Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
“Halloween, Halloween, oh yeah it’s Halloween, Halloween, oh yeah it’s Halloween!”
Allie had obviously learned a song at school about Halloween, and it was going to drive Ichabod out of his goddamn mind. He was tickled as shit because tomorrow Halloween would be over, so it was all right.
“Dad, are you ready? We’ve got to get going. I’ve got a party!” Zane sounded more excited than exasperated, which he appreciated.
And the kid was dressed up like… something. He wasn’t sure what, and he didn’t want to be the uncool dad and ask, but there was a lot of fake blood and some green skin and one great big bandage.
“I know, and I’m taking you down. You’re spending the night at Jack’s, and Jack’s mom is going to take you guys…” He wanted to make sure that his information and Zane’s information were the same.
“We’re going skiing tomorrow morning, and then we’re going to go have lunch and see a movie with the girls.
After the movie, Jack and I are going to come back here.
He’s going to spend the night so that we can finish our history project, and then his mom is picking us both up after supper so that we can take the project to school together. ”
All right, that was basically what Hannah had said. So that worked for him. “Sounds good to me, son. Can you grab your baby sister and make sure that she hasn’t eaten part of her unicorn costume please?”
Zane rolled his eyes but he did chuckle. “Unicorn baby, got it.”
Allie came bouncing by in her Glenda the Good Witch costume, spreading glitter everywhere she went. “Are we ready to go, Daddy?”
“I need to call Ellis and see if he’s ready to go and find your brother.”
“Zane’s right there, Daddy,” she pointed out, so helpful.
He counted to five. “I’m talking about your other brother.”
“Michael says Halloween is stupid, and he doesn’t want to go. He wants to stay here and watch scary movies.”
Oh, that was not going to work for him. With his luck, if he left Michael here, the kid would let all the horses out and be trying to do rodeo tricks in the snow. No.
This time he counted to ten.
“Michael, get your costume on and let’s go! Don’t make me let your brother beat you!”
“Daaaad.” Michael came slumping out of his room, a pirate hat in his hand. “I don’t—”
“Too bad. I mean it, buddy, no one stays home alone.”
Not out here, not now, not on Halloween, not at twelve. It wasn’t going to happen.
“Listen,” he went on. “You can come home after the girls are done trick-or-treating. It’ll be early still, and then you can watch all the scary movies you want to watch. Fair?”
Michael sighed so dramatically, but he nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair. Cool. I’ll even take Allie, if you want, around the trunk or treat.”
“I’d appreciate that. I’ll pick up a pizza.”
“Can I have pineapple, jalapeno, and ham?”
“Yes, my poor, poor boy.” He would get Michael one all for himself, and that way he could have cold pizza in the morning and feel like a real boy.
“Cool, all right, I’m ready.”
“You rock. Girls! Get your pumpkin buckets!” Ichabod nodded and grabbed coats. “Michael, can you please find Ellis for me and see if he’s ready to go while I load the girls up?”
“Sure, Dad. Elllisssssss!”
Michael started off sounding like a herd of elephants as only a teenage boy could do. Or a tween boy, he supposed. It didn’t matter; it was the same idea.
“Daddy, look at me twirl!” Allie spun around, flailing with her little wand.
“I know! You’re so pretty. Both of you are my girls.”
“Dad…” Zane was starting to sound a little frantic. “I need to go.”
He stared down his oldest son. “We all do. You understand they have this thing called texting. If you’re running late, you can text your friends and tell them that you will see them in a few minutes.”
Zane rolled his eyes. “And you tell me you don’t want me to use sarcasm.”
Chuckling, Ichabod stuffed the girls into their coats and made sure the bag he was going to take with them had all their gloves, hats, scarves, anything else they might need.
It had turned off super cold super early this year, hence the snow they’d had.
“Yes, but I’m the dad, so I get to use it if I want to. ”
“I guess you don’t threaten to beat me, at least.” Zane was grinning now, the little shit, absolutely enjoying himself. It was so awesome to have him sort of back to being the young man he’d been raising for so long and not being a sullen semi-criminal.
“So do I get to meet this girl tonight?”
“I mean, sure if she’s at the pickup with Jack and his mom. If not, I promise you can meet her tomorrow when you come pick us up.”
“She’s not planning on spending the night, right?” He drew the line at that.
“No, her mom wouldn’t let her do that. She’s gonna meet us for the skiing part.”
“Well, I can live with that. Get your coat on.” He waved at Zach’s costume. “As cool as that is, I’m sure it’s not warm enough to get from here to wherever your party is. You can show it off once you’re there.”
Michael came trudging back in, tugging Ellis along with him. “Ellis is ready, Dad.”
