Jon had long lost Rebecca and Julie back in the Creature’s Lagoon. When Cassidy took off, he flew after her as soon as his brain had comprehended what had happened, but it wasn’t fast enough to figure out where she’d gone. He’d ended up in the Ghost Island portion of the maze, getting jumped out at every so often and followed by a creepy looking little girl in a long white dress. Every time he turned around, she was there, staring, not moving. Heebies crawled up his spine the entire way through, and he was grateful to reach the next fork in the path.
Smoke billowed from one of the directions, and a group of teens were giggling and flirting as they decided on a witchy pathway. A figure sat by the sign, and Jon considered asking the worker if she’d seen Cassidy run by, but a glimmer of a pink glowstick stopped him.
Okay… so not a worker. Cassidy had hunkered down in what she probably deemed as a safe spot, fiddling with her glow necklace and directing the teens to pay her no attention. The corner of Jon’s mouth twitched, and an electric shock jolted in his chest. His hands twitched at his sides. Would it be too bold to have a little fun with her? She hadn’t seen him lurking in the cornstalks, and it was all too tempting to reach out and tickle her sides---give her a little fright.
He placed his footsteps carefully, avoiding as much crunching as possible as he crept behind her. She was humming the tune to a Christmas song, which he found hilarious and had to stifle his laughter so he wouldn’t be given away.
He was an inch from her waist, his hands hesitating while his brain tried to figure out if this was a good idea or not.
Bang!
A curse flew from his mouth, and Cassidy shot up from her spot on the ground, flinging her arms around Jon’s neck and holding on with an iron grip. The sky lit up with a single firework of orange and yellow.
“Oh my effing… sweet cheeses, Dear Thor in heaven…” she blabbered, and Jon’s shaky amusement returned, his heart pounding heavy after that little surprise.
“I think that scare was more than I bargained for,” he joked, and she loosened her grip, but stayed close.
“Jon… I mean, Dr. Bateman.” Her hand flew to her chest while she caught her breath. “Wait… that was you?”
He shook his head and rubbed his chin, ignoring the buzz running through his skin from her touch. “I was just going to pop out and say boo, but that sucker beat me to it.”
The smallest of smiles flickered across her lips, and she let out a breathy laugh at herself. “I think I’m freaked out enough, thanks. Don’t need your help.”
She ran her hands over her butt, sweeping off the dirt. Jon tried not to look, but had a hard time diverting his eyes. “What?” he said, his voice much smoother than how he felt. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“If you can get me out, then yes.”
“I’ll try my hardest.” He squinted at her hand, a spot of pink shining near her wrist. “Uh… where’s your glowstick?” he asked, tapping just underneath the dot.
She titled her head, then searched the ground. Pink spatter covered their feet, the dirt… and up Jon’s pants.
She snorted, bending down and frantically wiping his jeans. “I’m so sorry… I have no idea how that happened… it’s all over you, and crap, it’s getting all over me, too… oh wait, that might just be something else, no…”
“Uh… Marvel Girl…” he stuttered as her hand got awfully close to where it shouldn’t be. Heat flamed his ears as he tried to bat her away without being rude about it.
She shot up, her back straightening and eyes as big as the moon. He imagined red splashing her cheeks—the same color that he was probably donning.
“Whoops,” was all she said, and he burst out laughing, gently grasping her wrist and displaying her palm up.
“Now you’re all covered.” Her entire palm was bright pink, and a nervous chuckle rose from her.
“This is when I’d usually slap my forehead, but that’s probably not the best idea.”
“Good thinking.” Instead of dropping her hand, he smoothly wrapped it through his arm. “Stay close.”
“You’ll protect me?” she said faux dramatically.
“Or vice versa.”
They picked Vampire Alley, and Cassidy tucked into his side, walking cautiously and already on alert. He would not find pleasure in the fact that her body was pressed into his, or that she smelled like the cotton candy they’d had in line, or that he’d love to take her into the cornstalks and finish what they’d started just a week and a half ago. He was going to play protector, and that was it.
They entered into a sort of clearing where the path had been patted down and filled with leaves, rose petals, and fake blood.
“Oh gosh,” Cassidy said, moving to Jon’s other side, away from the large coffin that sat half-opened, a sleeping vampire inside. “He’s gonna jump out, he will. He’ll do it, and it will not be fun, no…”
He pursed his lips to keep from laughing, and hugged Cassidy closer to him. “We’ll speed walk past.”
