Contents
Cover Credit
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About This Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
From The Author
About The Author
Cover Credit
Christopher Coyle
darkandstormyknight.com
Thank you, my friend.
Your talent knows no bounds!
Sandra R Neeley
P. O. Box 127
Franklinton, LA 70438
[email protected]
Independently published
By Sandra R Neeley
34,609 words.
Halloween Treats
An Avaleigh’s Boys Novella
by Sandra R Neeley
Copyright © 2020 SANDRA R NEELEY
All rights reserved.
Thank you for purchasing and/or downloading this book. It is the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and/or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes without express written permission from the author.
Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales, is purely coincidental. The characters are creations of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademarked ownership of all trademarks and word marks mentioned in this book.
For everybody that needs a smile.
About This Book
We hope you’ll join us as Avaleigh’s Boys prepare to celebrate Halloween. Come see the changes that have taken place since the last time we visited with them. Kids have gotten older, there are new members of the clan to meet, and new accomplishments to cheer. It’s always been said that life is what happens while you’re busy making plans, and this applies even to the members of Kaid’s mix-matched clan of shifters. In this novella, lovers of Avaleigh’s Boys will find a slice of life from each character and their families. Are you ready to visit with some old friends for a little while?
Chapter 1
“I don’t like it. I don’t understand why Bam gets to be his Bear, and I have to just go as myself!” Delilah complained.
“Yes, you do. Because Bam can pull off making people believe he’s wearing a bear costume. You will never pull off making people believe your Dragon is a costume. She’s as big as the house, Lilah!” Kaid explained again for the thousandth time.
“It is unfair! I do not like this Halloween!” Delilah insisted, spinning on her heel and stomping out of the kitchen to let the screen door slap its frame behind her. Her arms were folded across her chest and she marched with a purpose toward Avaleigh’s house.
Daniel looked up and saw Delilah headed their way. “Incoming,” Daniel said good-naturedly.
Avaleigh was enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning working in her flower garden in the cool fall weather. Daniel and Remi were helping out by dragging tree limbs and debris away from the house and clearing the yard. She glanced over at Daniel when he muttered ‘incoming’, then back toward Kaid’s and Delilah’s when Daniel jutted his chin toward a mission bound Delilah.
“Avaleigh!” Delilah called to her across the expanse of the shared yard.
Avaleigh glanced again toward Delilah who was on the way to her, and spied Kaid standing on the porch shaking his head with his hands on his hips. Avaleigh grinned at Kaid's obvious exasperation and stood up to greet Delilah as she approached.
“Good morning, Delilah. How are you today?” Avaleigh asked with a bright smile.
“I am irritated. Tell my mate that he is being unfair!” Delilah huffed.
“About what?” Avaleigh asked.
“He will allow Bam to accompany the children when they go trick-or-treating as his Bear, but I have to go as just plain-old-Delilah.”
“Delilah, there is nothing plain about you,” Daniel contributed from the pile of limbs and leaves that would serve as the base for their bonfire on Halloween.
Delilah looked over at Daniel. “Thank you, Daniel. But I wish to do more than just walk with the children. If Bam can, I should be able to as well.”
“But Delilah, there is no way a human can wear a Dragon costume that is as large as a house. It’s just not possible in any realm of the imagination,” Avaleigh explained.
Delilah flopped down in one of the wrought iron chairs Avaleigh and Daniel had bought to accompany the fountain that Everly had made for Bam. Everly had placed it in the center of the yard between Avaleigh’s home, Maverik’s home, and Kaid and Delilah’s homes. She wanted it to be seen by as many people as possible and chose a place that would be seen when anyone first arrived for a visit. Delilah looked up at the bear spewing water and lifted her lip in a snarl. She watched the water creating a ball as it sprayed from all the little facets of the dandelion bloom the brass bear held in his hand as he made a wish with it. The bear held a strong resemblance to Bam. In fact, Everly had used Bam as her inspiration for the bear, and when it was warm outside, Bam was so awed by her creation that his Bear could often be found lounging in the small pool the fountain stood in the center of.
“Fine. I will just be me. I do not plan to have very much fun,” Delilah grouched.
“You will have a great time,” Avaleigh encouraged. “You’ll get to see Barron trick-or-treating for real for the first time — not just between all our houses here.”
“I know. And I will enjoy his laughter and his smiles. But I hoped to masquerade as well.”
“You can still masquerade. You don’t have to be a huge Dragon. You can be anything you want,” Avaleigh said.
“I can?” Delilah asked, sitting up straight.
“You can. You can be a pirate, or a witch, or a vampire, or a princess. I’m sure we could even find you a Dragon costume if that’s what you really wanted. You just can’t be your Dragon because of her size,” Avaleigh explained.
“I do not think I will be a princess, I am already a Queen,” Delilah said thoughtfully.
“Of course,” Avaleigh agreed, smothering a chuckle.
“I can be anything at all?” Delilah asked again just to be sure.
