A Moment To Prepare
A few days later, Esme stood with Wyatt and their Halloween team in Ford’s barn. There had been no sign of Downey and no more incidents, so she hoped it was over. Everyone was looking forward to their first Halloween on the farm, and she was excited to be part of it all.
Their planning group had grown. Charlie had loved being invited to join their team. He’d suggested asking Piper to join in. Piper had brought her husband, Troy, and Elina Ramirez to their newest planning session.
Elina was married to the police chief and was also the comic strip artist Paxi.
Her artwork was incredible, and the woman was as friendly as everyone else Esme had met.
They’d brought their dogs, Oreo, the French bulldog who’d never met anyone he couldn’t befriend, and Finch, a huge Great Dane who was as gentle as a teddy bear.
Jolie and Ford joined them as well, leaving them with lots of help. Hemsworth alternated between coming in to visit with the other dogs and wandering out to play with his ducks or with Fox.
Gomez had started off standing behind Esme’s legs, watching the new arrivals warily.
Oreo wasn’t having any of that. The tiny dog flounced right up to Esme and waited for her to squat down to pat him, while she kept the other on Gomez. “Hi, Oreo. This is Gomez. He’s nervous because he’s been through some tough stuff in the past. Will you be his friend?”
Esme kept stroking Gomez as Oreo turned his attention to the mutt. The bulldog’s tail wagged as if it had a motor, and the dog bounced around Esme’s legs to yip happily at Gomez. He trembled under Esme’s hand.
Wyatt squatted down beside them and greeted Oreo. “Hey, bud. You’re a friendly little thing, aren’t you? Gomez, this is a friend.”
Troy laughed. “You won’t be able to resist, Gomez. Oreo converts everyone to friend status in no time. He’s not afraid of anything or anyone.”
Sure enough, Oreo sniffed at each of Gomez’s feet as he did a tour of the dog. Gomez swivelled his head to watch, and his tremors stopped by the time Oreo returned to the front. He wagged and yipped again until Gomez lowered his head to sniff back.
Oreo bounced in excitement, licking Gomez’s nose. The bigger dog flinched back, but dropped his head immediately, letting the bulldog lick him again.
In no time, Gomez lay down, and Oreo curled up beside his head with his paw overlapping the other dog’s. Gomez looked at Esme, then Wyatt, then back to the little dog.
Esme smiled, tears filling her eyes. “Good job, Oreo. Good job, Gomez. You’re friends now.
She and Wyatt both stroked the dog, then Wyatt took her hand, and they stood and walked a few paces away. Gomez watched, but didn’t move. He didn’t show any of the stress tells from when he’d arrived in Phail. His ears didn’t flop down, and he didn’t shrink into himself or bolt for one of them.
Piper grinned. “Oreo makes another conquest. Gomez won’t want to disturb his new buddy, so they’ll hang out there for a bit. Good job, boys. Okay, let’s get working.”
Piper was an incredible organizer. She’d called in reinforcements to search through attics, basements, and barns to find items they could use for some Halloween fun here and in town.
She’d ordered a truckload of pumpkins from one local farmer, dozens of hay bales from another, and pots of brilliant fall blooms from a third.
Amber planned to decorate the front porch and main floor of the inn with fall decor, and they’d use the rest for two days of activities culminating on Halloween night.
Ford set up three boards on stands. They were already painted black, and each had several holes cut out at different heights.
Elina planned to paint Halloween scenes on each. The guests would be able to stick their heads in the holes and get their photos taken.
Elina grinned. “These are perfect, Ford. I’ll make this one into the graveyard scene with a skeleton dance party, this one will be a pumpkin patch with scarecrows, and the third will be a spooky apple orchard.”
The tone of the activities was family-friendly so nothing would be truly scary.
While they worked, they planned out more activities. A jack-o’-lantern carving station, ring-toss over pumpkins, a spooky eyeball on a spoon race, and a costume box where everyone could dress up and take photos.
Mara would make apple-cider donuts which would hang from strings from the trees. They would have contests to see who could get the first bite without using their hands.
The baker had also suggested a cookie game where everyone sat with their heads back and a pumpkin spice cookie on their foreheads. The object was to get the cookie into your mouth without using your hands. It would be a lot of messy, silly fun.
She and Wyatt were in charge of making giant Tic-Tac-Toe and checkers boards. They planned to use gourds, witch hats, toy spiders, and toy turkeys as pieces. While turkeys might not be traditional Halloween birds, she loved Wyatt’s suggestion to include Nans in their event this way.
