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  Thank you for downloading this ebook. The contents of this ebook are the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic or mechanical—without written permission of the author, Tracie Puckett

  Chapter One

  “Tell me something good.”

  “The cake is ordered,” Roz said. “And it’s spooky. Black on the inside, black on the outside. Happy Birthday, Carter in orange frosting. Just how you wanted it.”

  “Perfect.” I scratched another item off the ever-growing list. “You can pick it up next Friday?”

  “Right after school,” she promised, grinning as she bounced on her heels.

  I couldn’t blame Roz for her excitement; she had every reason to smile. We all did.

  In a town as small as ours, secrets were hard to keep. And right now, we were sitting on a big one: Carter was turning eighteen in two weeks, and as her three best friends, Roz, Mel, and I were throwing her a massive surprise party on Halloween.

  “She’s clueless,” Roz said, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. “I told her we want to take one last grasp at our childhood and go trick-or-treating on Friday night. She loved the idea—she’s all in. She’s already requested the night off work.”

  “Of course she has,” Mel laughed. “It’s her birthday and her favorite holiday. It’s not like you had to twist her arm.”

  “And she’s going to lose her mind when she realizes we’re not trick-or-treating at all,” I said. “It doesn’t get much better than a surprise costume party on your birthday.”

  “And we’re sticking with mandatory costumes?” Mel asked.

  “Duh,” Roz said, rolling her eyes. “What idiot shows up to a Halloween party without a costume?”

  “They’re not mandatory, but strongly encouraged,” I said. “Let’s not lose focus on what matters here—celebrating Carter’s birthday.”

  We had to buckle down and take advantage of every precious minute. Trying to schedule these meetings around school and Mel’s work schedule this week would be tough, so tonight was important. I didn’t know when we’d have a chance to meet again. Not to mention, avoiding Carter’s suspicion had become a difficult task in recent days, so we didn’t have a second to waste. Most of our secret meetings, much like this one, were short, sweet, and hurried so that we could squeeze in the necessary planning while the Birthday Girl worked her evening shifts at the animal shelter.

  We were only eleven days away from the big night, and just as we’d done most every evening for the last week, Roz, Mel, and I gathered to plan in the barn at the back of Dad’s property—the very same place where my parents were married, and my grandparents before them . . . the very same building Mom had given her whole life to. There wasn’t an event she executed in this place that didn’t set the bar higher than the last. She was a visionary: the best of the best in the party-planning industry, and a force to be reckoned with.

  But that was then . . .

  Present day wasn’t all sunshine and roses. The Red Barn hadn’t been red in three years. Neglect had weathered the color, dulling the crimson that had once welcomed guests through the stately front door. Yet here it sat, forsaken and mostly forgotten—a shell of its former beauty.

  Even still, as somber as it’d become, the memories of my years spent here were vivid as ever . . .

  “The band’s set,” Mel added, pulling me away from my childhood memories. “I confirmed with Jeff and the rest of the guys today. They said they’ll play a free show as long as they can try out their new set.”

  “Great,” I said, thankful for Mel’s connection.

  “And I’m still on board to cover food costs,” Mel added.

  She could never know how much I appreciated her selflessness. All of us knew how hard she’d worked every evening for months, waiting tables for minimum wage, just to save up for a car. To dip into her savings, for no other reason than to help her friends, was the kind of generosity that Mel emanated without effort. I almost felt guilty accepting her offer, but she’d insisted, and it was our only option since Roz and I were about as penniless as unemployed teenagers could be.

  “Have you come up with any ideas for the menu?” Mel asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “I want to keep it simple—a few appetizers and sweet treats. And it would be really cool if we could find a way to incorporate the theme into everything—food and drinks that look scary or creepy or bloody.”

  Roz cringed. “I am not drinking anything that even slightly resembles blood.”

  “Says the vampire lover,” Mel said from the corner of her mouth, and I laughed.

  Without fail, a giggle escaped from Roz’s tight lips, and her whole face turned pink. It was impossible not to tease her about her celebrity obsession—and she made it so easy.

  I took a deep breath and shook off a laugh.

  There was plenty of time for laughter and fun later. But today I had to stay focused.

  This was it—the end.

