“I miss you,” Nova mumbled.
I nearly frowned before the meaning behind her words hit me. A cocky smile warmed my face.
“Have you ever fooled around in a car?” I asked in a low voice so the girls couldn’t hear.
Gasping, Nova glanced at her daughters and then stared horrified at me. I threw my head back and laughed at her shock.
“I mean, after we get back and the girls are in bed,” I said and kissed her forehead. “You have such a dirty mind.”
Nova snickered and shook her head. “My head is all over the place.”
I guided her around the car and into the passenger seat. “Then, allow me to drive us while you think about what might be possible in the back seat later.”
While Nova nursed dirty thoughts, I drove us outside of town to a pumpkin patch complete with a “design center” for carving. They had a gift shop that I figured the girls would also enjoy.
Back in Rawlins, Yarrow loved pumpkin patches. She eventually bought a piece of land and grew pumpkins. I’d often find her out there, daydreaming in the sun.
Only one couple was walking around the Little Memphis pumpkin patch when we arrived. I saw a woman near the gift shop, keeping an eye on them. Nova and the girls seemed nervous about walking around.
I inhaled the autumn scent and smiled. “This place makes me feel like a kid,” I told a nervous Nova.
Her gaze stopped flashing at the couple who were clearly talking about us. She focused on me and smiled.
“Why does your mom like pumpkin patches so much?”
“I don’t know. Certain things click for her.”
The girls looked around and seemed confused. I showed them the different-sized pumpkins. When they didn’t understand how they would need to be carved, I found a video on my phone.
“We take out its brains!” Lyric cried in horror.
“Pumpkins are fruit,” Nova promised the girls. “It’s like when I cut up apples.”
Skylar and Lyric looked around at the pumpkins spread through the field. I loved how weird kids were. When I was little, I’d gotten paranoid about the moon when it was out during the day. The oddest things could set off children.
So, rather than rush the girls to rip the gooey center out of a pumpkin, I let them take their time adjusting to a new idea.
“We didn’t make jack-o'-lanterns in my family,” Nova told me when Lyric and Skylar clung to her in fear of angry pumpkins.
“We did, but we had to be careful with the candles because Duffy would sometimes stick her hands inside to touch the light.”
“It seems mean,” Skylar asked me, looking ready to faint.
Squatting next to the girls, I lifted a pumpkin and looked it over. “This is going to get squishy and rotten. Fruit doesn’t last long. But pumpkins can be turned into cool lanterns, which makes them special.”
Skylar and Lyric inched closer to me and studied the pumpkin in my hands. Before they made a decision, I heard motorcycles a block away. The roar sounded like more than two hogs, meaning Vanessa and Goldie had brought along friends.
The nearby couple frowned when the motorcycles rolled into the parking lot. Their gazes focused hard on the ground, and I heard them muttering about leaving.
“My sister is here,” I told Nova and the girls. “And she brought her friends.”
Goldie and Vanessa strolled up first. They were wearing their club vests and similar long-sleeved thermal tops. Dali and Jas followed them, sporting bouncy ponytails and club vests over T-shirts.
“Hey, baby foxes,” Dali told the girls before smiling at Nova. “And mama fox.”
Nova’s face warmed at the way the foxes welcomed her. She wanted so badly to be a wild chick. I felt her demeanor change in their presence. She no longer glanced at the couple as if worried they were judging her.
Nova Shaw suddenly remembered her own value and wrapped her arms around me. As her gaze washed over my face, I felt her reclaiming the best parts of herself.
