Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls, #1)(34)

“Which is better, the red or the green?” Cooper asks.

“How dare you try to make me choose,” I say. “That’s just cruel.”

“Have you tried the lemon one yet?” Sloane asks.

“No! Where’s my lemon one?” I ask Cooper.

He chuckles. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Where’s your pumpkin, by the way?” I ask, chewing the remaining piece of cookie.

He nods to my right, where Chloe is sitting with Slug and Jake. “You should come carve with us. Sloane, you can come too, obviously.”

Sloane looks at me, waiting to see what I want to do.

I don’t really want to watch Chloe and Cooper being all cutesy together—though I’m refusing not to think too deeply about why—but if I join them, at least I won’t be sitting here alone after Sloane leaves.

“Yeah, okay,” I say.

Cooper picks up my tray. “You two carry your pumpkins. I’ll grab the rest.”

Sloane and I head over to the group, with Cooper carrying the tins, tools, and my latte behind us.

“Ellis!” Jake yells when he sees us coming. He pats the spot next to him. “Come sit with me.”

I glance at Sloane, and she winks. I roll my eyes just before catching Cooper eyeing us.

I set my pumpkin on the plastic tablecloth and take my latte from Cooper.

“Thanks.” I sit next to Jake, and Cooper puts our tins down and sits next to me so that he’s between me and Chloe.

“So, you’re going to homecoming with Jake, huh?” Chloe asks, leaning forward to talk around Cooper. “Brave girl.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jake asks.

“It means you’re a handful,” Chloe says. Her face turns bright red. “And I do not mean it the way you’re thinking.”

Jake smirks. “Nah, then I’d be two handfuls. At least.”

Chloe scoffs and Slug laughs.

“Good luck, Ellis,” Chloe says, sitting back and dipping her paintbrush into the red paint.

I finish carving the hole on top of my pumpkin, pop off the top, and dig out the guts.

“You look like you’re an expert at this,” Jake says.

I shrug. “It’s not my first rodeo.”

He laughs. “No? Were there a lot of pumpkin carving parties in New York?”

“None. But I was always determined to have the best pumpkin on any stoop in the city.”

Jake raises his eyebrows. “So, you competed against people who didn’t even know there was a competition.”

“Yes.”

“That tracks,” Jake laughs. “Are we competing right now?”

I look at him. “Of course.”

To my right, Cooper laughs. “Well, I suck at pumpkin carving, so consider me out of the running.”

“I’d shit-talk you right now for bowing out, but you get a pass because you brought me coffee.”

“That’s obviously why I did it,” he says as Chloe leans forward and eyes my harvest spice latte.

For the next forty-five minutes, we all carve our pumpkins and talk about classes and upcoming parties I know nothing about. Eventually, Sloane heads out to meet Asher, and everyone else finishes their pumpkins. Everyone watches me as I put the final touches on my creation. When I turn it around, the group gasps, sending dopamine pulsing through me.

“What the hell? How’d you do that?” Slug asks, staring in awe at the apple tree I carved into the pumpkin.

Jake reaches forward and runs his fingers over it. “You used the freaking pumpkin stem as a tree trunk! That’s, like, genius shit.”

I laugh. “I don’t know about that.”

Cooper grins. “You weren’t kidding about being good at this.” His eyes pause on the pumpkin’s bumpy growths. “The wart things are the tops of the trees. They make it appear sort of three-dimensional.”

“Exactly,” I say.

“Never thought I’d say this, but… Jake’s right,” Chloe says. “This is some genius shit.”

Cooper squints at me like he’s pondering something. Then he says, “Okay, genius. Do me now.”

I raise my eyebrows at him. “What?”

“Wait a second,” Jake interjects. He slides his pumpkin over to me and turns it so the uncarved side is facing me. “If you can do people, then do me.”

I shake my head. “Guys, I’ve never carved a person. Only characters. You know, like vampires or Frankenstein. But no one specific.”

Cooper leans forward and tilts his head. “Huh. Is Ellis Mitchell backing down from a challenge?”

I cross my arms over my chest. I know he’s taunting me. I know this is nothing more than bait.

But, damn it, it’s working. I sort of want to try.

“Give me your pumpkin,” I say to him. Chloe laughs as a wide grin spreads over Cooper’s face.

“But my pumpkin’s already in front of you,” Jake says gesturing at it.

“Sorry, Jakey. It’s first come, first served, and Cooper asked before you.” Jake pretends to pout, and I pat him on the leg. “I’ll do yours next, don’t worry.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles.

Cooper grabs Slug’s pumpkin and sets it in front of me. “Mine’s covered in paint, but here.”