  Dad’s decision to level The Red Barn hadn’t been well received among our friends and family. He’d spouted off a dozen reasons to tear it down, starting with the fact that it was wasted space, and regardless of his motives (which I didn’t buy for a second), I had to take advantage of a perfect opportunity.

  I begged for one last party—to end the chapter the way it deserved to end . . . to finally have the closure our family needed. With Carter’s birthday coming up, I had the chance to do just that. I’d pled with Dad for weeks to give me the green light, and he finally relented—on the condition that I understood his power to veto any and all party decisions if I stepped even a toe out of line between now and then.

  I had his permission, so I ran with it, pulling my closest friends in to help execute the plan. And when all was said and done, it would be amazing . . . I was sure of it. With enough time, effort, and organization, I could steal a final glimpse at my childhood—reliving the vivid memories for one last night.

  There was nothing I craved more than to watch Carter’s party unfold before me, just like the celebrations I’d enjoyed with Mom at the helm. There was something so beautiful about floods of people rushing through the doors, filling the floor, and dancing the night away. I wanted laughter, togetherness, and music—the way it always used to be. Memories. Happiness . . . every sacred thing this place had given me. All of the things I’d lost.

  It broke my heart to know that this was the end. This place had molded my identity. But I would only lose myself to tears if I focused on those happier times—of all the days I’d stood under the giant beams and wooden rafters and planned events just like this one alongside my mother.

  “The invitations are out,” I said, pulling myself back to the moment, looking between my two friends. It wouldn’t do any good to dwell on the past. I had to stay focused. “I dropped them in the mail yesterday.”

  “And we’re sure Carter won’t find out?” Mel asked. “I’m worried someone will spill the beans.”

  “We have very little reason to worry,” I assured her. “The invites explicitly mentioned surprise party, and most of the invitations went to her friends and family in Cedar Lake. I don’t think she even talks to most of them that often, so she’ll never see it coming. Now, I wanted to ask about . . . ”

  I looked down the list again, but I didn’t have time to pose another question before the heavy door at the front of the barn slid open, stopping me midsentence. The orange glow of the mid-October sunset spilled into the dark barn, and each of us turned to look as a tall figure stepped into the open doorway.

  “Private property,” Roz called out, squinting to make out the shadowed figur
e. “You can’t be here.”

  “I have a question about a party.”

  It was a man’s voice, but one I didn’t immediately recognize, and I couldn’t see his face well enough to know whether or not I knew him. It was odd that anyone would show up here, inquiring about a party. There hadn’t been a single event in The Red Barn in over three years.

  “We’re closed, and this is a private meeting,” Roz said again. She loved having even the tiniest bit of power, so I didn’t bother reminding her that she wasn’t in charge. Sometimes it was best to just stand back and let Roz do what Roz does.

  “I have an invitation—” he said, but she cut him off.

  “The party’s next week. You’ll have to come back then.”

  Roz had spoken her piece, but the stranger didn’t take it as an invitation to leave. He never moved for the door; he didn’t even budge. Instead, he took another step inside—out of the sunlight and into the dark shade of the barn.

  My eyes adjusted on his soft face.

  I didn’t know him, and yet there was something undeniably familiar about him—a pair of big blue eyes that I knew all too well, and a familiarity I might’ve been able to place if I hadn’t been distracted by the heated glare he’d locked in our direction.

  His knuckles whitened as he clutched a fist at his side, and he gnawed at his lower lip as if he’d rather bite it off than be here in the first place. And still, somewhere beneath that red, twisted, angry expression he wore, I couldn’t help but notice how cute he was.

  Whoever he was, this guy wasn’t from around here. I knew most everyone in Sutton Woods, and I was certain I’d never seen him before, despite the nagging familiarity.

  “I would’ve called, but . . . ” He shook his head and jerked his fingers back through his auburn hair. “There’s a problem, and this can’t wait.”

  “Yeah, and why not?” Roz asked.

  “I need to talk to someone about this invitation,” he said, lifting a black envelope—the very same kind I’d used for the invitations to Carter’s surprise party. My only guess was that he was one of her Cedar Lake friends.

  “What’s the problem?” Roz asked.

  “Which one of you is Ally Montgomery?” he asked, reading my name from the return address.

  Roz and Mel turned to me, and I stood frozen, a breath caught in my throat. I wasn’t sure I wanted to step forward and identify myself because I had no idea what kind of problem this guy was eager to address.

