Page 38 of Don't Scare Me, My Love

I shook my head. I couldn’t believe he would go to such lengths to scare me. “This guy freakinglovesme.”

Jack frowned so hard he looked ten years older. “By pretending to die in front of you?”

“It’s… our thing.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“It’s hard to describe.”

A shake of his head quickly joined his frown. “Great.And now that I’ve told you, you have to pretend not to know anything.”

“No.” I slammed my hands on the counter and stared at him. “This is perfect. I need your help.”

Jack winced. “I don’t like where this is going.”

“Nicholas will like it, though.” I pointed at the air in front of me as an idea formed in my head. “What if… we put a scare in there for him, too? Make it look like things are going wrong? Maybe… arealkiller shows up.”

“And kills you?”

“I was thinking more of you, Jack.” I took a step closer to him as the plan became more precise in my mind. “Anotherfake killer will kill thefake killer,who will then come after us, but Nicholas will think it’s a real one.”

“Oh, please, no, Jason. Please,” Jack whined. “You know I don’t like this scary stuff, and now I have to pretend to die? It’s bad enough that Nick calls me Jack the Ripper all the time. Now I’m supposed to become—what?—Jack, the ripped…?”

“How about free donuts for a month? Scratch that. Free donutsforever.”

“You already never let me pay for anything.”

“Well, true, but from now on, you get to feel good about it.”

He rolled his eyes, sighed, and walked over to the donut display as if accepting his fate. “Fine,” he groaned, pointing at one with sprinkles. “I’ll have theWhy-are-my-gay-friends-so-weird-Donut.”

I rushed over and put the one he pointed to, as well as a chocolate-glazed and a blueberry muffin, into a bag.

“How are you going to make that happen anyway?” Jack asked. “More fake killers means more people, and everyone will be pretty busy with the bonfire.”

“How about we get that young guy involved who did all the sound effects for last year’s horror hike? The one who lives with Dany and Laura.”

“Alex? You’re too late for that. Guess where Nicholas is right now.”

“Oh damn, of course, he would ask for his help. But that’s good! That means he will already be there! What ifhegets fake killed, too? And,yeah…” It all came together in my head. All the movies we had watched and how Nicholas always boasted that he wouldn’t make all the mistakes the people in the movies made—it was the perfect training for this moment. “I have to make some phone calls. But it’s going to be epic. He’s going to beso scared.”

Jack smiled wearily. “I’m going to have nightmares about this for weeks.” He bit into the sprinkled donut and ate half of it in one bite. “You can bet I’ll be coming here every day for my free donuts.”

“Have as many donuts as you want. I need you for this.”

“Well, I’m here for you.” He paused briefly as his smile turned heartfelt, “I want you to know that I’m happy for youguys. I probably don’t understandwhyyou’re doing this, but it’s nice to see you so…full of life. Never let this man leave Seastone.” He took the coffee and turned toward the exit. “I have to get back to work. I’m free tonight to plan whatever crazy stuff you come up with. Just please, nothing too gory.” The bell above the door rang as he pushed it open. “Oh, who am I kidding?”

“I’ll call you.”

“I know the drill. No texts, not to risk him finding out.”

He gave me one last glance before he walked outside. As the door fell back into its frame, I watched him walk over to his truck and shake his head.

I knew what this must look like to him, but this was just too perfect. My whole body tingled. I was excited.Nicholas would never see it coming.

“Sorry that I took so long,”Nicholas said, two pizza boxes in his hand as he slipped through the swinging door into the former hotel dining room that was now our studio apartment. “Jack needed help with other things, and I didn’t want to leave him alone.”

My ears perked up at Nicholas’ words, and I struggled to hide my smile.

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