The Haunting of Autumn Lake (23 page)

“May I help you, sir?” she asked.

“What’ll ya take for one of them caramel apples on a twig?” he asked.

Autumn judged the boy’s age to be approximately five or six. He had light green-blue eyes and a grin that told her he was all mischief.

“Well, usually I ask for two pennies,” she answered. “But I’ll take one kiss on my cheek right here,” she said as she pointed to her right cheek with an index finger, “instead.”

“I got me a few roasted punkin seeds left from a handful that feller sellin’ punkins over there give to me,” the boy said, turning and pointing to Autumn’s daddy. “What’s say I give you five or six? Will that get me one of them apples?”

“Absolutely!” Autumn agreed.

The boy smiled, and Autumn’s heart swelled with enchantment as she saw he had one dimple on his left cheek. She’d made him happy, and that’s all she’d wanted.

She watched as the boy dug into his front pocket (the one on the opposite side of the slingshot). Pulling out a little handful of Ransom Lake’s roasted pumpkin seeds, he carefully counted them out on the table.

“One, two…three, four, five…six,” he counted. Then reaching into his pocket, he removed another roasted pumpkin seed. “And there’s seven because you didn’t make me kiss a girl in front of any other fellers that might be around close.”

Autumn smiled, scooped up the pumpkin seeds, and dropped them into her apron pocket. “Now you choose whichever apple you want, sugar,” she told him. Lowering her voice, she added, “You can have two if you like…because there aren’t many gentlemen these days that are generous enough to throw somethin’ extra into a deal the way you did.”

The boy’s face lit up. “You mean I can have two?” he exclaimed.

“Yep,” Autumn answered.

The boy’s eyes widened to nearly the size of the harvest moon. “I’ll take that big one there in the middle,” he began, selecting the caramel apple that was indeed the biggest on the table at the moment. “And…and I’ll take that one there. It’s about the right size for my little sister, I think.”

Autumn carefully twisted the boy’s two selected apples from the sugared parchment paper on which they sat and offered them to him.

He took one in one hand, the other in his other hand, smiled at Autumn, and said, “Thanks, lady!” and hurried off.

Autumn looked up to see her daddy watching her, grinning with an entirely understanding smile. Obviously, the cute little fellow had somehow managed to weasel some roasted pumpkin seeds out of her father too. Autumn thought then that the boy would go far with charm like his—not to mention that adorable dimple on his left cheek.

“Hey, lady.”

At the sound of Gentry’s low, provocative voice behind her and the feel of his warm breath on her neck, Autumn’s body was instantly alive with goose bumps.

“What’ll you take for one of them apples?” he whispered in her ear.

“A kiss on this cheek right here,” she answered, tapping her right cheek with her index finger.

Gentry chuckled and placed a quick kiss on her cheek. “I’ll tell you what, punkin,” he whispered as she twisted a caramel apple from the parchment, turned, and handed it to him.

“What?” she giggled.

“Why don’t you get your mama to let you take a little stroll with me, and we can share this apple real quick before I have to take another load of rambunctious youngsters for a hayride. What do you say?”

Autumn smiled and called, “Mama…I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“All right, honey,” Vaden said. Then coming to stand closer to Autumn and Gentry, she whispered, “You keep an eye on my girl, Gentry. I wouldn’t want the Specter riding off with her or some such thing.” She smiled and winked at Autumn.

“Yes, ma’am,” Gentry chuckled.

“Now find a private place to…uh…to eat that apple, children,” Vaden added. “And hurry back, Autumn. More and more people are beginning to arrive.”

“I say yes,” Autumn answered as she leaned back and gazed up into the branches of the maple. “All the leaves will be gone soon,” she sighed. “Already the branches are lookin’ bare.”

“Oh, but they’ll leaf out come late spring and summer…and then blush all red and purty for you in the fall.”

“I know,” she said. “But I’ll miss all the pretty colors of the trees until then.” She was quiet for a moment. She listened to the soft, cool breeze breathing through the branches and rustling the drying leaves. It was certainly one of her favorite sounds in all the world—the quiet stirring as crinkling leaves brushed against one another. The breeze puffed a little stronger for a moment, and Autumn opened her eyes, smiling as a rubied rain drifted slowly from the branches overhead to alight everywhere on the ground around her and Gentry.

Several leaves settled in her lap, and Gentry chuckled, “I think they like you.” She watched as he drew a pocketknife from his pocket and cut a slice of the caramel apple. “Mmm! That is good! You and your mama sure do know how to take care of an apple.”

“I see you’re one of those neat caramel apple eaters,” she giggled.

“Hmm?”

“Mama and I love to watch the people eatin’ our caramel apples at the fair every year,” she began. “We find there are two kinds of caramel apple eaters—the neat ones who take a knife to their caramel apple the way you’re doin’…and the adventurous ones who just hang on to that ol’ twig stick and just bite right into it, careless of whether or not they get caramel all over their lips and cheeks.”

Autumn accepted the apple, but as she shook her head, pushed away the knife, and bit right into the side of the apple, Gentry laughed. “Oh, I see. You’re one of them adventurous sorts.”

Autumn nodded, taking hold of the thick caramel gathered at the base of the apple, tugging at it, and stringing it out into a long length. Twirling the caramel around her finger, she offered the apple to Gentry again.

But as she started to put her finger piled with caramel into her mouth, she gasped and giggled when Gentry took hold of her hand, drew it to his own, and placed her finger between his teeth, gently scraping off the caramel onto his tongue.

“Don’t you go keepin’ all the best caramel to yourself, baby,” he teased her. He nodded and grinned, adding, “You already got enough all over your face there to cover another apple.”

