AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s funny. Will your sister be there tonight? And the dog?”
“Yes. Do you want to meet Titus?”
She nodded. “Is he going to like me?”
“Well, Titus doesn’t like most people. But he might tolerate you if you give him a treat.”
This made her eyes grow wide. And then she turned to the hot glue gun, which now had a glowing red light on it to indicate it was ready. “Can you fix my costume now?”
“Sure, sweetie. But you’re going to have to get down so you don’t accidentally get—” I had to stop talking because she leaned forward to squeeze me, locking me into the tightest hug of my life. I inhaled, hugging her back just as hard. And when Finley slid down off my lap to go back to her seat, I sat there frozen with a lump in my throat.
How could anyone ever willingly walk away from that girl?
I fought back tears as I mended Finley’s costume, a curse for her biological mother in the back of my mind.
* *
When I got home that afternoon, Daya and Jamie were on the porch getting ready to carve pumpkins. They had all the tools laid out on the edge of the porch beside them, both of them using large kitchen spoons to scoop out the stringy pumpkin guts. As I strolled up the walkway, Jamie lifted a third pumpkin by its long, skinny stem and said, “We got you a pumpkin to carve, Blondie.”
I sat on the bottom step and dropped my heavy tote bag to the ground. “Do you really trust me with a knife?”
The two of them exchanged glances. “I’d say she could paint hers instead, but that could be just as disastrous,” Jamie said.
“These tools aren’t that sharp. You’ll be fine.” Daya dropped an enormous spoonful of pumpkin pulp into a metal mixing bowl between her and Jamie. As for my sister, she laid her spoon on the porch and began scooping the pumpkin guts out with her bare hand. Just thinking about the texture of it made me shudder.
Since I couldn’t watch her anymore, I picked up my phone to text Mason.
Kendall: Guess you need my address for trick or treating? 1215 Chestnut St.
Mason: thanks
Mason: Finley showed me how you fixed her costume. Thank you
Kendall: Of course. So are you really stopping by tonight?
Mason: Let’s just say she hasn’t stopped talking about meeting your dog since I picked her up. So… yeah
The sensation of pumpkin guts splattering onto my wrist jolted me away from my conversation. I shrieked and flung it off of me only to realize that there was more flying past me—Jamie and Daya were fully engaged in a pumpkin guts war, both of them picking it up with their bare hands and chucking it at each other. Daya had pumpkin seeds stuck in her hair. “You just got some on your sister, you butthole,” she said, picking up another handful. Jamie dodged it just in time, throwing her head back and cackling with laughter.
“You started it,” she said, attempting to smash some of the stringy pulp on Daya’s face. Daya smacked my sister’s hand away, grinning. Jamie shook her head and leaned forward to pluck the seeds from Daya’s hair. I hugged my knees against my chest, quietly observing the way they stared into each other’s eyes with mirrored intensity. Jamie’s movements slowed, and when she pulled out the last pumpkin seed, she delicately tucked Daya’s hair behind her ear—a romantic gesture that evoked the same emotions I felt as a child in those rare moments when my parents got along. When my mom wasn’t slamming cabinet doors and my dad wasn’t peeling out of our driveway to disappear for hours at a time. Please make this last, I thought, just how I had back then.
Jamie wiped her hands on her jeans. “Um. I’m going to head to the store in a little bit for some tealights for these babies.”
“I’ll give you some cash if you grab a bag of Kit Kats,” I said, pulling my pumpkin toward me. “And can you grab some apple pie filling? I want to try baking something again.”
“Oh, great,” Jamie said, looking alarmed. “And we should wait until all the Halloween candy is half-off tomorrow for that.”
“Well,” I said, blowing the loose strands of hair away from my face as I reached for a carving knife. “I had a special request from a VIP trick-or-treater.”
“Who?”
I glanced up with a grin. “You guys ready to meet Thor and his daughter?”
chapter thirty-one
mason
“And you’re sure Ms. Devin seemed like she really wanted us to come to her house?”
