Take Three (The Jilted Bride #2)(53)

“You have to stay! Last year we made spider cookies and Billy actually ate one! I’m going to try one this year! And you have to too!”

I nodded and she ran off towards the kitchen.

I waited for Selena to finish accounting for all the treat bags, waited for her to notice me staring.

“It’s not polite to stare you know,” she smiled.

“Was it polite not to tell me what type of party this was? It’s a sleepover?”

She paled. “I figured you wouldn’t come if I told you that… It’ll be fun, I swear! You and me will still get to hang out since they have to be in their sleeping bags by two... Or did you want to leave now? I can take you back once my mom gets home. I can even call Joan and ask her to—”

“I’d love to stay,” I kissed her forehead and walked away.

I watched as Selena and a few of the neighborhood parents took turns telling ghost stories, making “haunted S’mores,” and playing games with the kids. I helped serve the “eyeball spaghetti” for dinner, and coaxed a few kids into eating slime-green ice cream for dessert.

They bobbed for apples and played hide and go seek in the backyard until Selena’s mom rang the “Sleeping Spell Bell.” They resisted her soft warning at first, but they eventually headed back inside to change into their pajamas.

Selena and I spread out blankets and sleeping bags in the living room, making sure they each had adequate space. We tucked the youngest ones in, and put in a movie to help the rest of them go to sleep.

When she was certain the last resister was asleep, she motioned for me to follow her into the den, where her mother had left two mugs of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace.

I covered us both in a blanket and held her close to me. “Tonight was a lot of fun. Thank you.”

“You liked it?”

“I did…It made me wish my parents hadn’t sent me off to boarding school every year. We never recognized Halloween as a real holiday there.”

“What about college? You didn’t celebrate it there?”

“Yeah. By partying,” I laughed. “Where would I trick or treat in college?”

“I guess since I went to a hometown college I never really thought about that…You know something? I miss college a lot.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I could be myself with the rest of the drama geeks I guess and it wasn’t as clique-ish as high school…It’s so different once you make it to Hollywood. Everything is so fake. Everybody expects you to be perfect onscreen and off-screen, and if you make one mistake it could be the end of your career…They never warned me about that in college…”

“You don’t think you like being famous anymore?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it,” she leaned back. “There are some days when I honestly want my picture taken, or I want to be seen in public. But after being here for a while, I’ve realized that that’s not really living, you know? The same people that were praising me and putting me on a pedestal months ago are the same people tearing me down and saying all those awful things…They never really liked me. They were just waiting for me to mess up…”

“Are you crying?” I wiped her tears away with the blanket. “It’s okay, Selena. Don’t cry.”

She and I sat in silence as the flames from the fireplace crackled and hissed. I wanted to spend the rest of the night kissing her, but I wasn’t sure if the kids were actually sleeping or if they were secretly spying on us from the hallway.

“Are you still coming with me to the fair this weekend?” she looked up at me.

“Of course. And actually, I need to finish telling you what I started earlier tonight...”

“Let me guess,” she sighed, “you have a wife?”

“No…”

“Does the woman who rejected your proposal want you back now?” her voice cracked. “Has she been trying to win her way back into your heart?” she looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“No…”

She stilled and practically whispered, “You really are a reporter and us dating was just for a high profile story…And you have a girlfriend waiting for you at home, right?”

“You have quite the imagination,” I held her face in my hands and looked directly into her eyes. “But for the record, I don’t have a wife, a girlfriend, or any crazy fiancée who wants me back. I only have you, and I’d like to keep it that way for a very long time…”

“Okay…” she exhaled. “Well, what is it then, if it’s not any of the worst things it could possibly be? I don’t think anything you tell me could be that bad, unless it’s about my mom...And it couldn’t be about my mom, right?”

Jesus…It’s now or never…

“It’s about Sweet Seasons, Selena. I’ve been trying to tell you this for a while and I honestly should’ve said something as soon as you mentioned it. I want you to know that—”

“Oh no! I don’t mean to rile you up about it too! I just need someone to vent to! Sorry if I vent about it too much though. Did I tell you they stole my mom’s sour cream apple pie last week?” she looked hurt.

“No, you didn’t…”