I arrive at Sanctuary, and it’s bustling. Marlie is standing on the front steps, giving all the people who have come in today a job to do. It’s keeping them all busy, and putting some smiles on faces, which is great. I rush up to her. “Morning, Marlie.”

“Hey, chicky.” She smiles. “Glad you’re here.”

“Where do you need me?”

“You can go and help someone. Anyone really. There is food prep going on, cleaning, final touch-ups, so join in wherever you can.”

“Okay.”

I rush inside, waving and smiling to a bunch of people. I go to the staff room and put my stuff away in a free locker, then I head back out. I go to the kitchen first, finding Kaity running the show. “Morning, Kaity. You need a hand in here?”

“Yes, please. How good are you at icing cupcakes?”

“I’m good. Want me to give it a go?”

“Yes, please. All those”—she points to trays of chocolate cupcakes on a counter—“need icing.”

“On it.”

I mix up some icing, picking orange and red as the colors, and then I get to work frosting the cupcakes. Kaity looks over midway through her preparation of some fruit cups, and says, “Soooo . . .”

I look up and she wiggles her brows at me.

“What?” I ask, even though I already know what she’s going to say.

“What happened with you and Oliver last night?”

“Nothing. He dropped me home and we talked a while, then he left.”

She narrows her eyes at me, like she doesn’t believe me.

“I’m serious,” I giggle.

“Hmmmm. Okay. If you say so. Did he at least kiss you?”

“We have only been talking a day.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yes, but you’ve been giving each other lovey-dovey eyes for ages.”

“No we haven’t!” I huff.

“Um, honey, yes you have. He watches you all the time. And you watch him all the time. It’s so obvious. We’ve all been waiting to see who would finally make the first move.”

He has been watching me?

My heart flutters.

“I didn’t realize he even noticed me,” I admit.

“Oh, he notices you. Trust me. I’m glad you two finally got the courage to talk to each other.”

My stomach does a happy flip. “Oh.”

I continue with the cupcakes, finishing them off. When Kaity gets a few more volunteers, I head back out into the main area and find someone else to help. I see Oliver carrying a heap of chairs in and spacing them out around the room. I rush over. “Good morning, can I help?”

He looks over at me, and his eyes are warm and sexy. “Sure,” he says. “You start spreading these out as I bring them in.”

“Okay.”

He stares at me for a minute, and then says in a low voice, “You look really pretty today, Jade.”

Before I can answer, he turns and walks back to his pile of chairs. My cheeks flush and I feel an incredible rush inside. It feels nice. It’s been a really long time since someone of the opposite sex paid me a genuine compliment. I take the chairs, with a silly smile on my face, and start spreading them out, leaving gaps so people can walk past, and room in the middle of the area so people can dance. I continue doing this until we’ve run out of chairs. When I’m done, I walk back over to Oliver. “It looks great in here, you think?”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Come give me a hand bringing in the punch bowls.”

Gladly.

* * *

“What are you wearing tonight?” Marlie asks as we hustle into the office to get changed before the party starts in just under two hours.

“I have a dark fairy costume from a few years ago. What about you?” I ask, pulling out my costume and undoing the wrapping.

“I’m going to wear a witch costume. Cliché, I know, but it’s the only thing I could find while I was trying to organize all this.”

I laugh softly. “Well, fair enough. I’m sure you’ll look great. What about you, Kaity?”

Kaity lifts a big white sheet with two big eyeholes cut out and drops it over her head. We all burst out laughing.

“Let me guess,” Marlie giggles. “Couldn’t be a ghost, could it?”

Kaity laughs from under the sheet, pulling it back off her head. “No one said I was original. I couldn’t be bothered going and finding something, so I found an old sheet and decided what the hell, that would do.”

I strip down to my bra and underwear, Marlie doing the same, and I catch a glimpse of her knees. I’ve seen them before, of course, but it never ceases to amaze me how strong she is. The scarring and odd way they move tells of a terrible story, a story everyone in the world knows about, yet the girl standing before me shows nothing but strength and determination. She’s not weak. Not even a little. I admire her for that. She’s half the reason I didn’t let myself sink after what happened with Terry. If Marlie can survive something like that, and continue living, then I sure as hell can deal with a frustrating ex.

“Oh my,” Kaity says when I pull the black and purple dress over my head. “That’s . . . sexy.”

I look down, realizing it must have shrunk in the last year, or I must have grown, because it’s a lot shorter than I remember. The purple satin just covers my backside. Oh my God. I tug at it, trying to get it down further, but it isn’t going to move. “It was longer than this last time, I swear.”

“Well,” Marlie says, raising her brows, “Oliver is going to be a happy man tonight.”

“I should change? Right?” I say frantically, tugging the dress.

“Absolutely not!” Marlie cries. “You’re going to wear that dress with pride and knock the socks off that man.”

I tug again, but to no avail. The dress is not moving.

I have nothing else to change into, so I have no choice but to wear it. Sighing, I pull on the long black tights, thanking God they’ll stop my panties from flashing, at the very least. I put on a pair of slim boots, pull on my black, tattered wings, and then let my hair down to flow around my shoulders and down my back. Then I get to work applying dark makeup. When I’m done, I spin around.

Kaity is wearing her sheet, which makes me grin. And Marlie is all decked out in a super cool witch costume. Both their eyes fall on me and widen. “Holy crap. I knew you were pretty, woman, but I didn’t know you could do hot, too. Oliver is going to lose his mind when he lays eyes on you,” Marlie says.

I look down and then back up again. “Is it too much?”

“Hell to the no,” Kaity says, coming over and grabbing my arm. “Let’s go before you change your mind.”

They pull me out into the main area, where the lights are now low and all the lighting Oliver and I set up is on for everyone to see. The smoke machine lets off soft smoke, light enough that you can still see and not choke to death. The music is Halloween themed, and Marlie hired a few people to carry around trays of food and drink to the people just starting to pile in.

“Here we go,” Marlie says. “Enjoy your night, everyone. Find me if there are any problems.”

We all branch off in our own directions. I move toward the kitchen to help bring out some more food. I’ve just put down a platter of hot dogs when I spin around and slam into a hard chest. I look up at the hottest version of Frankenstein I’ve ever seen. Tattered clothes, scars painted on his face and neck, Oliver looks breathtaking, and scary, and way too hot for his own good. His eyes drag down my body, and his mouth tightens. “You look . . . fuck . . . hot.”

My cheeks warm and I fidget. “Thank you,” I say, tipping my head back to look up at him. “You look pretty good, too. Should I call you Frank tonight?”

He smiles that half smile and says, “Call me whatever you want, sweetheart.”

God.

My poor poor heart.