“I hope she still isn’t working like that,” I said.
“Nope. I got her settled into one job that pays well enough.”
I looked over at him. “You’re a good son.”
“I try to be.”
While he made my feet feel like heaven, I flipped through the channels until I settled on a Disney movie. Koen didn’t seem to care as I settled in and watched as a girl proved that she could be just as strong as men in times of war. It was one of my favorite movies.
Between Koen’s godly hands, the lull of the music on the TV, and the tiredness I still felt, it really didn’t take me long to fall back asleep.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Shh, you’re being too loud.”
“No, you are. Don’t wake her.”
“Careful!”
Pretending to still be sleeping, I turned my head into my pillow so I could grin without them seeing it. Their feet rustled against the carpet as they moved closer.
“You remember what we planned?” Dayton spoke in a super soft voice.
“Yes,” they chorused.
“Shh! Inside voices,” Dayton said.
One of the twins giggled. My bet was Lawson, but it was hard to see when I was too busy letting the pillow suffocate me.
The couch shifted as they came closer. I swore all my senses were focused on them and could feel their approach. My hair shifted and a warm breath tickled the back of my neck.
“Rawr!” I whirled around and screamed at them, hands going up.
Lee was at my head, and he yelled, falling back. I went for it, tickling him. He laughed, trying to fight me off.
“Lawson, save me.”
“There is no saving to be had,” I said in a deep, growly monster voice.
“No, help me.” Lee laughed, trying to push me away with his feet. “Lawson! Dayton!”
“I’m coming,” Dayton called out.
Arms wrapped around my waist and pushed me to the ground. Hands went to my sides, tickling along my ribs.
“No!” I laughed, trying to squirm away. Smacking at his hands proved pointless.
“Boys, help me,” Dayton said. “She’s a strong one.”
Little hands found my neck and armpits.
“Not fair,” I called out. “It’s three against little old me. This isn’t fair.”
They were relentless, refusing to give me reprieve.
I screeched, fighting for my life.
“Stop, stop, stop. I’m going to pee.”
The guys laughed and finally stopped.
“You guys are bullies.”
“Ah, you don’t mean that,” Dayton said. He was still on me.
“Ugh, you’re so heavy. What do you eat? Bricks?”
He chuckled and rested his hands on my waist. I was kind of sad that the shirt was so long. What would his hands feel like against my skin? Darn, I was getting horny.
It had been a bit, even while I was dating Felix. When was the last time I had a good tickle fight with someone?
“What’s wrong?” Dayton asked, seeing my expression fall away into something sadder.
“Nothing.” I tried to smile.
“I think in this moment, Koen would call you out for being a liar. So… liar.”
“Ugh, doesn’t matter. What’s going on? What was with the sneak attack?”
He grinned. “Bryce wants to know if he can go by your apartment to get everyone’s costumes. There’s a good trick-or-treating area here and they have a block party for all the kids. Each house hosts something fun for them to do and the streets are shut down. They’ll be able to run free.”
I nodded. “That sounds good. My keys are in my purse.” My eyes widened. “Where is my car?”
“I brought it back from the school. It’s outside.”
I glanced around, hearing someone in the kitchen. The blinds were pulled closed so that they didn’t wake me up. “What time is it?”
“Just after noon. Koen is getting your lunch ready. We let you sleep through the morning.”
Lee came over and felt my forehead with a concerned expression on his adorable face. “Are you feeling better?” he asked.
“Are you kidding me? After that amazing wakeup, I feel perfect.”
“Here,” Koen said, coming into the room with a bowl of soup and a ham sandwich. He also passed me more medicine, and a drink to wash it down. And a thermometer. The man came into the room prepared.
I knew better than to put up a fight, so I down the pills, took a long drink and then let him take my temperature. I was growing a new loathing for thermometers.
Koen looked at the number and nodded. “You’re just under a hundred degrees, so you don’t have a fever anymore.”
“See, not the flu. I bounce back fast,” I stated proudly.
Dayton rubbed my head. “Yeah, yeah. Eat up.”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Lee said, coming over and giving me a tight hug.
“Yeah,” Lawson said, joining him. “I’m glad you aren’t dying.”
“Oh, my babies,” I said and squeezed them tight. “I just wasn’t feeling well, that’s all. I’m all better now, I promise. We get to go trick-or-treating today.”
That got them pumped up.
Koen had to get them to leave me in peace to enjoy my food. Lawson had nearly spilled my still hot soup all over my lap. That would have been an unpleasant experience.
Bryce left before I got into the shower with Koen hovering outside the bathroom door. Dayton kept the twins distracted with cartoons and airplanes. Apparently, they were a hobby of his and he had a whole collection of them.
At least he didn’t care when Lee threw one, hoping it would glide into a gentle landing instead of the kamikaze it ended up performing. In fact, he laughed it off and taught them to make good paper airplanes instead.
“Are you okay in there?” Koen called through the bathroom door.
“You’re hovering,” I called back.
“I’m making sure you didn’t pass out from the high amount of heat. You realize steam is coming out of the cracks of the door, right?”