“Won’t help,” she said, but she picked up her pace. Right as they were passing, another vampire shot from the corn on Cassidy’s side, and Jon just about lost his shit.
“No, no, no, no,” he chanted, taking Cassidy by both arms and backing her into him as he bolted. He dragged her through the maze, avoiding the approaching vampires. Cassidy’s hot breath and screams filled his ears, and it wasn’t until he tucked her away between a couple of cornstalks that she calmed and gave him a bewildered look.
“Just protecting you,” he whispered. The actors returned one by one to their hidden spots. Damn, they were good.
“Is that what you call it?” she said, laughter teasing the edges of her voice. He tore his eyes away from the vampires and focused on her, gasping at how close she was. The moonlight brought out even more beautiful features: the gap between her teeth, the length of her lashes, which could probably brush her lenses when she blinked, and the smallest bit of pink glowstick residue resting on the tip of her chin.
He carefully reached up, swiping his thumb over the spot, tingles rushing through his fingertips as they made contact. “This stuff gets everywhere,” he said, showing her his thumb.
“Guess we won’t lose each other again,” she said, gesturing to the brightness of his pants and her hand. But his heart clenched, and he wished she was talking about the party, how he’d lost her and didn’t know how to get her back.
He missed her lips, and with them so close it was all too tempting to taste them just once more. He leaned in, holding his breath, hoping for an invitation to continue.
“Um… Dr. Bateman?” she said, and the formal name slapped him. He straightened and took a step back.
“Jon,” he said. “You can call me Jon. I don’t mind.”
“Okay, Jon…” She wriggled her finger, bringing him in close. Was she okay with it? With him? Her lips were a seductive breath away from his ear. “I have a little problem.”
“What’s that?” he whispered back. She paused for an achingly long time, enough for the next people to pass the vampires to jump and scream in the distance.
“I may have peed a little.”
He jerked back, his brain whiplashed with the topic change.
“What?”
“Seriously,” she said, and for the first time since he’d saved her from the vicious vampires, he noticed her hunched shoulders, her crossed legs, her fidgety dancing… “If we don’t get to a bathroom soon, the next jump scare is gonna do me in.”
Laughter sat on the edge of his throat, and he wrapped his hand around hers. “Well, I’m going to make it my mission to get you out before that happens.”
“You’re on the clock.”
He tugged her down the path, ignoring all the jump scares as much as he could. They made it through vampires, zombies, pumpkin heads, ghosts, and finally the chainsaws. By the time they emerged from the maze—an hour later—Cassidy was laugh sprinting past Rebecca and Julie and locking herself in the porta-potty.
“I made it!” she called out, and Jon wiped his already tearing eyes. He’d started laugh-crying as soon as Cassidy told the Leatherface look-a-like to back the hell off, or she would pee on him.
“It’s about time,” Rebecca said, sliding her phone into her back pocket. Her gaze fell to his pants. “What happened to you?”
“A cheap glowstick.” He took a spot on the barrel of hay they were sitting on. “How long have you been waiting?”
“Twenty minutes, give or take,” Julie answered, not bothering to look up from her phone. Jon didn’t know how she typed with all those rings on her fingers, but she managed well enough from the looks of it.
“We ended up taking the zombie path when it first popped up, and apparently that’s the way out. Chainsaw massacre was right after that,” Rebecca said, leaning against a pumpkin that was propped behind her.
“It was totally lame,” Julie said. “So not worth the evening.”
“I don’t know…” Jon said, eyes drifting to Cassidy as she exited the porta-potty a lot more relieved than she went in. “I kinda liked it.”
Cassidy flopped down on the hay next to him, her leg pressed against his, and a long sigh slipped from her lips. “I say we do dessert. I deserve a treat for battling scary monsters.”
“I think I was the one doing all the battling for you,” Jon teased. She dropped her mouth in a cute O.
“Whatever! You were dropping effers just as much as I was.”
He grinned. “You took the mighty Thor’s name in vain more times than I can count.”
She playfully shoved his shoulder, rocking him into Rebecca. Oh right… there were other people around—other staff around. Julie’s eyes seemed to be glued to Cassidy and Jon’s adjoining legs. He quickly put distance between them, even though he didn’t want to.
He pushed up off his knees and wiped the hay off him. “Well, I’m up for a scoop of ice cream or two.”
“Or five.” Cassidy stood next to him, and the other two ladies looked to each other and had some silent agreement before standing and joining. Jon was almost too distracted by Cassidy the rest of the evening to notice the curious expression Julie kept shooting at every interaction they had.