Halloween tradition?”
I smile and look over at the Catholic Church cemetery at the edge of our sleepy downtown. I look back at Ernestine and say, “No, ma’am. That wasn’t the first thing out of my mouth.”
I grin at the memory of letting go and saying Maya’s name out loud. And inwardly, my body hums at the memories that immediately followed: a rousing session of renewed lovemaking involving the dirtiest dirty talk that probably ever occurred in Fate.
But most of all, I smile because I’m happy for the first time in my entire damn life.
Ernestine snaps me back to reality.
“I hope you are happy with yourself. You’ve left us in a bind.”
Through my apology, I snort at her choice of words.
“What in hell’s clanging bells are you smirking about, young man? The whole town is in a pickle!”
At this, I simply cackle and walk away, thinking that if Maya were here, she would whack me.
“I liked you better when you were quiet, Doyle Adams!”
Still snickering, I arrive home to a sweet surprise.
My Maya is home from work early, and she’s decorating for Halloween.
“The front porch looks like a pumpkin patch exploded on it.”
I find Maya in the library, hanging some over-the-top purple and black garland on the fireplace mantle. Everywhere I look, there are strange but oddly cozy-looking black and white figurines and collectibles.
“You don’t like it?” She pouts, and immediately I must go to her and fold her into my arms for a kiss and a nibble.
“I like it. I’m just not used to it.”
She smiles and hums into my kiss.
“But what’s all this?”
She looks around and excitedly says, “I happened to mention to Ruby that I would love to surprise you with Halloween decorations, but it’s tough to do because you’re always home when I’m home. So she left Paul in charge during the mid-morning slump at the diner and brought me her Nightmare Before Christmas collection.”
My heart squeezes at the thought. I don’t need her to work, and I don’t need her to borrow Halloween decorations. Hardly the suitable corporate wife my uncle had envisioned for an Adams. And I love it.
I kiss up her neck, intoxicated by her scent. “You know you can go shopping for whatever your heart desires. You don’t need to borrow things. But I love it that Ruby is so kind to you.”
Things begin to grow heated between us as we continue to chat and kiss and grope. It feels like what I had always pictured a real homey relationship to look like, but in the picture, it was always a Christmas tree. I feel as though going all out for Halloween is more my style anyway.
“I think we should stay home and pass out candy instead of going to New York,” she says. “Can’t you reschedule?”
I lean back and examine her expression. “How about this? The meeting is in the afternoon. After that, we can charter a flight home early in time for trick or treating.”
Her eyes widen. “You can just do that?”
Laughing, I tell her, “Don’t make me say it.”
“Right. That’s the kind of thing being a billionaire can do for you.”
“For our kids and for us. And for Fate.”
“What do you mean for Fate?”
I tell her about a few of the other people I spoke to this morning on my walk. While helping the crew break down the sets and the tents from the festival, councilperson Becky Flutter asked if I would take a meeting with the knitting club. When I asked what it was about, she called over Juniper, Billie Jane, and others, who said they had a proposal.
“I have spent five years saying no to everything in my silence. And I feel guilty saying no to the ghost tour thing, but apparently, Billie Jane’s new beau got hoodwinked into that. So this was an automatic yes. It’s complicated, but they want to start some kind of a cooperative to manufacture yarn and sell it here in Fate. I don’t know how any of that works, but I know how to invest capital. So I listened to what you said and to what my therapist has been telling me, and I’m going to give them whatever they need.”
Maya nods slowly and sort of squints. “That’s good. That’s a beginning. Now do something about the following….”
She goes off and lists about fifteen abandoned buildings around town that need work and also suggests I expand the town’s food pantry.
“Listen, I’m not the mayor,” I joke. “But I’ll do my best.”
“So run for mayor.”
“Absolutely not. It’s bad luck to run against a dog.”
“Y’all are just as weird as they say in Gold Hill.”
“You love it.”
“I love you. That’s all the matters. And I agree to your terms about Halloween.”
I kiss her more forcefully and hug her tight against me. The contact, the scent of her, the taste of her sweet neck, has sent all my blood rushing below my belt.
She laughs into my mouth. “I think your muscles are stiff. Do you need a massage?”
My mouth can’t stop kissing while I answer. “What I need. Is for you. Naked. In my bed. Now.”
My Maya teases my lips with her tongue and says, “Our bed.”
Epilogue
Maya
One year later
Doyle could not avoid it any longer. He fit the costume, after all.
“I feel like a moron,” he says as I finish up painting his face gray, his eyelids black, and his hair white.
“Well, you’re a terrifying moron, so good enough. You remember your lines?”
He grumbles. “It makes no sense. Jacob Marley is a Christmas ghost, not a Halloween ghost.”
I help him slip into the waistcoat and jacket. “I know, but Halloween is really the intro to the holidays. Think of it like that.”
