CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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“HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” ADAM cried out from atop his macabre throne. The kids gathered around his feet weren’t put off by the skulls or smoke dribbling from their eye sockets. They’d push closer every time he’d toss back his head and give a bone-quaking cackle.
Raj hadn’t planned on spending the night standing outside a ring of sticky children watching his date triumphantly hand out bags advertising a local dentist. Though the way Adam would somehow crick his spine like his whole body was about to snap in half certainly piqued his interest. Just how long could he hold that pose? What if cuffs were involved?
“Mr. Chowdery, I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”
He didn’t even frown at the bungling of his name. “And miss all of this?”
One of the tykes pulled on Adam’s hand, nearly yanking his glove off. “Say it!” he screamed against the pumpkin’s skin.
Even at a distance, Raj could hear Adam’s exhausted sigh before he rose to his feet, extended his hands, and shouted, “This year, Christmas shall be ours!” The kids burst into applause or tears, depending on their age.
The mayor slid closer and nodded to the man on stage. “Any thoughts on making one of your own?”
“Oh, I’d never trespass on the sanctity of the Halloween crown,” Raj said.
Adam gave a particularly thrilling spin to applause.
The rotating pumpkin head paused, and the nostrils happened to focus on Raj for a beat before two kids lunged at the treat bags.
Adam easily dodged aside, protecting them from thieves.
Whatever claims of awkwardness he’d made about his youth, it was clear he’d grown out of it. A tight, controlled body just on the verge of snapping…
“No.” The mayor laughed beside Raj, ripping him from his dirty fantasy. “Not the costume, the children.”
Raj’s stomach dropped.
Children? He thought that…
His head started to shake back and forth, his fingers twitching as he took in just how exuberant Adam was with the kids. Was he loving the attention, the drama, or the opportunity to be around children?
“Kids help to really bind you to a place. Settle down. We can’t be young and carefree forever.”
Damn it. Raj nervously picked at his sweater sleeve.
What if he wants kids? What if he’s just waiting for the right guy to come along?
Or if he’s going to go it all alone regardless?
Dear god, that is not something I should be bringing up on the first date.
Raj had yet to see his cock, and he wanted to ask, “So, where do you see your sperm in three to five years?”
The mayor slapped Raj on the shoulder, causing him to jerk in place. “Course, we have to get you a nice girl first. Have you met Sheila at the candle store?”
“Yes. No. Thank you,” Raj’s mouth sputtered while his brain kept replaying a loop of shouting, crying, doors slamming, and clothes hitting the sidewalk.
It’d started with random trips to the park.
He’d thought it romantic, if a bit silly, not realizing he was being softened for the blow.
Babysitting jobs for nieces and nephews had begun lasting overnight.
He’d shared more videos of funny babies and children instead of cute animals.
One day, it had all boiled over when he had turned to Raj and declared, “Let’s have a kid. ”
Damn, I really like him.
“Sorry.” Adam lifted the box of goody bags, then spun it upside down. Giving it a shake, he said, “The King’s out of treats for the year.”
“That’s bullshit!” an older child yelled, only to be hushed by a parent.
“Take it up with the chamber of commerce,” Adam said. He tossed the empty box behind him toward the woman with the clipboard. Giving a final wave, he tried to climb off the dais supporting the throne by scaling down the scaffolding.
An egg whizzed right past his plastered orange head. It smashed into a light post, yellow goo dripping down the side.
“Playful scamps,” the mayor said with a laugh.
He clapped his hands to get their attention, but the crowd was growing riled.
They wanted their bag of free toothbrushes and coupons for an oil change.
“That’s quite en—” A potato struck the car beside the mayor.
“Who threw that?” He spun toward the kids who were quickly forming a blockade.
“Children!” Adam shouted. He’d leaped onto the base of the lamp post. With one hand clinging to the pole, he waved out into the crowd.
“Happy Halloween!” Adam hurled something to the ground, and smoke gushed up around him.
It blanketed the growing mob, cutting off their child-sized riot. Adam took the chance to escape.
Raj tried to wave the smoke away, but all he could see was a black silhouette dashing away down the street. It took him a good five minutes or so to find Adam—who’d hidden in a back alley with the clipboard woman standing lookout.
It was his voice crying out, “Are they gone?” that led Raj to him.
“Please, sir.” The clipboard woman held out her arms as if she had to hide Adam as he changed. “This is a staging area.”
