Julian and Rob looked at each other and then couldn't help smiling. Once again, Julian was amazed that Rob somehow managed to be sexy despite how he was dressed.
Trying not to stare at him, Julian looked around. Among the adults and kids in costumes, Julian had noticed people wearing orange vests with jack o'lantern faces on the back. "What are those vests?" he asked Lara.
"Everyone who came without a costume has to put on one of those," Lara told him.
"That's what I saved you guys from," Rico said, like an orange vest was somehow worse than the costumes he stuck them with.
Rob told him as much. "You didn't save us from anything. I'm a pink Frankenstein."
"Franken Berry. Get it right," Rico said to him.
Julian noticed that the kids had stopped and gathered around Mrs. Del Rio, who had come from the other direction. She was wearing a hoop skirt and a powdered wig and holding a fan.
"Grandma, you look so pretty," Sammy was telling her.
"Thank you, you perfect, sweet angel," Mrs. Del Rio told her and hugged her as well as her dress would allow. She then admired all of the kids' costumes.
"What a happy little bee you are," Mrs. Del Rio said to Danny.
"I'm super strong little bee," Danny told her.
"Are you sure you're not a sweet, little, honey bee?" Mrs. Del Rio asked him with a smile.
"No," Danny said and shook his little bee head so that his antennae bounced.
Leaving the kids so she could greet the rest of them, Mrs. Del Rio did a slow turn to show off her costume. In addition to the rest, she was wearing a white silk scarf around her neck.
"Ask her to show you why she's wearing that scarf," Rico said.
Everyone looked at her questioningly, and she answered by leaning forward and pulling down the scarf. She revealed an ugly red gash circling her neck. It was well applied and very convincing.
Rico explained it. "Yeah, my sweet grandma is the zombie Marie Antoinette."
"Your doing," Rob guessed.
"Nope. One of her drunk, old lady friends told her about the costume and she ordered it herself," Rico told them. "She was supposed to put on zombie makeup too, but she was too vain."
"It's inspired," Wyatt told her. "Puts my parrot to shame." He petted the fake parrot on his shoulder in consolation.
"Severed head grandma, you got candy for us?" Rico asked her.
"Ssh, the kids will hear," Sam told him.
"Kids don't know what severed means," Rico said then he looked sternly at his grandmother. "Hide your guillotine scar. I don't want you scaring the children."
She scoffed at him but made sure her scarf was in place. "Who did this to you, you poor darlings," she asked Julian and Rob sympathetically.
Every eye turned accusingly to Rico.
"I guess I should have known," she said.
"I did a good thing," Rico claimed. "That reminds me, I need a pic of you two. Arms around each other." As Rico aimed his phone at them, Julian wasn't going to comply, but Rob stepped closer to him and put an arm around his shoulders.
Rico ended up getting a picture of Julian smiling mindlessly just because he had Rob's arm around him. It did feel really good even if he did look like an idiot.
"I never thought Franken Berry and Count Chocula had a thing going, but now I don't know," Lara said and Julian sputtered.
"They still don't have a thing going," Julian told her firmly once he regained his composure, outwardly at least.
Rico leaned on his shoulder and whispered to him, "You need to get on that."
Julian glared at him for the hundredth time that day. He was the last person who should talk. As all this went on, Julian was afraid to meet Rob's eyes. What did he think about talk like that? Was it just a joke to him, or was there any chance he felt something for Julian? The way he looked right now, probably not. Julian just wished he could stop wanting him.
