Chapter 72
Suddenly, it was the week before Election Day.
“Hi, Mr. Russo!” Dot and Harper got behind Mary to wave hello into her phone. Tony Russo had called to check on his daughter. He was anxious for her return to New York.
“There’s my girls,” he said. “Hey, I just sent some money to Mary for you to buy some Halloween candy for those kids. Don’t get any of those small ones. Go full-size. Give them what they really want.”
“That’s so nice of you, Mr. Russo. I’m not sure their parents will love us for it, but it’ll make for a fun night,” Dot said.
“I’ll go with Mary to make sure we get the best kind!” Harper said.
Mary blew a kiss to her dad and ended the call.
“Let’s make a list of what we want,” Dot said.
“Why do you always need a list?” Mary was more of a wing-it kind of shopper.
“You’ll thank me one day for the habit.” She opened her notes app and asked, “What’s your favorite candy? I think we should go old-school and get Snickers for sure.”
“What about Milky Way?” Harper asked.
“I hate Milky Way,” Mary said.
“Three Musketeers?”
“Oh wait, that’s the one I hate.” Mary couldn’t stand the nougat.
“Anything Reese’s is good,” Dot said.
“Can’t argue with that.” Mary agreed.
“Twix?” Harper suggested.
“Definitely.” Dot liked those. “Candy corn?”
“The worst!” Harper said.
“Raisins?” Dot tried one more.
“You want our house to get egged?” Harper said.
“Okay, okay. Just make sure to get some Starbursts for me. I may need them on election night.”
“You got it.” Mary and Harper headed to the Jeep.
“I’ll keep Pippi here,” Dot said, following them out. “I could use the company.”
“Need anything else?” Mary asked.
“Don’t forget your broom and cauldron,” Dot said to Mary.
“That’s what my brother Frankie always tells his mother-in-law,” she said. “She laughs, but I’m not sure he’s joking. Okay, put it on the list.”
“Oh, now you need a list?” Dot teased.
“Ha! Just text it to us. We’re going to run before Target closes.” Mary got up behind the wheel.
“Don’t buy any extras,” Dot warned. They already had so much to pack after the election.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Harper hopped in the Jeep and closed the door.
DARKNESS CAME EARLY the last day of October.
The temperatures plummeted when the sun went down, and parents braced themselves for fights about coats covering costumes.
Those were battles they’d likely lose, with the kids fueled on adrenaline and their moms and dads bracing themselves for the sugar highs and lows to come over the next week.
The entire town of Cedar Falls had caught Halloween fever.
Every house and business had joined in, with the streets filled with a carnival of pumpkins, witches, ghosts, and twinkling orange lights.
Some ambitious families transformed their homes into mini haunted houses with tombstones poking out of their tidy lawns, and jack-o’-lanterns lit with candles on the steps of their front porches.
On Main Street, the chamber of commerce led a contest to see who could make the best display, turning the tiny downtown into an enchanting Halloween village.
There was a charming chaos to the decorations, which put even the most cantankerous and grumpy residents in a good mood as they prepared for the town’s children to run from house to house to load up on their loot.
That day, Dot knocked on doors with campaign volunteers up until the last possible second before it got dark and the last thing voters wanted was a political canvasser rather than trick-or-treaters.
She was going to take a couple of hours to pass out candy with Mary and Harper and then go back to the office and keep the team going on early voting with just days to go till the election.
The Crew was going to dress up and then hand out their full-size candy bars, courtesy of Mr. Russo. After tonight, there would be no time at home until election night the following week. Just seven more days to go. She touched her bracelet to remember to breathe.
FINALLY, IT WAS time for The Crew’s costume reveal.
“Are you almost ready?” Harper called upstairs.
“Almost!” Mary called.
“Coming!” Dot said.
A few moments later, Dot and Mary nearly collided at the top of the stairs.
“Oh my gosh, you look amazing!” Dot said.
“And you’re adorable,” Mary said.
“Let me see!” Harper said.
They came down the stairs and started laughing.
“This is incredible!” Dot said.
Ever since Maddy had told her to click her heels three times to go back to New York, Dot had wanted them to dress up as characters from The Wizard of Oz. Mary was into it but insisted they had to be sexy Wizard of Oz costumes.
“Fine,” Dot said, up to the challenge. And she’d risen to the occasion.
Dot was Dorothy, wearing a tiny blue-and-white-checkered miniskirt and matching crop top.
She had on white netted stockings and red sequined platform shoes.
Her hair was in curls and she’d put on a perfect Taylor Swift–red lip to finish the look.
She twirled around while Harper took a video for social.
Mary took Harper’s phone and recorded her sexy Scarecrow.
She’d found a denim minidress and a checkered bustier, plus thigh-high boots, a floppy hat, and two big red circles on her cheeks.
Pippi had a little sign around her neck that said, “Toto,” and she was wearing a Kansas City Chiefs dog sweater. “It was all I could find,” Harper said.
It was Dot’s turn with the camera, and Mary didn’t disappoint.
The Wicked Witch was very bad, with a tiny, skintight dress that stopped just at the tops of her thighs.
Then a sheer black skirt hung from the back, and her cleavage was .
. . noticeable. She held on to a black broom, just in case people couldn’t figure out who she was meant to be.
“Are we going to give these kids nightmares?” Dot asked.
“Nah,” Mary said.
“But we might make their dads faint,” Harper warned.
They gathered to take a selfie, and Dot posted it to her story. Her caption read, “Trick or treat, Wicked style.” A second later it had already racked up a hundred views.
“Well done,” Mary said, giving Dot a high five.
They passed out candy and had a wonderful time chatting with the kids in their costumes.
