Chapter 19 #2
Her flush deepened. She looked so damn cute and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but her gaze was obstinate. “They were out of sexy nurse costumes.”
A chuckle left me, turning into a full belly laugh. The doorbell rang, and she scurried past me.
“Trick or treat, Miss K!”
I turned when I heard Deon’s voice.
“I mean, Mrs. J,” he amended.
“It’s okay.” Autumn dished out candy to the four boys on her stoop. “Everyone’s still trying to get used to it.”
“I like your costume! Pinocchio!” another boy shouted. “Does the nose grow?”
I snickered and she shot me a hard look. “No, but I don’t lie anyway.”
“Hey, Mr. J, why aren’t you dressed up?” Deon called.
Autumn put the orange candy-filled bowl under her arm and waited for my answer. My retribution for laughing at her.
It was disturbing how badly I wanted her to keep those suspenders on in bed. “I don’t dress up.”
“Why not?”
“There’s no trick-or-treating where I live.” Perhaps in some neighborhoods, but not in Silver, I left it at that.
Deon grimaced like he couldn’t imagine living in such a dystopia. “Bye, Js!”
He darted off with the rest of the boys.
I took the bowl from Autumn as she shut the door. “I have no idea what any of them are dressed as.”
“Deon’s a wrestler. I can’t remember the name, but there was just a movie about him. Caleb’s Iron Man, José is Spider-Man, and Lakin looked like some vaguely familiar anime character. I think I heard him say he was going super saiyan.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I’ve been told over the years, but my head spins, and I start getting fandom terms mixed up. I think it’s like superpowerful.”
More kids piled onto the stoop. The sounds of them arguing over who got to ring the doorbell came through the door.
Autumn put her hand on the doorknob but didn’t turn it. “I’d better wait, or I’ll upset the balance.”
The doorbell dinged. Sprinkles was nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t imagine a rescue like her sticking around for the chaos that was doorbells and handing out treats.
Every time Autumn answered the door, cheerful shouts of “Miss K” and “Mrs. J” would ring out. Autumn would chat with each kid and their parents, and even more kids would peek in at me, shamelessly curious. Many of them shouted a greeting.
I couldn’t walk through the hall of Silver and get this many greetings.
While Autumn doled out treats, I marveled over how good those absurd shorts made her ass look.
During a lull, she shoved the bowl into my arms. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”
Panic crowded inside my chest. “Wait—what—how many?” My desperation reached new heights when I counted only about ten pieces left. “What if I run out?”
“Two pieces each.” She disappeared down the hallway. “There’s another bag in the cupboard by the fridge,” she called.
The doorbell rang and I froze like a deer in the middle of an interstate.
It rang again and someone shouted, “I already pushed it” on the other side. If they pressed the button again, Autumn would think I couldn’t handle this simple of a job.
I opened the door to find three little wide-eyed girls staring up at me.
“Where’s Miss K?” the tallest one asked.
Another girl elbowed her. “It’s Mrs. J now.”
The third bounced up and down, her fluffy skirts shaking. “Trick or treat!”
I wasn’t about to announce Autumn was in the bathroom. “She’ll be back.”
Three tote bags loaded with candy were thrust toward me. At the end of the driveway, two adults waited. One had a mug.
A faint memory curled through my head. My mom laughing with my dad. “I bet there’s more than hot cocoa in those cups,” she had said about a group of dads going through a neighborhood with their kids on Halloween.
I hadn’t known what she’d meant at the time. We had covered the same part of Bourbon Canyon each year, and always the nursing home where both sets of my grandparents had spent their last days.
The nostalgia was heavier than normal. I gritted my teeth together and diligently counted out two mini chocolate bars for each girl.
“Thank you!” they belted in unison before running toward the sidewalk.
The parents lifted their mug toward me. I dipped my head. I was about to shut the door, but another group was making their way toward me. Two adults and three kids.
Shit. I would have to get another bag. Did I shut the door? Tell them to wait? Ruin Autumn’s reputation by giving them only one piece of chocolate?
