The night before Emily Carter moved seven hours away from home, she sat on her bedroom floor and seriously considered canceling the whole thing. Her suitcases were packed. Her new apartment in Nashville, Tennessee, was waiting. She had a job she’d worked hard to get, and everyone back home in Kentucky kept telling her how proud they were. So why did she feel like crying? At twenty-four, Emily had imagined leaving home would feel exciting. Instead, she was worried about everything—paying rent, making friends, doing well at work, and what she’d do if she discovered she wasn’t as ready for the world as she thought. She was still staring at the half-empty cardboard box beside her bed when her father knocked. “Can I come in, or are you charging admission now?” Emily smiled. “Depends. Did you bring food?” Tom Carter stepped inside with two mugs of hot chocolate and handed her one. “Your mother says you’ve been worrying all evening.” “Mom worries about the weather three days before it ra...
Every Halloween, kids in Maple Street knew which houses to visit first. There was the house with the giant inflatable spider, the one that gave out full-sized candy bars, and the corner house where an old woman always dressed up as a witch. Then there was the little blue house at the end of the street. Nobody bothered with that one. The porch light was always off. The windows stayed dark, and the old man who lived there rarely spoke to anyone. Some kids said he didn't like children. Others thought he was just grumpy. But nine-year-old Ben Carter had never been very good at accepting things simply because everyone else did. That Halloween, while his mother walked his little sister from house to house, Ben stopped in front of the blue house. "Mom, why doesn't that man give out candy?" His mother glanced toward the window. "Maybe he doesn't celebrate Halloween, honey." Ben watched the old man sitting in an armchair behind the glass. "Maybe nobody ever...