“You’ve gone off the deep end like the rest of Fate.”
I see something over his shoulder and squeal. I run to the window and clap my hands as the doorbell rings. “It’s starting! Time to go!”
The first trick or treater is Flash, our town’s golden retriever mayor, dressed as a hot dog.
“Oh my god!” I run downstairs and make sure all the treats ready—for humans and animals alike.
“You just so happen to have Halloween dog biscuits ready to go right next to the enormous bucket of full-size Reeses,” Doyle remarks as he follows me down the stairs.
Turns out, Flash is accompanying the toddler offspring of Juniper and Rex, the one-year-old Helena dressed as Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.
We’ve watched a lot of movies since I moved in. Doyle needed a major pop culture upgrade. He doesn’t care much for superhero movies, but they make me very excited and happy, so he goes along with it. “I’m just there for the popcorn and cuddles,” he says.
“Oh my god, oh my god!” I squeal again, placing three Reeses into Helena’s candy bucket, which is about half the size of the toddler and so heavy that her father has to carry it.
“Hey, why does she get three?” Doyle asks.
“You know, maybe you should go as the Grinch for Halloween,” I remark, turning to my husband.
He sighs. “Once again, that’s Christmas.”
“It’s all the same thing around here,” Rex says, who’s dressed like Rocket the Raccoon. Juniper is dressed as Gamora.
“Anyway,” I say, rolling up on my toes to carefully kiss him on the nose, getting gray makeup on my lips. “Everyone who dresses up gets candy.”
“I preferred to be Drax, but everyone said it was too scary,” Rex explains.
“When do I get my candy?” Doyle asks.
As we wait for the next batch of trick or treaters, I spank Doyle’s ass and inform him that his candy will be staying here after he does his duty at the cemetery.
Danny, Izzy, Billie Jane, and Ben appear to be sticking together as a group. As they come around the corner and approach the stairs to our house, I can see they’re all dressed as members of the Addams Family. The miniature versions of Wednesday and Pugsley—their kids Willow and Aaron, respectively—will force Doyle to smile if they’re not careful.
I whisper so only Doyle can hear, “Candy is for closers. Now get going.”
He returns my spank with a swat. “You’re gonna get it later.”
“Daddy makes big promises, but will you wake the baby up?”
The next second, my mother, who’s now separated from Doug, comes out of the house with our two-month-old son, Jack, dressed as a tiny, fluffy bat.
She’s been living with us ever since she and I reconnected and has been helping us care for Jack.
“No need to worry about that. We’re going to Becky and Donovan’s for a kids’ Halloween party. They have their hands full with the twins, so I’m going to help out.”
At one time, I would have questioned how she would be helping by bringing a two-month-old baby that needed minding itself. But in the past year, I’ve learned that Fate is its own village and becoming more so.
Everyone in town is over-the-top generous whenever a new baby arrives, pleased as punch that some of us are contributing to a recent baby boom. Even if we wanted to be left alone, it’s not happening. Everyone gets to hold the babies, no matter where we go.
When we do need to be alone, we’re never without a support system.
I pick up my son for a quick squeeze before leaving, and I’m almost done in by the rush of good feelings. I’m going to make sure he has the life Doyle never had. Full of love and attention and belonging.
And I’m going to teach him what his father learned when it was almost too late. Wealth means nothing if you can’t use it to help people. And that money doesn’t help in every situation.
Sometimes you have to let other people in.
THE END
About the Author
Abby Knox writes feel-good, high-heat romance that she herself would want to read. Readers have described her stories as quirky, sexy, adorable, and hilarious. All of that adds up to Abby’s overall goal in life: to be kind and to have fun!
Abby’s favorite tropes include: Forced proximity, opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, age gap, boss/employee, fated mates/insta-love, and more. Abby is heavily influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and LOST. But don't worry, she won’t ever make you suffer like Luke & Lorelai.
If any or all of that connects with you, then you came to the right place.
Join Abby’s newsletter
and say hello at authorabbyknox@gmail.com
More by Abby Knox
Roadside Attraction
Claiming Fate
Falling into Fate
Paradise Passions
Babymoon
Honeymoon Hideout
Want more of summer?
511 Kissme Lane (a stand-alone story in the multi-author Cherry Falls series
Not the Rebound Guy
Made for Marriage
Walk with Me
Off-Season Stud
Midsummer Fling
Ready for the holidays?
The Halloween Bet
Pumpkin King
Snow-plowed
The Windy City Holiday Duet
Pumpkin Spice
Comfort & Joy
Homemade Heat
Judge Me
Cake Walk
Hand-Tossed
Chef’s Kiss
Bite Me
Crow Bar Brute Squad
Party Foul
Dirty Martini
Whiskey Sour
And plenty more on my Amazon page!
Abby Knox, Fate's Dark Shadows: A stand-alone age gap small-town romance
