Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“I called Luca after you and told him. He’s working on getting in touch with everyone.”
“Dante,” Hazel said, getting closer. “I’m so sorry.”
“What are you sorry for? You had nothing to do with this.”
“I know. It’s just… God, they messed up everything.”
“We can fix it.”
“I don’t know if you’ve, you know, done the math. But it’s going to be incredibly expensive to fix this. I mean, the pumpkins alone…”
“The money doesn’t matter.” The place was a front anyway. And it had been incredibly profitable already. “I’m more worried about not being able to get enough supply.”
“I’ve already found a dozen separate places to draw supply from. And that’s just local. There are probably hundreds of places across the state if we need to keep reordering.”
“You’re on top of it already.”
“I’m trying. The straw is easy. But the decorations might be a little harder.”
“I can get on that,” Dom said, giving me a look.
“Yeah, if you could get started on that. And getting someone out here to redo the security system.”
“Got it.” He turned and made his way to his car.
“I can get started on hitting up all the different stores to get the pumpkins.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“But we—”
“I will get some people on that. They can spread out and hit all the places. I think I need you here.”
“It is bad,” she agreed, looking back toward the field.
“I know it’s your day off…”
“No, I’m here and on this. I know this is your place, but it kind of feels a bit like mine too. I’m here more than I’m home.” She paused to kick a flake of hay. “I hate this.”
“On the plus side, we have plenty of hay for the scarecrows,” I said. “Has anyone checked the haunted house?”
“It was the first thing I did when I pulled in. The inside of the building is untouched as far as I can tell.”
“Speaking of, why were you here on your day off?”
To that, her gaze skirted away, glancing past me toward the lot. Following her gaze, I saw her looking at her car.
“I was, uh, passing by. And I saw the damage.”
That… felt like a lie.
But why would she be lying about that?
“Well, I think I’m going to go grab a rake. All the pumpkin guts need to get dealt with before the animals start sniffing around.”
“Good idea. I’ll grab the wheelbarrow.”
“Really? You don’t have people for this?” she asked. “I mean, aside from me.”
“I’m not above some manual labor. Though, yeah, this might be more than a two-person job,” I said, eyeing the sprawling field of destroyed pumpkins.
As we worked, I couldn’t help but wonder what the chances were that this was just a coincidence.
First Big Ed, then someone destroying the place. That said, if it was some sort of professional, why wouldn’t they have broken into the shop? Gone through the records? Found the stashed money?
It could just be a scare tactic.
Someone with a vendetta.
“You okay?” Hazel asked sometime later, reaching to wipe the back of her hand across her damp brow.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure? You look really serious.”
“Just wondering who the fuck would do something like this,” I admitted as I raked the last of the pumpkin guts into a pile, then used one of the snow shovels to drop it into the wheelbarrow.
“People suck,” she said, exhaling hard. “But we did pretty good.”
“What are you doing?” I asked as she shoved her hands into the wheelbarrow, digging around.
“I’m saving some of the pumpkin seeds. Those green and white pumpkins are kind of expensive. I figure it would be smart to save our own for the planting season.”
She shook her guts-covered hand into a five-gallon bucket I’d missed before. She had it mostly full of seeds.
“Good thinking. Though that looks like a lot of work still.”
“It’s fine. I have no plans for the rest of the day. Looks like reinforcements are here,” she said, nodding her head toward where my brothers were making their way down to the field.
Not far behind them was my mother.
“Let your brothers take over for a while,” my mom said. “I brought dinner for you two.”
Hazel shot me a smirk.
“That’s so thoughtful, Giulia,” she said, reaching down for her bucket of seeds and slop. “I hope you’re joining us.”
“Oh, no. I have to pick up two of my grand babies for a sleepover.”
I had a feeling she’d set that up after she heard what was going on just so she had an excuse not to hang around with us.
When we finally made it to the picnic tables, I saw her vision really coming into focus.
Because she’d not only draped one in a tablecloth, set up nice dinnerware, and lit two hurricane lamps I was pretty sure came from the stockroom of the shop.
“Giulia! You should open a restaurant,” Hazel gushed before making her exit to go wash her hands.