  I didn’t want to deal with problems. I just wanted a seamless and smooth ride—from start to finish.

  My two friends stared in my direction, giving me away. The stranger’s eyes met mine, too.

  “Ally?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “How can I help you? What’s the problem?”

  “This is the problem,” he said, shoving the envelope into my hand. I turned it over. It was the very one I’d addressed to Carter’s father in Cedar Lake.

  I was lucky to have his (or anyone else’s!) address on hand to send the invitations in the first place, but Roz had come through for me. She’d taken full advantage of the opportunity to hack into Carter’s phone and copy her contacts for our guest list just last week.

  I looked back to the stranger. He couldn’t be Carter’s dad. He was too young—eighteen or nineteen, at most.

  I read the name and address again. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

  “Jasper St. James,” he said, as if that alone should answer my question, but I only vaguely remembered scrawling his name on a different envelope last week. He was just as much a stranger to me as every other person I’d sent invitations to. But it wasn’t his invitation that he’d handed me, so I had to wonder if I’d somehow mislabeled an address. Was that why he was so upset?

  “What’s the problem, exactly?”

  “This party,” he said, standing taller. “You have to call it off. The whole thing. Cancel it.”

  “No, that won’t happen.” I shook my head. “Carter’s our friend, and we want to do something nice for her eighteenth—”

  “Carter’s your friend?” he scoffed.

  “Yes.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  “And what do you know about her?”

  “Everything,” I lied.

  We’d only met her a year ago when she moved to town, and in that year, we’d hung out almost every day. Carter moved in right next door, so I’d met her the day she’d come to town. And then she and Roz hit it off immediately in school, bonding over their mutual love of a hit cable TV show—or more specifically, the boy who starred in it. Mel was considerate of just about anyone, so she’d accepted Carter’s friendship with open arms.

  Before meeting Carter, the three of us were so stuck in our ways, the three amigos as we were, that it didn’t seem likely we’d ever get so close to anyone else, but the more time we spent with Carter, the more we’d come to love her constant smile, upbeat nature, and her beautiful heart of gold.

  In a matter of days, she became one of us. Simple as that.

  But Carter wasn’t as much an open book as the rest of us. Of course, it’d taken a while for us to get to know even the basic facts about her. She’d seldom talk about her past, and on the rare occasion she did, she’d only painted her life in Cedar Lake as a happy one, albeit with the vaguest of details. And while she’d never come right out and told us why she and her mother moved to Sutton Woods, none of us bothered to pry.

  With what little information I had to go on, I never saw any reason not to extend an invitation to the friends and family Carter had left behind last year. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and since she appeared to be out of touch for so long, it’d seemed like the perfect surprise.

  “Listen, if you care about Carter,” Jasper said, “you’ll do her the favor and stay out of her personal business. Don’t contact her friends, and don’t contact her family. Don’t throw her a surprise party.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s not your place,” he said, turning to leave.

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” I said, but it was too late. He’d already let himself out.

  Mel and Roz exchanged a curious glance, but I didn’t hang around to hear their thoughts. I set out of the barn to follow him.

  “Wait!” I jogged across the open field to catch up. Jasper turned back. “You can’t just come in here and start making demands, you know? You have no authority—in case you need reminding, you didn’t exactly tell us who you are or give us any kind of reason to—”

  “Cancel—the—party, Ally,” he said, turning to glare at me. His eyes were giving me the same threatening message as his tone. “Cancel it, or I’ll cancel it for you. Understood?”

  “But—”

  “I’m not playing games here,” he said. “Twenty-four hours. You have one day to shut this down, or I’ll come in here and shut it down myself.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “You want to take that risk?”

  “Are you serious?” I threw my hands up. “Give me one good reason why I can’t throw a party for my friend. Give me something more than ‘because it’s not my place.’ As far as I see it, it is my place.”

  Jasper paused, the fire in his eyes slowly burning to embers. There was some kind of war tugging at his emotions, and I watched as each look of confusion played across his handsome face. He seemed as conflicted as I felt, because all he could muster was a shake of his head.

  “Jasper?” I asked. “Why?”

  “Because you’re messing with things you can’t understand,” he said, heaving a sigh. “And some things are better left in the past. Cancel the party.”