I laughed and wiped the mirror so I could see myself practically swallowed up by the towel in the reflection. I still looked tired but nothing I couldn’t work with. Even most of the bruising I had gotten from my failed playground experience was gone.
“I’m fine. Just doing my hair.”
Koen’s footsteps retreated, leaving me to my peace. I mentally flipped through the hairstyles I knew would work well with the ghost outfit I had. Settling on the waterfall braid to give myself a braided crown around my head and allow for a chunk of my hair to still remain down, I got to work. All those hours of watching YouTube videos and practicing paid off as I did the braid without much problem. Once that was done, I teased my hair since I was a ghost, and ghosts did not have nice hair. No ghost ever, in the history of forever, would have nice hair. I didn’t care what movies tried to prove. Strip away the true face of that innocent looking ghost, and it was a full-on creeper. And I needed to be a creeper worthy of my little ghostbusters to capture.
Happy with the style, I finally left, finding the boys in the kitchen, drawing on their newly made paper airplanes. Crayons were scattered all over the table. Their tongues were sticking out as they focused.
The front door opened.
“I’m back!” Bryce called out.
“In here,” I yelled back.
He came into the kitchen with a small bag with the boys’ costumes in it, and my dress hanging over his arm.
“Any issues finding them?” I asked.
“Nope, not at all. They were exactly where you said they would be.” He looked me over slowly and grinned. “You look like you stuck your finger in an electrical socket.”
I giggled. “Then I did my job right. I’m going to be the best ghost ever.”
“Go get ready, I’ll make sure the boys get ready,” Bryce said and nudged me back out the door.
“You don’t have to.”
“But I want to.” He sent me a wink.
“Thank you.” Excitement bubbled out of me. Soon, we were going to be battling it out for the best candies. This was the highlight of my year. Mandy would have been battling it out right with us. I tried not to dwell too much about the fact that she wasn’t there with us. Today wasn’t a day for tears. It took a moment, but I was eventually able to relieve the ache in my chest and get ready.
The dress I had found was perfect. It was long and fluffy, falling down around my knees. The main part of the gown was a silver wrap, with a white mesh around the bodice. The ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the dress were in tatters, the sleeves sheer to match the sash. There was also an attached hood.
After putting it on, I thought I definitely looked ghostly.
I opened the door. “Did you grab my makeup bag too?” I called out.
“Hold on!” A minute later, Bryce came running up the stairs with my small lime-green bag. I had packed it already with all my ghostly makeup.
I smiled sweetly at him as I took it. “My hero.”
He puffed up his chest and said, “All in a day’s work, my lady.”
Giggling, I closed the door and did the last touchups, making my skin look deathly pale, my lips black, and I had a small spray bottle of white hair paint to temporarily make my hair look like it was losing its color. Even the pink strands dulled. I’d need to go to the salon soon anyways for a touchup.
I looked perfectly creepy and loved it.
“Tada!” I said, walking into the living room where everyone was waiting.
The twins were dressed like ghostbusters in their tan jumpsuits and a backpack with an attached proton gun.
“Oh, Sissy, you look spooky,” Lawson said, grinning wide.
“We better capture her!” Lee said. They both pointed their guns at me and pulled the trigger. It made the same sounds it did in the movies.
I dramatically fell to my knees. “Nooooooo, let me goooooo.”
They laughed as they came closer. Lee pulled out long chains that I bought and attached it to my wrists. There was enough slack so I wasn’t really restricted. I just had to be careful to not get tangled in anything. Plus, they easily slipped right back off. Once we really got moving, I was going to reattach one of them to my bag. I dared the candy thieves to try to swipe my bags tonight. Muahaha
“She’s doing her evil laugh,” Dayton said.
“A ghost in shackles with a spooky laugh,” Bryce said. “Nice.”
I grinned. “I dress to impress. Now, how does this work? I’m not too familiar with Halloween in this area.”
“Since we’re in the middle of the residential area, we can trick-or-treat our way to the block party, have some fun, and then come back. If the kids are too tired, one of us can come back and get a car to pick them up.”
I nodded. “That sounds solid.” I looked them over and frowned. “So explain to me why none of you guys are dressed up.”
“Uh…” Dayton looked around.
Bossy-pants Koen answered for everyone. “Because we didn’t realize we’d be celebrating Halloween.”
I narrowed my eyes at the three of them. “Fine. Fair enough. But only because I know you weren’t planning on this.”
Bryce said, “Next year, we’ll dress up. We’ll go all out.”
My head whipped around to stare at him, my mouth popping open. “Next year?” I finally asked.
He nodded, his intense gaze telling me it was a promise. “Yes, next year.”
That said so much, and I hadn’t realized how important it was to hear that from him. It was a promise he intended to keep.
I blinked back tears, feeling silly for the swell of emotions that bubbled up from the depths of my insecurities. “Okay.” I cleared my throat to get around the lump that had formed. “I’m going to hold you to that. Be prepared, because we’ll be able to do a huge group costume. Oh boy, I’d better start planning it. But not tonight. Tonight, we celebrate and get drunk off sugar.”
The three guys all smiled. “We look forward to it.”
