Page 3 of The Woman in the Hollow
“I’m going to go tell everyone. Can you greet the teachers and chaperones?” I asked.
“This a nice way of asking if I can watch my fucking mouth for five minutes while you’re out of sight?”
“Something like that,” I said with a smile because his lips had quirked up a bit.
“I’ll do my best.”
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” I said, grabbing an apple cider donut and taking off at a power walk that would make my grandmother proud.
“Kids are here!” I announced to each employee working every attraction.
I was doing a full-on jog by the time I made my way back from the woods, knowing I had to set up the long picnic tables with the crafts still.
Once I had the stacks of plastic containers full of markers, glue, paper, paper plates, crayons, real and fake leaves, and folders to bring it all home with, I made my way back toward the build-your-own scarecrow area.
Normally, you had to bring spare clothes from home and stuff them. But since kids couldn’t bring anything big like that on the bus, we’d opted to buy bulk doll clothes for them to work with instead.
Finished with that, and checking to make sure the teacher and chaperones didn’t look horrified by anything Domenico was saying, I took a few steps back and sipped my coffee as I surveyed my hard work.
I sucked in a deep breath, letting the smile split my face, knowing just how awestruck these kids were all going to be.
And it was right then I heard a deep masculine voice.
“Is anyone working here?”
Well.
There went any pride I had in my work.
And my first impression of my boss, the elusive Dante? Yeah, not great.
Teeth clenched hard enough for my jaw to ache, I turned.
And there he was.
CHAPTER TWO
Dante
“Shouldn’t you be at the garden center?” Milo, my youngest cousin, asked as he moved to stand next to the chest press machine where I was doing my final rep.
Sure, it might be opening day, but that was no excuse to miss chest and triceps day.
“I’m heading there after I shower,” I told him.
“Only you would spend the day you’ve been looking forward to in the gym.”
“It helps me focus.” And burns off a bit of the nervous energy that had been needling me for the past few weeks.
Admittedly, a lot of that anxiety had to do with the fact that I was pinning all my plans and vision on… Domenico.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved my cousin. I was more than happy to provide him a legit place to work so his parole officer stayed off his ass.
That said, Domenico wasn’t exactly the kind of guy who gave a shit about childhood wonder and lifelong memories.
I trusted that he’d hired the people whose résumés I’d pushed his way. Many were a bunch of young adults who had a past in drama and shit like that—people who wouldreally commit to their bits in the haunted house and woods. There were two former early childhood education teachers. And, finally, one person who sent their résumé in on paper featuring Halloween decorations and included a paragraph about how excited they were to create an unforgettable experience for customers.
Hopefully, they would all pick up the slack Domenico might leave.