“Anything you can find a costume for, you can dress as. As a matter of fact, hang on, give me one second…” Avaleigh said, laying her pruning sheers down and hurrying inside her house. Moments later she was back holding a magazine in her hand. “Here you go. I got two of these in the mail. You can have this one. There are lots of costumes to choose from.”
Delilah accepted the magazine from Avaleigh and started thumbing through it. When she got to the section of adult costumes, she slowed down her page flipping and paid closer attention. Her smile began slowly until it was wide and bright. “Thank you, Avaleigh. I will go share this with Barron. We will have the best costumes!” she said, turning to head back toward her house where Kaid still stood waiting for her.
“You see?” Avaleigh heard Kaid say to Delilah as she got closer to him. “I’m not being unfair, your Dragon is just too big to ever be mistaken for a costume.”
“I now have a better idea. You will like this much, much better,” she said, pausing to kiss his cheek before moving past him and into the house.
“Barron!” Delilah called out.
“What?” a little boy’s voice answered from the opposite side of the house.
“Help Mommy p
ick out a costume! And pick one for yourself as well!” she answered.
Little feet could be heard echoing through the house as he ran toward her.
Delilah smiled, her heart warming at the sight of the little boy with a head full of thick, sun-streaked, sandy-blonde hair. He looked so much like his father. He was built like a little fire plug, not fat, but thick and stocky with strong arms and legs. His face was absolutely cherubic with rounded little cheeks and a perfect little pug nose. His jaw, though he was only slightly older than 4, was already giving a hint of the strong square it would eventually be, and his eyes were gold, but still flashed with ice blue and violet like his mother’s when he was mad.
“Where’d you get that, Mama?” he asked, reaching up for the magazine with the dozens of costumes on its cover.
“Aunt Avaleigh gave it to us so that we can pick costumes for Halloween. Do you want to look through it with me?” Delilah asked.
“Yes!” he answered, turning and running for the living room with the just snatched magazine in his hand.
Kaid wisely gave Delilah a wide berth for a while, waiting to be sure she’d found a costume she liked better than her Dragon before joining them. Instead, he finished working on the faucet he was trying to stop from leaking. When he was done, he decided he had to go into the living room, if for no other reason than to see why it was so quiet. Delilah, Barron, and quiet were not always a good combination. Not to mention their house was never quiet. At some point someone’s child was always running through it screaming or shouting as they played with their cousins. So if everything was quiet, someone needed to find out why.
Kaid stepped cautiously around the corner of the hallway and into the living room. He smiled when he found Delilah and Barron sitting on the sofa with their backs to the open window, letting the sunshine and the breeze into the room.
“What about this one, Mama?” Barron said excitedly, sitting beside Delilah on one knee, the other one up with his foot on the sofa as he leaned against Delilah and pointed excitedly at the magazine they were each holding one side of.
“You can be anything you wish,” Delilah said. “Pick the one that will make you happiest,” she encouraged.
“I wonder what everybody else is going to be,” Barron said.
“I’m not sure. They will be here for Sunday dinner tonight, we will ask then.”
“What if they don’t have a costume book?” Barron asked.
“Well, then after we choose our costumes, we will allow everyone else to go through it and pick theirs, too,” Delilah said.
“Because we’re nice, right?” Barron asked, smiling at his mother.
“Yes, we are very nice. Until we need to be mean.”
“But we’re nice to our family always,” Barron said nodding.
“Yes, we are,” Delilah confirmed. “Even if they make us become irritated, we do not hurt them, or breathe fire at them.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, nodding confidently.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Bane stood on a ladder with a strand of orange lights looped around his forearm, with Daisy standing beside the ladder watching him closely. “Are you going to put the black lights up, too?” she asked.
“I am. Once I get the orange ones up, I’ll start at the beginning again and put the black ones up.”
“And then it will be like Halloween!” Daisy said excitedly.
“It will be Halloween,” Bane said chuckling.
“I want ghoses,” Brandt chimed in.
“Then we’ll put ghosts, too. We’ll put them on the railing of the porch,” Bane said.
“Real ghoses?” Brandt asked.
“Well, no, not real ones. It wouldn’t be nice to ask the real ones to hang from our porch railing until after Halloween, but we’ll put some really scary decoration ones, okay?” Bane asked.
Brandt thought about it. “Okay,” he finally agreed.
“I have some pumpkin bags that need to be filled with leaves!” Janie called out as she walked out of the house and onto the porch.
“I wanna help!” Brandt answered, running to his mother as she stood on the porch shaking out the bright orange garbage bag with the jack-o-lantern face printed on it.
“Thank you, B-man!” she said, handing Brandt the bag. “All we have to do is fill it with all the leaves we can find, then tie it up and we’ll have a great big jack-o-lantern that we can sit beside our front steps right there,” Janie explained.
“Okay,” Brandt said excitedly as he hurried off the porch and over to all the leaves Bane had raked into a pile earlier for just this purpose.
