“You don’t strike me as a total dumbass.”

Not quite the way he saw spending time with Molly, but she was right. He wasn’t stupid, and he enjoyed having sex with her. If that was all she intended to offer, he was going to take it.

At least it was a starting point.

“It’s a deal.”

“Good. I’ll give you ten minutes recovery time, then I’ll be ready for round two.”

“You’re a hard taskmaster, Miss Burnett.”

She rolled over on her back and smiled. “You have no idea. We haven’t even gotten started yet, Carter.”

Chapter 18

THE LAST THING Molly expected to be doing was carving pumpkins. She thought herself long past the age, and she never did it anymore. If she was home on Halloween night, she’d pass out candy to the kids in whatever apartment complex she was living in. Otherwise, no decorations. And definitely no pumpkin carving.

But her mom had insisted that there had to be pumpkins on the porch, so she’d gone to the store and now she stood at the kitchen counter, elbows deep in pumpkin guts.

Her father was keeping Mom company in the living room, swearing he knew nothing about pumpkin carving and that was Mom’s area of expertise. She figured that was his way of getting out of this torturous task.

“Molly, have you gotten to the design part yet?” her mom hollered from the other room.

“Uh, not yet. Still cleaning out the pumpkins, Mom.” Maybe she could have a small accident and dump both of these hideous things on the floor. Of course, knowing her mother, she’d just send Molly back to the store to buy two more.

She pulled a handful of pumpkin seeds and gunk out of one.

Ick.

The doorbell rang. Great. Someone else to witness her misery. Maybe it was Emma and Molly could force her to help. She was at least a surgeon and could assist with the face carving.

“That looks fun.”

She jerked her head up to see Carter leaning against the doorway, a smirk on his oh-so-handsome face.

She hadn’t seen him since that night they’d spent together a few days ago. He’d called her several times, and they’d texted, but her mom had a doctor appointment, and he’d had some issues with some of his Tulsa shops, so they hadn’t reconnected.

Not that she’d expected they’d see each other every day or anything. Or at all, for that matter.

“Living the dream here.”

He laughed, pushed off the doorway, and came into the kitchen. “I can tell. In the Halloween spirit?”

“No.” She peeked around him to see her mom and dad were watching something on television. “Forced into it by my mother, who insisted on having carved pumpkins on the front porch for Halloween.”

“I see. So you’d rather not.”

“I’d rather not have my hands in all this goo.”

He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. “I’ll help.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind. Remember, Halloween is my specialty.”

“Oh, right. I forgot. In that case, be my guest. There’s another pumpkin over there to annihilate. Knives are on the counter.”

He grabbed a knife and the pumpkin and started to gut the inside while she finished hers. After she emptied the contents of her pumpkin, she washed her hands and watched as Carter efficiently dug out the contents of the one he was working on, sliding his hands inside to empty out all the stuff, not once grimacing at the slime like she had.

“You’re very brave.”

He laughed. “It doesn’t bother me. Do you want to save the seeds?”

She made a face, then shook her head. “No, thanks.”

“You should come over here and help me.”

“Oh, I’ve already done my own pumpkin. I’m happy to watch you.”

“Not your thing, huh?”

She crossed her arms. “Not in the least. In fact, I’m super happy you showed up.”

He turned his head to the side and graced her with a sexy smile. “Glad to hear that.”

“Why did you show up?”

“I wanted to drop off some paperwork about the town square project. There are a few decisions we need to make.”

“Okay.”

He lifted his hands, displaying trails of disgusting pumpkin goo. “Maybe after we’re done here.”

She laughed. “Of course.”

Once he was done cleaning out his pumpkin, they spread newspaper on the table.

“Do you have a design in mind for the face?” he asked.

She gave her pumpkin the once-over. “I’m going for something silly. How about you?”

“Mine’s going to be scary.”

“I’m so not surprised.”

They got to work on carving, both of them concentrating on their individual pumpkin faces. Molly had to admit that, with Carter working next to her, this task wasn’t as tedious as she’d thought it was going to be. He’d occasionally lift his head and smile at her from across the table, and her dad would pop in and check out what they were doing.

This was . . . nice. And a little unexpected.

She laid her knife down and stood, taking a step back to review her work.

“I don’t know about this,” she said.

Carter looked up. “What about it?”

“I might have gone a little too far on the scary side, instead of funny.”

He got up, and came over, his shoulder brushing against hers as he got in front of her pumpkin. “That’s really good, Molly.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely.”

She’d wanted to do a funny, devilish look. Instead, her pumpkin looked demonic. Still, she’d had fun.

“I guess it’ll have to do,” she said. “And the good news is, I’m finished.”

“Me, too.”

She walked over to his, her jaw dropping. “You did this freehand?”

“Yeah.”

He had carved the Grim Reaper into his pumpkin. It was beautiful.

“I’m so impressed, Carter. You’re really artistic.”

He shrugged, then grabbed a paper towel to wipe his hands. “It was fun. I could have done better if I’d taken a little more time. I hope your mom likes it.”

“She’s going to love it. Really love it. Let’s show my parents.”