Ichabod turned to glance at Ellis and almost dropped his teeth right out of his mouth.
That fine son of a bitch was something out of a movie.
He wore jeans and boots like always, but he had on a pair of fancy chaps and heavy shearling jacket over a starched shirt with his good hat in his hand.
He carried a pair of spurs that jingled even without being attached to his boots.
“Wow.” And God help him, he stared, and he hoped he wasn’t drooling or that his tongue wasn’t hanging out.
“I figured this was an easy costume for me,” Ellis said. “I wanted to show you guys what it looked like, but I’ll take the chaps off to drive.”
“I can drive and then you can sit there in your chaps.” Ichabod gave him another slow once-over. “I’ll let you drive home. I promised Michael we’d pick up a pizza.”
“Pizza!” Ally cried. “I love pizza!”
“Oh, man, I’ll miss pizza.” Zane was not particularly put out; it was more like he was protesting so for the benefit of the other kids.
“I’ll make sure to have some leftover for you for that y’all can heat up for snacks tomorrow night.” Ichabod figured that would be easy. They would get a ton of pizza. They could order it right before they headed home and pick it up on the way.
“Now that sounds like a plan,” Ellis said. “That way we can all munch on it as we go. Hey, ladies. You got your shoes?”
“Yes, Bell.” they chorused.
“Zane, do you need any money for food or anything?” Ellis was always good about pulling out his wallet and handing Zane a twenty, which Ichabod sometimes felt guilty about, but Ellis had told him to hush up about it, so he wasn’t going to argue.
“I’m good.” Zane grinned. “Dad gave me some money earlier today so I could go skiing and everything. You know, for lift tickets. So, I think I’ve got it.”
“Good deal. All right, let’s round this herd up and head out the door.” Ellis literally herded the kids.
Michael clapped his pirate hat on his head. “Yee haw or arrrr or something.”
That had both the girls giggling, and Zane rolling his eyes again, and him laughing, copping a quick feel of Ellis’s ass when nobody else was looking.
Somehow, the way it was framed in those chaps made him dry in the mouth and hot all over, which is probably good since it was going to be bitter cold outside.
“Are you ready to Halloween with us?” Man, was that his voice, sounding all husky?
“I am. Been a long while since I did anything. And the girls are so excited.” Ellis was grinning to beat the band.
“They are at that.” He loaded them all up and got the SUV started. “Halloween Ho!”
“Who you callin’ a ho?” Zane muttered, winking at him in the rear-view mirror.
“You didn’t dress up, Daddy.” Allie was always so quick to point out his failings.
“I’ll have you know I have a cape, a wizard hat a la Gandalf, and a wand in the back. I figured that I didn’t want to drive with them.” And he could wear them over his coat, which worked.
“Oh.” Allie grinned. “You wore that last year.”
“But that was in Denver and no one will know but you.”
Allie nodded. “Not even the baby, because she’s too little to remember.”
He nodded, “Exactly. This way people can pay more attention to you in your sparkly costume.”
Allie beamed, as if he’d given her this huge compliment. “Do you know what, Daddy? You’re so right.”
Zane chuckled softly but didn’t say anything. That kid was wanting to go to his party.
Ellis kept stealing glances at him, grinning.
He tilted his head, curious as to what was going on in the cowboy’s head. “What?”
“I love that you’re a good dad. It makes me stupidly happy. You’re a great dad.”
He shrugged, his cheeks going hot. “I had a good one. He’s a great role model. How about you? You like your dad?”
Ellis nodded. “I do. He’s solid. I don’t get to see him as much as I want. I’d like to believe that he doesn’t get to see me as much as he’d want, but yeah, we’re fine. I talked to him just the other day, in fact.”
“Mine’ll be coming for Thanksgiving. You’ll get to meet them then.”
“Are they going to stay for Christmas?” Michael asked.
He shook his head. “Oh, honey, that’s a long time.”
“Yeah, but Christmas is way more fun than Thanksgiving…”
“Yes, but your grandmother can cook at Thanksgiving.”
“Oh.” Michael nodded sagely. “I like her pies best.”
“And her dressing.” That was Allie.
“Gwanny!” Chrissy cheered. “Pop-Pop! Yay!”
“That’s right, sweetie. Granny and Pop-Pop. Yay!” Lord, she did make him laugh.
“Is Aunt Lacey coming?” Michael asked.
“I invited her, and she said she’s going to have to see. She has a new partner in the business, and the day after Thanksgiving is super busy. She’s more likely to come around the first of the year, so that she doesn’t have to worry about working in the gallery.”
He hated it, but he got it.
“Is your Mom coming, Ellis?” Michael asked.
“Nope. Momma goes on a cruise, and Dad has a bunch of folks who come in and eat with him.”