“You want to fill a bag, Daisy?” Janie asked.
“No, ma’am. I’m going to help Daddy.”
“Then I’ll help Brandt with the other pumpkin bag,” Janie said.
“Ya’ll watch out for bugs, now,” Bane called out as he moved the ladder down a few feet so he could reach the next few hooks to hang the lights on.
“We will, but there shouldn’t be many, it’s cool out already. Most of them are dead or hibernating,” Janie answered.
Bane glanced over toward Janie and Brandt as Brandt’s belly laugh filled the air. He smiled to himself when he saw Janie pretend to miss the orange bag she was supposed to be filling and pile a handful of leaves on Brandt’s head instead.
“Has anyone decided what they're going to be for Halloween?” Janie asked as she and Brandt began stuffing the orange bags.
“I want to be the Mad Hatter,” Daisy said.
“The Mad Hatter?” Bane asked. “Like Alice in Wonderland?”
“Yes, sir! And I think you should be the White Rabbit, and Mama can be Alice and Brandt can be the Cheshire Cat!”
“Oh, really? And what if Brandt doesn’t want to be the Cheshire Cat?” Bane asked.
Daisy seemed to deflate momentarily. She wanted the whole family to dress up together.
Brandt watched his sister go from happy to not so happy. “I like cats,” he said. If it made Daisy smile, he’d dress up like a cat.
“You do?” Daisy asked, getting excited again.
“Yep,” he answered. “But, can it be a scary cat?”
“The Cheshire Cat is kinda scary. He’s got this big, scary smile and he’s kinda freaky,” Daisy explained, hopefully.
“Can I wear big bampire teeth?” Brandt asked, showing his teeth to his sister.
“Can he, Daddy?” Daisy asked.
“I suppose he can if he wants to. No rule that says the Cheshire Cat can’t be a vampire, too,” Bane answered, chuckling while he moved the ladder back to the front of the house to begin hanging the black lights with orange he’d already hung.
“And you’ll be the White Rabbit?” Daisy asked, batting her eyes at her Daddy.
Bane smirked and glanced over at Janie, who was giggling at the thought of him in a rabbit costume.
“Is Mama going to be Alice? Why don’t you be Alice?” Bane asked.
“Because I saw a Mad Hatter costume I want. It’s got a black and white skirt, and tights, and a black and white coat, and a hat with rabbit ears on it and a clock on it, and it’s really pretty.”
“I’ll be Alice if that’s what you want,” Janie said.
“It is! I want us all to dress up the same,” Daisy said, grinning again.
“Fine,” Bane answered. “I guess I’ll be a big white rabbit. Where do I find a big white rabbit costume?” he asked.
“We’ll figure it out,” Janie said, wrapping a twist-tie around the top of the first leaf-filled bag, then carrying it over to place it beside the steps.
“I’m sure we will,” Bane said, smiling happily as he and his family decorated their home for Halloween. If his daughter wanted him to be a big-ass white rabbit, then a big-ass white rabbit it was.
Chapter 2
Later that evening the decibel level at the dinner table was deafening as all the kids rushed to tell each other what they were going to be for Halloween.
Their parents were just
as animated as they laughed and teased each other as their roles in the dress up excitement were revealed.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Kaid said, laughing. “You’re going to be a big white rabbit?” he asked Bane, still guffawing.
“Yes, I am. And Brandt is going to be the Cheshire Cat.”
“Bampire Shesher Cat!” Brandt corrected.
“Sorry,” Bane said, “Vampire Cheshire Cat, and Janie is Alice. And I’m sure if your little girl wanted you to be a big white rabbit, you’d be a big white rabbit,” Bane said, daring Kaid to say he wouldn’t.
“You’re right, you are. I’ll give you that. I’d dress up if Barron wanted me to. But, thankfully I don’t have to dress up as anything this year,” Kaid said gleefully. “Barron is going as Batman, and Delilah is going as Robin and I’m just going as Daddy,” Kaid said.
“I’m going as the big bear in Brave,” Bam said proudly. “Analise is going as Princess Merida, Emmalyn is going as a baby bear with a bear costume, and Everly is the Queen, Merida’s mom,” Bam said, smiling as he chewed his food.
“Emmalyn is going to wear a fuzzy bear costume,” Analise informed everyone in her soft spoken voice. “Her real bear is too little to stay a bear the whole time,” Analise explained. “She might change while we’re getting candy and somebody might be scared,” Analise finished.
Bam took another bite of his food, then put down his fork and picked up the baby spoon resting on the side of a small bowl of baby food. He looked down at the four-month-old little girl in his lap and held the spoon to her lips as she smiled at him and opened to take the bite he offered. “You want to be a bear like Daddy, don’t you, Emma-bug?” he asked.
Emmalyn grinned at her Daddy and drooled carrots down her chin. Her hair was dark like Bam’s, but other than that, she was an exact replica of Analise when Analise had been that age, including bright green eyes like Everly.
Halloween Treats Page 1
