“So that’s all I am to you. Skin,” Tate replied.
“And ass. Oh my god, your ass. Do you have any idea what it’s like to actually be able to appreciate your ass? I used to tell myself it was like two rhinos wrestling in a sweaty sock.”
“Fuck, why did you not use that as an insult in high school? That would have devastated me,” he said.
She laughed at that. He laughed at it, too.
Though she couldn’t help noticing the emphasis he put on the word devastated.
Like he meant it, on some level. She had possessed the power to hurt him, even if she hadn’t known it.
“Well, too late now. All I got is drool and two grabby hands.”
“See this. This is what I was just grinning like a lunatic about. You realize we are actually a hundred percent dating right now? Like, we are absolutely together without eight miles of trauma standing between us and huge urges to hide everything and lots of pretending we are not mentally groping each other. This is real. You just said you want to grab my ass. I can totally tell you that I want to grab yours. I can say right out loud: I want to strip you down and kiss every inch of your hot little bod. And nobody cares.”
She nodded in the direction of three girls.
Three girls who had definitely overheard, if their reaction was anything to go by.
“I think a few people care. One of the ladies who wanted your number just fainted. Two others gave me gestures that suggest if I don’t let you do that to me I’m an enormous idiot.”
“Yeah, well they never had me create a toxic fog in their bathrooms.”
“I think they would still find you super sexy.”
“Uh-huh. I bet.”
“But not as sexy as I find you.”
His head went back at that, eyes rolling up.
“Oh, say that again.”
“I find you sexy.”
“I think I could hear that a thousand times and not ever get tired of it.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to say it a thousand more.”
“Not if I get there first.”
It was his turn to kiss her then.
So long and deep that even Chad looked a little weak at the knees at the sight.
“Come on, I got a surprise for you. Over in that spooky abandoned barn over there.”
He waved in its general direction, but she couldn’t see anything. Which was probably for the best.
“You have a surprise for me. In an abandoned barn. That is spooky.”
“Do you really have to say it like I did something crazy?”
“Well, considering I last heard that line in a film called The Eyeball Eater…”
“Nobody is going to eat your eyeballs, I promise.”
She loved that he crossed his fingers, then clumsily and obviously hid them. As though he was playing on the perception of him as a big oaf, just for her. He was secure enough with her to seem like a fool.
He knew she would laugh with him—and she did.
“You say that, yet used suspicious powers to predict I would be here.”
“I didn’t use psychic powers. Lydia told Brad and Brad told Chad and Chad told me.”
“I can’t believe I know two people whose names end in ad. Or that you value their information.”
“Hey, I value it because their information is solid. Look, here you are, coming with me to the place where they found a ton of cats with no eyes.”
She glanced down at her feet, and sure enough, they were walking in his direction, as he sauntered backward in the direction of the place.
“Ah, so the owner of the death barn practiced his evil trade on animals first.”
“They always do. They always, always do,” Tate said.
“You’re ridiculous. But I like it enough to tell Lydia I’ll see her later, and then join you in the probable nightmare barn,” she said as she turned to do just that. Though not before she saw him grin wildly.
Then pump his fist, like a kid who’d just won the world.
Chapter 19
He was wrong about the place. It was dark and hollowed out, but not exactly spooky. Or at least she thought so until she stood inside, listening to the wind rattle the possible skeletons hiding in every shadowy corner. She even thought she saw something very skeletonlike, over by the tarpaulin-covered monster that lurked beneath the loft.
It turned out to be just rusted tools.
That looked like they were covered in blood.
“Tate, come on. You know I’m afraid of being murdered by the scythe-wielding ghost of a disgruntled farmer. Even though I wasn’t until I saw something that looks very scythelike standing in the corner.”
There was no reply—unless you counted the now-howling wind.
So she just kept talking. Loudly, so as to ward off evil.