Charlie and Jolie painted pylons like pieces of candy corn, which they would use for another ring-toss game.
Along with the photo scavenger hunt, they probably had enough ideas to keep everyone occupied, but she’d rather have too many than not enough.
“Can we make pinatas?”
Everyone laughed at Charlie’s suggestion, and Esme looked up from where she was opening a paint can. “Do you know how to make a pinata?”
The boy grinned, “Not yet, but I’ll look it up and see if it’s something we can do. We could make a bunch of mini pumpkin ones and hang them from the trees.”
Wyatt sat back on his heels. “That would be pretty cool. If you can figure it out, I’ll help.”
Ford nodded from where he was painting squares on a large board for a game of Halloween checkers. “We might need some active games for everyone to burn off the sugar highs.”
“Zombie tag!” Charlie yelled. “Dragons versus brucans. Dodge the pumpkin. If I can find an orange ball, we can make it a pumpkin and play dodgeball.”
Esme laughed. “I’m so glad we asked you for help, Charlie. You’re good at coming up with ideas.”
He grinned with pride. “It’s fun.”
She couldn’t agree more.
“We could wrap people’s legs together like mummies, then have a three-legged race.”
She stared at Charlie. “That’s another great one. Where do you get all these ideas?”
Charlie grinned. “Olivia says I’ve got a good brainstorming brain.”
“She’s right.”
“We could use the sunflowers, too. Have them guess how many seeds are in the middle, or guess how tall they are? In the orchard, we could put glowing eyeballs on the trees and hang some skeletons. Maybe even string huge fake spiderwebs.”
Jolie laughed. “So many awesome ideas. I’ll object to the spiderwebs because they might interfere with the birds and bats. We don’t want any of them getting caught in the webs.”
Charlie’s eyes widened. “I didn’t think about that. No spiderwebs.”
The ideas continued to bounce, and Esme mostly let them flow around her. When Gomez wandered over to crawl into her lap where she painted the checkerboard, she had to blink back sudden tears.
Wyatt shifted closer to her and kept his voice low. “Are you okay?”
She blinked away the tears and nodded. “I am. It just struck me how perfect this is, how much Nans would approve.”
His smile softened. “My folks, too. All of this excitement over Halloween would surprise them, but they’d have dug in to help, too.”
Love swamped her. She didn’t want to say the words here in the barn surrounded by their friends, but something must have shown in her eyes.
Wyatt brushed a kiss over her lips, ruffled Gomez’s fur, and then leaned in so no one else would hear his words. “Halloween is just the beginning, Esme. I look forward to doing this with you for decades.”
Decades. Her heart shivered, and she kissed him back. “Decades sounds exactly right.”
Friday would be a warm-up for the full day of Halloween events on Saturday.
The forecast called for a windy day, but no rain or snow, with a full moon to make it perfect for the little ghosts and goblins. Wyatt found it difficult to wrap his head around the possibility of snow in October. At least he wouldn’t experience it this year.
The inn was full. Three families with kids, and the rest of the rooms filled with couples ranging from newly married to grandparents of one family.
Wyatt had woken up to Esme kissing her way down his body, and even hours later, he was still revving at the memories. Maybe it would become a Halloween tradition.
With a yank, he brought his attention back to Charlie.
He and the kid were walking through the orchard with Gomez, hiding decorations for the photo scavenger hunt they’d do after the sun set, which would be after an early supper.
Seth was making food buffet-style, leaving families options to eat around the different activities they’d planned.
Gomez had warmed up to Charlie, and the boy was thrilled to hold his leash as they wandered, setting the wooden ghosts and other cute creatures beside trees.
Elina’s art skills were unsurpassed, and she’d sketched out more than a dozen creatures for the kids to find.
Everyone had helped paint, and they’d included at least a bit of fluorescent paint on each one.
They didn’t want kids wandering too far into the trees.
Dani and Lawson had strung caution tape through the trees to mark the boundaries of the hunt.
Charlie set the last witch with her fluorescent green face so that she peeked out from behind a tree. “This is awesome. I’ll do a video for my friend Maribel later. With the time change, she’ll be asleep, but she’ll want to see how it all works in the dark.”
Wyatt nodded. “It was her idea to use the glowing paint, so she’ll need to see how well it works.”
“Halloween isn’t a big deal in Europe, so she’ll love to see everything we’re doing.”
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
Charlie laughed. “It’ll be the best Halloween party ever. I’m glad we’re doing some of the games today; it would be too hard to wait until tomorrow.”