“I do not,” Autumn countered, though she did lick one corner of her mouth where she felt a string of sweet, sticky caramel lingering.

“You wanna bet?” he laughed, leaning toward her. “Look right there.” He pointed to her cheek, and Autumn wiped the place with her fingers.

“Did I get it all?” she asked.

But Gentry frowned, studying her face more closely. “Here,” he mumbled, moving closer to her. “Let me get that for you.”

Autumn was rendered breathless—let the caramel apple drop into the grass beneath the big maple tree—as Gentry’s mouth covered hers. Heated, moist, and sweet with the flavor of caramel, Gentry’s kiss was as exhilarating as ever it was—more so.

“Mmm. You taste good, Autumn Lake,” he mumbled against her mouth. “I might have me a bit more of your caramel kisses.”

Autumn giggled and let her hands move to the back of his neck to caress him as he kissed her. Over and over his mouth seized hers, sending waves of euphoria to blissfully drown her in simply knowing he existed and had chosen her to kiss in that moment.

“I love you, Autumn,” he mumbled against her mouth. “You know that, don’t ya?”

Autumn nodded, trying to keep the tears of joy that had suddenly sprung to her eyes from brimming over. “I love you more,” she whispered against his lips. “You know
that
, don’t you?”

“Well, that I know,” he told her. He paused to taste her kiss a moment and then asked, “What I’m wonderin’ is if you’d ever be willin’ to sell somebody else’s apples.”

“What?” she asked, not understanding him—for she was still too swept away in the bliss of his kisses.

Gentry chuckled. He wasn’t ready to propose anyhow. He had something else in mind—a far more romantic way of proposing—but he had to wait until nightfall to do it. So instead of asking Autumn to marry him the way he’d almost just done, he simply stood, pulling her to her feet with him, gathering her in his arms, and enjoying one last long, delicious, caramel flavored kiss.

“We best get back,” he said, gazing down into her beautiful autumn-sky eyes. “There’ll be plenty of time for me to lick that caramel off your lips, after the hayridin’ is over.”

“Well, then you better get to drivin’ that mule team before a cute little fella I just met takes in mind to do it for you,” she giggled.

“All right, punkin. Then you go sell yourself some apples, and I’ll make sure the kids are havin’ fun at the fair.”

Gentry escorted Autumn back to the apple stand, and she bit her lip with delight as she watched him saunter off toward the hay wagon. She sighed. He was so handsome!

But as Autumn began placing more apples on the parchments spread over the table, she frowned. Whatever did he mean by asking her if she’d be willing to sell someone else’s apples?

“Hey, lady!” a familiar voice called, pulling her from her thoughts of Gentry.

Autumn smiled at the dark-haired, freckle-faced boy. “Are you gonna try and barter with me again?” she giggled.

But the boy shook his head. “I got pennies this time! My daddy saw me and my sister eatin’ your caramel apples, and now he wants one of his own!” he explained.

“Well, I’ll take that big one there, for my daddy,” he said, again choosing the biggest apple on the table. “And any other two for that other feller.”

“Will you be able to carry them all right?” she asked.

“I don’t have to,” the boy said, accepting the large caramel apple on a twig from Autumn. “That other feller is standin’ right there. He can come get ’em himself, can’t he?”

Autumn looked to where the boy was pointing to see Riley Wimber and his brother Fletcher standing not thirty feet away. Riley grinned—evilly, knowingly—and Autumn’s heart gave a terrified leap in her bosom.

“I’ll tell you what,” Autumn said, picking up the pennies from the table and handing them back to the boy. “You can keep all these pennies if you take the apples over to that feller and tell him I said we won’t sell him another one. All right?”

Autumn helped the boy to hold two caramel apple twigs in one hand and sent him on his way. She watched as the boy approached and handed the apples to Fletcher. She gasped as the boy then glanced back over his shoulder, winked at her, and kicked Riley in the shin as hard as he could before running off calling for his daddy.

“You come back before the day’s over, boy…and I’ll give you the pumpkin of your choice!” Autumn saw and heard her father call after the boy.

“Thanks, Mr. Pumpkin Man!” the boy called as he hurried on. “I’ll be back soon!”

Autumn felt reassured and safe when her father nodded to her to let her know that, even though Gentry wasn’t there to protect her, Riley Wimber would never be able to get to her. Therefore, she straightened her posture and glared at Riley.

It was obvious Riley was infuriated. His eyes were red, and so was his face, and when he tossed the caramel apple he’d paid two cents for into a nearby trash barrel, turned, and walked off, Autumn knew that Riley Wimber would never dare to threaten, frighten, or touch her again.

❦

Autumn wondered why in the world she’d let Tawny and Candy Johnson talk her into going to the spook hollow with them. First, though Candy was nice young woman, Tawny was a pill. Second, even though she knew there wasn’t really a Specter (that the only thing folks had been seeing riding out in the middle of the night was Gentry James trying to make one of Autumn’s dreams come true), the spook hollow was always terrifying.

For near to fifteen years, a group of townsfolk had worked on creating the county fair spook hollow every year. It was always built in the same place—a dense section of woods comprising pines, maples, oaks, and other trees just half a mile or so from town. Each year visitors to the fair would flock to the spook hollow to have the wits and wadding scared out of them by folks dressed up as phantoms and gory scenes of hangings and murder. Autumn often wondered what it was that drove folks to jump into something they knew would scare them. But since she seemed to have the same twisted sense of adventure anybody else did, she’d agreed to go with Tawny and Candy.