Danny raised his hand and held up four fingers to correct her. He then pointed to the tiny dog in Rob's arms. Julian found himself staring at Rob cuddling Lenny, and wondering how he could still be so attracted to him when he was dressed like that.
While Julian was wondering about his powers of attraction, Rob pointed to Noreen's Dorothy costume. "Where's Toto?"
"He's right there dressed like a bee," Noreen said then she craned her neck and gestured behind them. "Or maybe he ran away to become a pirate."
They all turned to watch the Hayes guys as they came closer. All of them were dressed like pirates, including the dogs. While the dogs only wore scull and crossbones bandanas, everyone else had eye patches, fake sabers, and all the rest. Sam looked good in a loose, white shirt and leather vest with a saber strapped to his narrow hips. Wyatt was the captain, complete with a tri cornered hat and a fake parrot on his shoulder.
"There was some talk of superheroes, but the parrot cinched it," Wyatt explained as they all gaped at him.
"You're not a bad pirate, but you know who would make the perfect pirate?" Rico asked as he sneaked up on them.
"Let me guess. Mitch," Wyatt said with a sigh.
"Yes," Rico said gleefully and hooked his arm through Mitch's. The two of them were dressed as prohibition era gangsters. Mitch was wearing a spiffy, pinstriped suit and a black fedora with a white band. Hanging all over his man, Rico wore a tweed newsboy cap and a collarless shirt with a vest over. They both looked really good and that made Julian and Rob glare at Rico.
While the pirates and gangsters argued about who had the sexier partner, Noreen squinted at Rob and Julian. They were not in the running. "Who did this to you?" she asked. "Neither of you is capable of this level of masochism."
"How do you know?" Rico asked, and she knew right away he was the guilty party.
Rob confronted him and looked him up and down, standing there in his dapper costume. "You cheated. You made us look like..." Rob gritted his teeth and skipped over some expletives. "...like this. And you made yourself look good."
"So you're saying I look good. Come on, keep the compliments coming," Rico taunted him then he called the kids over. "What do you guys think of their costumes?"
The kids all liked their costumes of course.
"Your costumes are good," Sammy said, looking at Rob in particular. That might have been because she was wearing an outlandish pink costume of her own. Julian would swear she had on every pink item of clothing she owned all at the same time. Rico was probably responsible for that too.
After praising their costumes, Sammy turned her eyes on her dad and Rico with a look of disappointment.
"What's with that look? You told us we look nice," Rico reminded her.
"You look nice, but you and Daddy are just wearing clothes," Sammy told them.
"See?" Rico said to Rob. "Do you think our kind of costumes would make Danny smile? You heard Sammy. They're just clothes."
"If you did it for Danny, I guess I can forgive you... some day. Maybe," Rob told him grudgingly. He then wondered about Sammy. "Who are you that you look so cute?"
"I'm a superhero, the Pink Tornado," she said and then she spun around in her frilly dress, pink leggings, striped pink and purple knee-highs, a puffy, pink jacket, and a sparkly silver mask over her eyes. All of it topped with a huge, floppy purple hat with its brim pinned back so she could see.
"This is not her regular Pink Tornado costume. This is amped up Super Pink Tornado," Rico announced and helped Sammy twirl around and around. Then all the kids started spinning around and the adults got ready to catch them before they fell down.
"Just as long as spinning doesn't lead to puking," Sam said.
"Let's go extort some candy," Wyatt said. "Candy ahoy!"
They moved on with the kids in the lead and Rob and Julian close behind them so they could keep an eye on Danny. He was doing well. It was Julian and Rob who trudged along and exchanged looks of commiseration.
Rob was so good to put himself through this. For Julian, it was almost fun to be dressed like this because Rob was right there, suffering alongside him. But Julian still didn't intend to forgive Rico for doing this.
As the kids walked ahead of them in a jumble of various costumes, Rico pointed out Gloria and Sammy skipping arm in arm. "Look at them. Little Red Riding Hood and the Pink Tornado. It's perfect."
"Sammy's costume looks exactly like Rico and a small child put it together," Noreen said pointedly.
Rico didn't deny his own genius. "Awesome, isn't it?"
"I was gonna make Gloria a Dorothy costume," Lara was saying. "But we came across this bright red velvet fabric, and she fell in love with it. So it was either the Little Red Riding Hood or a Santa outfit. Good thing the Dorothy costume fit Noreen too."
"How you lie," Noreen said.