The boy who sprinted up the steps seemed vaguely familiar with his height and how he carried himself, but with the white-and-black makeup on his face, I couldn’t place him.
A little girl skipped up the steps behind him, and a toddler was rushing to catch up.
The parents didn’t hang back either. The stoop wouldn’t be big enough for all of them.
The older boy grinned at me. “Aunt Autumn always has the best candy.”
My stomach knotted. Tate’s family. I glanced over the boy’s head to find steady brown eyes watching me.
Tate wasn’t dressed up. He wore a Copper Summit hoodie and a ball cap.
He’d look like any other guy if it weren’t for the beard and the way he carried himself.
His stance said he was in charge. Always.
“Chance, right?” I caught Tate’s surprise in my periphery. He must not have thought I’d cared enough to remember his kids’ names.
“Yep.” He grinned. “I’m Beetlejuice tonight.”
“I’m a pincess,” Brinley announced.
What was a pincess? How did I make conversation with a kid when I couldn’t interpret their words? Then she dipped into a curtsy.
Oh. “Do you have a castle, princess?”
“Nuh-uh.”
The littlest one, Darin, shoved between them and darted past me. I just watched him run. He yelled some word I couldn’t make out.
“Darin,” Scarlett and Tate called. Scarlett tried to crest the stairs. She was in a yellow dress that I should be able to place, but my knowledge of children’s characters was sorely lacking. The two older kids wouldn’t budge for her.
“No worries.” Autumn appeared. She had Darin on her hip. “Let me grab the second bag of candy. Come on in.”
Tate watched me, evaluating my reaction.
“Autumn’s house is usually our last stop,” Scarlett explained, sounding almost apologetic.
“By all means.” I stepped to the side. Chance and Brinley charged in.
Scarlett scooted past me.
Tate managed not to shoulder me, but he looked like he wanted to. “James.”
“Bailey.”
A trio was coming up the sidewalk, two adults holding a baby in a bumblebee costume. As they got closer, I recognized Myles and Wynter.
Autumn had failed to mention Halloween was a goddamn family reunion.
“There’s Uncle Gideon,” Wynter cooed. “Can you wave to Uncle Gideon?” I was pinned with big blue eyes surrounded by dark lashes. Elsa’s puffy black antennae flopped around when she waved.
Uncle Gideon.
Uncle.
Goddammit, these kids were my nieces and nephews. Four of them. I’d never thought of them like that.
When we got a divorce, I’d go back to being nothing but a stranger. I should feel relief, but it was slow in coming.
Autumn returned with Darin on her hip. He was holding her costume nose. “Hey! Come on in.” She set Darin down, took the nose from him, and grabbed the bowl from me.
I was pressed against the open door while Wynter and her family filed in and went toward the kitchen where the others had gathered. Autumn’s ass was facing me while she helped Darin dump the candy into the bowl.
She handed the empty bag to Darin. “Can you go throw this away for me?”
“Kitty?” Darin asked.
“No, she’s hiding.” She tapped the bag. “Garbage, please.”
He toddled toward the kitchen. Chance was dumping his candy out on the table.
Another group of kids came to the door. I stayed with Autumn as she went through the trick-or-treat routine. Whatever was going on in the kitchen was a ritual I had no history with.
The street was quiet. Shadows of kids flicked door to door down the road, but no one was making their way toward our house.
Autumn didn’t leave the doorway. “It’s tradition for Chance to trade out the candy he doesn’t like.”
“Because you carry the good stuff?”
“It helps I like it too.” She took a piece out of the bowl and opened it. Instead of popping it in her mouth, she fed it to me.
I caught the tips of her fingers and she giggled. Chocolate exploded on my tongue. When was the last time I’d had a candy bar?
She tucked her hand into mine. When we turned, Wynter was watching us. Now that her jacket was off, her Bavarian barmaid outfit was clear. Her pale hair was braided down each side. Myles was dressed like me and Tate.