“We can carve it when we get back home. Place it on our porch,” I replied with a shrug. We headed across the road to the pumpkin patch. There were tons of people walking all over the patch and hayrides as well. I knew that the majority of the people weren’t from Grace Gardens B&B because there were so many of them.
We walked up and down row after row of pumpkins, checking out small, medium, large, and gigantic pumpkins of various shapes and variations of orange, yellow, and yellow-green hues. Little children ran all over the fields, laughing, playing tag, and some were even whining. They made my heart tug for our future children.
“I think we’re tired, so we settled for a pumpkin quickly. What do you think?” I asked him thirty minutes later, when we were armed with our pumpkin and walking back to the parking lot where our car was parked.
“I think we did good, especially for grabbing something to take home and throw out.”
“We won’t be throwing it out. We’re going to light it up and set it on the porch for the trick or treaters.”
“Don’t tell me your ass is gonna be home to help me pass out candy this year.”
“Help you? I’m gonna do you one better. I’m dressing up.”
“Oh, really? When was the last time that your ass dressed up in a costume?”
“The masquerade ball.”
“I meant for Halloween.”
“Wow. Uhm, . . . second year after college, when I was invited to a Halloween party.”
“What were you?”
“I was Josie, and my friends were the Pussycats. Not the movie, but the original cartoon.”
“Bet your little ass was fine as hell.”
“Still am. Watch me when I dress up as Daphne, Fred,” I replied, tugging at the string of his hoodie.
He groaned, and I laughed as we climbed back into our car and headed back to the B&B. We were only five minutes away when I yelled, “Stop!”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, slamming on the brakes.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, but can you please pull over to the side of the road?”
“For what?”
I pointed and answered, “Autumn leaves.”
Bryson shook his head and chuckled. “Big ass, bad ass kid. That’s what you are.”
“Aren’t you the one who claimed he picked my profile for that very same reason?”
“One of the reasons,” he replied, gripping my chin.
He kissed me and shut off the engine. “Come on, girl. Let’s grant you your wish.”
I hopped out of the car with glee and took off running across the field. No sooner than I reached the pile, I jumped in without any preparation or warning. I fell just shy of the leaves and rolled off the pile. Bryson snickered at me and shook his head.
“How you fuck up jumping in a pile of leaves?”
“Join me, Mr. Fuller, since it’s so easy.”
He shook his head and replied, “Nope.”
“Come on, it’s fun.”
“I’m not about to mess up some man’s hard ass work because you have this neurotic fantasy about jumping into a pile of leaves.”