Dot gave extra to the ones who’d made an effort with their costumes.
She especially liked the political ones—twins dressed as red and blue waves, a cow covered in “VOTE” stickers, and a guy named “Bill” wrapped in white and with a replica of the Capitol on his head.
Dot pointed at that one and laughed. “Well done, Bill!” she called. Bill took a bow.
“Do you know him?” Harper asked.
“Oh no. That’s just Bill—sitting on Capitol Hill. My dad used to play these really old cartoons he grew up with for my sister and me. Bill was ‘introduced’ in Congress but couldn’t get a vote. It’s how I learned how a bill becomes a law.”
“Heck, I need to watch that now,” Harper said.
Dot checked her phone and saw the time. “Yikes. What’s happened to me? I need to focus. We have a race to win.”
“I think you’re going to win,” Mary said.
“Me too,” Harper said.
Dot appreciated their optimism, but she wasn’t so sure. The race was neck and neck.
As the night wound down, fewer kids were coming by, the temperature was dropping, and the parents were ushering their children home. They still had school in the morning.
As they were about to close the door, Mary saw Tommy’s truck on the other side of their street. Tommy rolled down the window and whistled.
“Hi, there—trick or treat, ladies?” he asked.
“What do you think?” Harper said.
Tommy and Jake got out of the driver’s and passenger seats. And then the back door opened, and Danny stepped out.
“Definitely a trick,” Mary stage-whispered to Harper.
Dot’s heart caught in her throat. Danny, rugged, fit, and unforgettably handsome, but it was his wounded eyes that drew her right back in.
She’d missed him so much but had tried to avoid thinking about him.
She didn’t think there was a point since she was going back to New York, and even though he’d shown up at the Lopez rally, she still had never responded to his text messages.
She felt terrible about that. And now she felt embarrassed.
Jake walked up to the porch first. “Is it okay that he came, too, Dot?” He cocked his head back toward Danny.
“Oh, sure. Of course.” Dot shot a look at Mary, knowing she probably had something to do with this little visit.
“Let’s go inside, it’s freezing out here,” Mary said, Jake’s hand on the small of her back. Tommy and Harper followed them in, taking Pippi with them.
And then Dot and Danny were outside together, alone for the first time in weeks, and face-to-face.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.” She made eye contact but nearly melted when she saw the sadness there in his big dark eyes.
“You look . . .” He didn’t finish his sentence.
“Ridiculous, I know,” Dot said, suddenly a bit embarrassed by her costume.
“I was actually going to say that you look more beautiful than ever.”
“I’ve been meaning to write you back,” Dot said in a rush.
“The silence has been deafening.”
“I’m sorry. It was wrong. It’s just that night—after being confronted by Maddy and . . .”
He interrupted. “By Maddy? Maddy Becker? What in the hell did she say to you?”
“She said that if I wasn’t serious about staying in Cedar Falls that I shouldn’t lead you on and possibly break your heart again.”
“She had no business doing that,” he said, an edge to his voice.
“I think she was just looking out for you, now that I’ve had time to think about it.”
“I’m tired of everyone trying to look out for me. I can look out for myself,” he said.
“I hear you. Loud and clear.” Dot felt a little better knowing he felt that way about Maddy. “She’s a bit . . .”
“Extra?”
That made Dot laugh. “Yes. She’s extra.”
“Now don’t get mad at Mary and Jake, but they told me you think I was dating another woman? What gave you that idea?” he asked.
“It was the same night, right after Maddy and her friends had run into me at the Couture Closet. I started walking up Main and I saw you with a beautiful girl. At Cocoa and Cabernet. And since we’d not talked about being exclusive, I assumed I didn’t have a right to be angry. So, I . . . I froze.”
“Wait. Cocoa and Cabernet? Oh my gosh, Dot. Oh, Dot.” Danny shook his head and covered his eyes.
“What?”
“That was Sadie’s sister. We get together every year for a dinner on Sadie’s birthday. She’s just a good friend. We have leaned on each other ever since . . . ever since . . .”
“Ever since she died,” Dot said gently, her foolishness becoming clear to her.
“Oh, Dot. I’ve missed you so much. And .
. . . I was falling in love with you. I should have told you that.
I should have demanded you listen to me.
But I thought maybe you’d decided just to end things and go back to New York.
I just couldn’t let you go without setting the record straight. And without saying goodbye.”
“Danny. I am so sorry.” She was looking at her shoes, desperately sad she’d wasted her last month in Cedar Falls without him. Then suddenly she snapped her eyes up to meet his.
“Wait. Did you say you were falling in love? With me?” she asked, both hands over her heart.
“Yes. Yes, Dot. But I wasn’t just falling in love with you. This time away from you has made me realize that I love you. Fully. And there. Now I’ve said it. I love you.”
“Danny, I . . . I love you, too.” She took a step forward and then she was right where she was meant to be—in his arms, kissing him, and trying to get as close as possible.
After several moments, Dot felt eyes on her. She turned to the window and saw half of Oz looking at them from behind the curtains.
“We’re being watched,” he said.
“Let them,” she said, thinking of how apt that advice was now that she realized that the townies, and even her own stubbornness, almost kept her from knowing that Danny Dawson was in love with her.
He pulled Dot in close and rested his chin on top of her head.
“What are we going to do now?” he asked.
Dot touched her bracelet and breathed deeply.
“Can you hold that question until after election night? I have to see this through—I made a commitment to For the Win and to Senator Lopez—and it’s almost over. And then we can talk?”
“That’s a week from now,” he said.
“Yes. Seven days. But who’s counting?” she asked.
“I’ll be counting.”
“Me too,” she admitted. “Me too.”