“Raj? It’s fine, Marianne. He’s with me.”
She dropped her arm, but pivoted back to the man holding a pumpkin head in his hands. “Since when?”
“Very funny.” Adam sneered at her before he glanced over at Raj, and all the stress melted away. Lifting his hand, Adam beckoned him closer. He nearly clasped around Adam’s palm, but remembered the mayor’s assumptions and gave him some breathing room.
“Are you okay?” Raj asked.
“Of course,” Adam said with a laugh. “Why?”
“They threw eggs at you.”
“They always do that. It’d be nice if the Chamber of Commerce could count, but that’s asking a lot of business leaders, apparently.”
Marianne sighed. “I shall put in a request for another fifty bags next year.”
“And we’ll need another hundred.” Being trapped inside the huge pumpkin had deflated Adam’s hair. The gelled locks had fallen damp across his forehead. He kept trying to push them back and to the side, but raking his fingers through caused them to part.
Raj couldn’t hold back the little laugh as Adam turned to him. “What?”
“You look like an angsty hedgehog,” Marianne summed up rather perfectly.
“Bah.” Adam tried to mash it back down, but whatever product he’d used caused the little spikes to pop back up. To be fair, it was an adorable, angsty hedgehog. “Here.” He handed over the pumpkin head, but Marianne kept a tight grip on her clipboard.
“I have to move the throne platform out of the street. You can return the head to storage.”
Adam looked ready to argue her to death. Then Marianne gave a pointed look to Raj, who was trying to pretend he wasn’t there. Adam’s pouting lip shifted. “Fine. But you’re lucky the warehouse is nearby.”
“I’m blessed,” Marianne deadpanned. She walked back to the dispersing crowd. But before she went, she got one last hit in. “Try to leave the pumpkin in a better state than last time.”
“Oh yeah, well, try not to wrap the platform around… She’s already gone.” In one swift motion, Adam’s body bent in half like someone had cut his strings. An exhausted sigh rose from him, and Raj scooted closer. He couldn’t help himself and rubbed his palm along Adam’s weary shoulders.
He lifted his head enough for Raj to catch a flash of those silvery eyes. “Some first date, huh?”
“It is a new one,” Raj said.
“Really? You’ve never had another guy put on an oversized gourd and risk disemboweling from third graders? Californians are a strange lot.”
The two of them laughed. Instead of sliding apart, their faces drew closer. Adam’s straining lips dropped into a soft gasp that tickled Raj’s cheek. Raj’s palm had managed its way to the other side of Adam’s shoulders. He held him tight, nearly in his arms—both staring into the other’s eyes.
“I should…” Adam tapped the pumpkin head. “Get this back before I fall on it and face further humiliation. Do you want to come with? Maybe we can get this date back on track after, unless…?”
It was getting late. Raj was already facing a night drive through fog drifting off the lake across the gravel road. The smart thing would be to call this a wash, maybe try again some other time. Probably after Halloween, when they weren’t so busy.
Adam’s proud smile faltered, the mask of the king cracking. Duty and sense flew out the window. “Sounds fun,” Raj said. “Lead the way.”
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Adam flipped the lights, half-illuminating the room that was part maze and part mausoleum.
Racks and racks of costumes from plays and musicals long since past were slowly turning into moth food.
Rather than throw a single piece away—on the assumption the wearer would one day make it huge—the theater director had formed an accidental boobytrap for any potential thieves.
There was only one safe way to walk through the labyrinth without being crushed by crates of tights and dance belts.
Which was probably why the front door was left unlocked ninety percent of the time.
“This place is…” Raj took in the sights and probably the smells too.
The costume department reminded Adam of those boxes of baking soda people left in fridges—there were so many incomprehensible scents that the nose shut down to save itself.
“Ah!” Adam took Raj’s hand before the man wandered off and fell into a chifforobe.
“Careful. Who knows what’s around that corner. ”
Raj’s eyes widened in both fear and excitement. “Ghosts?”
“Worse. Mascots. At least a dozen from old schools. People say if you linger too long, the head of a Viking will roll off a shelf and chase you out of the building.” Adam tried to keep a straight face at his nonsense, but then Raj had to twist his lips to the side in thought and give a hard laugh.
Kiss him before he realizes you’re full of it.
Adam turned his head to the right, his eyes slipping closed. The heat of Raj’s cheek brushed down his nose, and he leaned closer.