“Uh… time to go!” I ran away from the awkwardness, tugging the twins with me. They didn’t mind as they grabbed the tote bags I had bought for them. They were simple bags with a pumpkin on them.
The walk to the block party was a steady pace of constant trick-or-treats and lots of candies. Most of the people giving out candy were good sports and said nothing as they gave me some too. Others didn’t seem to like to part with their candy to an adult.
An old woman huffed and refused to give me candy at one point.
“Halloween isn’t just about children,” I said to her. “It’s about having fun, about connecting to who we were in the past. It’s about dreams and living.”
Bryce ended up dragging me away from her before I said some not nice things. She looked like a sensitive type.
“She doesn’t have good candy anyway,” I muttered.
Bryce chuckled. “Sure she didn’t.”
I bit my lip, feeling frustrated and almost embarrassed. Like dressing up and enjoying the simple pleasure of trick-or-treating was wrong of me because I was an adult.
“You’re doing good,” Koen said, at my side as the other two went to the next house. Bryce and Dayton followed them to the door.
“It’s frustrating,” I said.
“Maybe, but it’s also amazing to see you keep going even when others don’t approve. You’re having innocent fun, so they can get over themselves.”
“Maybe I should sneak back out and throw toilet paper all over her lawn.”
“Then she’ll have something to really frown about,” Koen said. “Don’t worry about her. Remember, today was about having fun and getting drunk off sugar.”
That made me smile big. His words of encouragement practically made me feel like I was a rebel.
The block party was insane. Kids and families all over. I felt like I was going to smush more than one kid who wasn’t aware of themselves enough to realize that someone was walking where they were trying to go. Candy was practically tossed into the air and there were more games and competitions than I knew what to do with.
It took a good long while to talk Bryce and Dayton into an apple bobbing contest against the twins.
The twins won.
I trained them well.
One house did a haunted house, and Lee and I were smart enough to stay away. Koen stayed with us while Lawson dragged Dayton and Bryce with him. They looked like good, big bodyguards for my little ghostbuster.
I dug through my bag and pulled out a Tootsie roll, unwrapping it and shoving the chewiness into my mouth.
Moaning, I chewed through it.
“Careful, you’ll make yourself sick,” Koen said.
“This is my first candy,” I said.
“I have a feeling that for you, one quickly turns into a slippery slope of many. You just got better.”
I did the mature thing and stuck my tongue out at him. It was an extra special move on my part with the gummy Tootsie roll still in my mouth.
He raised an eyebrow.
“Sissy!” Lawson was the first to come running out with a huge grin, but he was quickly followed by the other two. Bryce held up a full candy bar for me. Dayton gave the one he had to Lee.
“We hit the jackpot.” Bryce slipped the bar into my bag.
“Oh, thank you,” I said, staring down at the deliciousness. If I was fast, I could have half of it in my mouth in fifteen seconds.
“No.”
“Stop reading my mind!” I snapped at Koen.
“I didn’t. You’re practically drooling over it.”
“But… but… It’s a full Snickers bar. It’s a rare find. I even thought these ceased to exist. It’s always about the minis now.”
“Oh! Pumpkin carving,” Lee said, ignorant of my fight for candy bar justice. That ended up being perfect for me.
I sweetly smiled at Koen. His eyes narrowed, knowing I was up to something, b
ut he was trying to figure it out. Finally, proof that he couldn’t read my mind.
“Lee, Koen would love to take you pumpkin carving.”
Lee whirled around to stare at us. His eyes went to Koen, and Lee nervously shifted on his feet. That reminded me that while Koen had a huge presence in my life currently, he still didn’t really spend any time with the twins and they weren’t as familiar with him. They played hard with Bryce and Dayton, but Koen tended to stay back from all the fun.
I smirked. “Really, Lee. He really, really wants to play with you.” I nudged Koen and jerked my head at Lee.
Lee looked between us, his expression saying it all. We were so full of bull poop, but that was something he didn’t understand yet.
Koen sent me a look, promising to get me in the future. Then he smiled and bent down to be more at Lee’s height. “Yeah, little man. Let’s go carve some pumpkins. I’m feeling some superheroes. How about you?”
That was the trick, and it even pulled Lawson in.
“I want to go too.”
“Oh, Koen and superhero pumpkin carving?” Bryce asked. “I have to see this.”
The four of them took off, leaving me with Dayton. Dayton was chuckling.
“Koen is never going to be able to live this down for years to come.”
“He doesn’t do pumpkin carving?” I asked. “That’s a shame.”
“Come on.” Dayton grabbed my hand. “Let’s find them something to drink.”
There was a small stall set up selling lemonade, water, and apple cider. We got a couple of water bottles and a hot apple cider.
“Are you having fun?” Dayton asked as we headed back to the pumpkin carving area.
“Yeah, tons.” I grinned big. “I forgot what it was like to have others around to enjoy Halloween with. The twins have a lot of energy.”
Dayton chuckled. “That they do.” He blew out a breath and pulled me to a stop.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He took the drink I was holding away and squeezed my hand. “I… I wanted to ask you something. Before we get surrounded again by the others.”
Frowning, I asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “Just nervous.”
“About?”
Scalding Hot Chocolate Page 21
