She laughed as she lowered herself into the seat. “We eat gingerbread men, so I think we’re all a little cannibalistic in our cookie choices.”

After the quick stop at the gas station for cookies, Ash followed Kincaid’s directions to the farmhouse. Soon they were on a winding road that curled through thick tangles of trees, leaving the populated part of Long Acre behind them. He’d grown up in this town, and he’d passed the entrance to this road a thousand times, but he’d never taken the turn. After a stretch of woods, a few crooked mailboxes appeared along the side of the road, and the edges of dirt and gravel driveways peeked out every hundred yards or so. Finally, right before the road dead-ended, Kincaid told him to take a left. He turned onto a blacktop road, and the large farmhouse came into view.

Ash leaned forward over the steering wheel to get a better view as he slowed and bumped over the uneven drive. The farmhouse looked as if it could be part of a movie set, something straight out of another era. Pale, cream-colored boards with peeling paint, lots of windows, crooked steps, and a long porch. Even one of those rooster weather-vane things sat atop the highest point on the roof.

People who went by Ma and Pa had definitely lived here once upon a time. But despite its obvious state of disrepair, he instantly understood why Kincaid had fallen in love with the farmhouse. There was something magical about the old home sitting beneath the bright-blue sky with nothing but trees around. There was a timeless quality, as if the place had a bubble around it and was safe from the high-speed life going on a few miles away in the rest of the world. An escape.

“What do you think?” Kincaid’s fingers curled around her purse, her voice tentative.

“Wow,” he said, pulling to a stop in front of the house.

She glanced over at him. “Like wow, I can’t believe you spent your money on a haunted house?”

He laughed. “No, like wow, it’s kind of amazing.”

Her eyes lit, and she bit her lip. “Yeah?”

She looked so unsure of herself that he almost reached out and hugged her. Kincaid was nothing if not confident. He hated that she was questioning her gut decision, that everyone had convinced her that her feelings couldn’t be trusted. He reached out and gave her shoulder a squeeze instead. “Yeah, really. I can see why you couldn’t let this house get away. It’s a find.”

She put her hand over her heart and then leaned over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.” She sat back in her seat. “You’re the first person to say that. I think I needed to hear that.”

He smiled. “I haven’t seen the inside yet. I may change my mind.”

“Ha.” She grabbed the door handle. “Did I mention it comes with its very own goats?”