Because they figured most of the kids would feel the same, they’d planned a Halloween-lite for tonight. They’d do a smaller photo scavenger hunt, then they’d add different items and change the locations of the ghosts and witches for the next day.
They also had checkers, ring-toss games, and a photo booth set up. Tomorrow they’d add in the bobbing for apples, catching the donuts from strings, and all the tag games Charlie had invented.
“Are you and Esme dressing up in costumes tomorrow night?”
Wyatt grunted. That part had thrown him off.
He hadn’t ever expected to wear a costume as an adult.
It felt weird, but the entire group was diving into Halloween with zest, so he’d agreed.
At least it was only for one night. Tonight, they’d all dress up as apple farmers, wearing mostly what they normally wore.
Esme said she was used to dressing up for a living, so she’d take care of their costumes. He wondered what the hell he was in for.
“What are you dressing up as?”
Wyatt shrugged. “No idea. Esme wanted to take care of it.”
Charlie laughed. “A surprise costume? That’s so awesome.”
He hoped so. He trusted it wouldn’t be anything embarrassing. Hopefully. “How about you?”
“It’s a surprise, too. You’ll see soon.”
Feeling far more excited than he’d expected, he and Charlie finished up and headed back to the farmhouse. Charlie and his family were spending the night in the farmhouse, so everyone was together—a huge family event.
He imagined Halloween would now be a family tradition that would extend to the inn and its guests. Something to look forward to each year. It was a hell of a good life on the farm.
At the farmhouse, Charlie bounced away to where his family was setting up tables with Knox and Thea. Esme, Amber, and Jolie sat on the porch painting signs for the different stations, so he headed that way, unable to resist her pull.
After a kiss, he grabbed his own paintbrush. His artistic skills were nonexistent, but he could mostly paint within the lines.
The afternoon passed in a blur of painting and setting up stations. They grabbed food from Seth’s buffet and then headed to their rooms to change.
In their room, Wyatt pulled Esme in for a kiss. “Ready for this?”
She laughed. “I think so. It’s been so busy, I don’t think I took more than a couple of videos today. I’ll have to do better tonight and post them on the inn’s socials.”
“Amber will appreciate whatever you do, but this weekend needs to be fun, too.”
“It will be. I’m betting it’ll be the best Halloween I’ve ever had.”
He kissed her again, deep and slow. “Me too.”
Reluctantly, he didn’t take the kiss deeper. “I guess we need to be responsible and get dressed rather than undressed.”
Esme giggled, a sound he’d never tire of hearing. Seeing her carefree and loving life would be his life's mission.
“I guess so.”
Soon, they wore their jeans, t-shirts, and the flannel shirts Jolie had ordered for everyone on the farm, one color for every couple or family.
Once they had on their blue flannels, Wyatt laughed.
“I’ve never worn matching outfits before, but you look good enough to eat.
” He loved that it identified them as an official couple, and he couldn’t wait to peel it off her later.
The surge of possessiveness was no longer a shock, but it grew stronger every day.
Esme held up a bandana. “Jolie even ordered these for the animals. This is for you, Gomez. You’re going to look so handsome.”
The dog licked Esme’s face when she tied it on him. They headed down to the kitchen as a family. The urge to return to his room and start working on growing that family was strong, but he resisted. This pre-Halloween trial run was important. To both of them and to the family they were creating.
In the kitchen, they found Charlie and his family dressed in red flannels, with Oggie sporting his red bandana. Ella squealed when she saw Gomez with his.
Rather than being afraid of the little girl’s excitement, Gomez wagged his tail and didn’t flinch when she toddled over to pat him. “Pretty Oggie Go.”
Wyatt shared a grin with Esme, and then she leaned down to pat their dog and smile at the little girl. “Yes, Ella, Gomez is so pretty in his bandana. And look at you in your matching red. You’re pretty, too, Ella.”
Ella threw up her hands with another squeal, then twirled. “Pretty La.”
Esme clapped her hands. “Pretty Ella. Are you ready for our pre-Halloween party?”
Wyatt couldn’t turn away from the sight, except that in his mind he was picturing their own child. Children? How many would Esme want?
They’d ensure their kids never experienced the fear and lack of safety she’d endured until she’d lived with Nans.
More of the team filed in, and Charlie had Wyatt sucking down his emotions when he called out. “Okay, everyone. It’s time for pre-Halloween. Let’s make sure everyone has fun out there. Ready, set, go!”
Laughing, Esme stood up and took Wyatt’s hand in hers. “Ready?”
He kissed her lightly. “For everything.”
Her smile widened. “Me too.”