“Convincing and stylish,” she said with a wink.
“Hey, I don’t do anything halfway,” I replied.
Winnie giggled, already bouncing on her toes. “Aunt Elodie! Where are the best pumpkins? Tell me the secret!”
Elodie crouched slightly, lowering her voice like she was imparting classified information.
“Go all the way to the back, near the corn maze. Everyone picks over the ones in front. That’s where you’ll find the hidden gems—the big round ones and the knobby warty ones too.”
Winnie’s eyes went wide. “The warty ones are thebest. They look like witches.”
“Exactly,” Elodie agreed.
Selene gave her sister a hug before we had to scramble behind Winnie. As we headed into the patch, the sound of laughter and crunching leaves followed us. Winnie darted ahead, already scouting her options like a tiny general surveyingher troops. Selene trailed after her, phone in hand, snapping pictures as Winnie scrambled over vines and tugged on stems.
I kept pace behind them, taking in the way the sun caught the edges of Selene’s hair, the faint flush on her cheeks from the crisp air. She glanced back once, her eyes warm and almost wistful as they met mine.
My stomach dropped.
She doesn’t even realize she’s already my whole damn world.
We didn’t make it far before Winnie darted toward a squat, lopsided pumpkin that looked like it had been left behind for a reason. Its skin was a mottled orange and green, covered in warts like a witch’s nose.
“This one!” she announced, throwing her arms out dramatically. “It’s perfect.”
I crouched beside her, studying it with an exaggerated seriousness that made her giggle. “Perfect, huh? Are you sure about that? It looks like it’s been through a lot.”
“It’s special,” she said, placing both hands on its misshapen sides. “No one else wanted it, so I’m gonna love it extra hard.”
Something twisted in my chest as I looked at her—this fierce, tender little kid who seemed to love the overlooked things instinctively.
“Then I guess this is the one,” I said, and Winnie’s grin widened as if I’d just told her she’d won the lottery. I looked up at Selene. “What do you think, Mom?”
She was snapping pictures on her phone from a few steps back, her laughter warm in the cool autumn air. “I think it’s perfect.”
“Would you like me to get a picture of all three of you?”
We turned to see an older woman standing nearby, her hands tucked into her puffer vest and a knowing smile curving her lips.She gestured toward the pumpkin Winnie was hugging. “That looks like a memory worth keeping.”
Selene hesitated, but before she could respond, Winnie piped up. “Yes! A family picture!”
My chest went tight at the word, but I smiled anyway, trying to play it cool. “Sure. Why not?”
Selene passed her phone over, and we knelt beside Winnie, the pumpkin nestled between us like a fourth member of the group. Winnie leaned her head against my shoulder without a second thought, and Selene’s arm brushed mine as she shifted closer for the shot.
The woman took a few photos, then handed the phone back with a wink. “Looks like a keeper to me.”
I glanced at the screen as Selene thanked her. Winnie’s gap-toothed smile beamed up at us, her tiny fingers gripping the pumpkin. Selene’s hair was windblown, her smile unguarded. And there I was, in the middle of it, looking every bit like I belonged.
The sight nearly knocked the air from my lungs. Even as I warned myself this was almost too perfect to be true, I couldn’t stop staring at that photo. “Send that to me, would you?”
Selene smiled and nodded.
I bent and scooped up the pumpkin like it weighed nothing, cradling it in the crook of my arm as we headed back toward the farm stand.
Winnie skipped beside me, her boots crunching over fallen leaves. “You carry it like it doesn’t weigh anything at all,” she said, tilting her head up at me with a grin.
“Guess I’ve been working out just for this moment,” I teased, flexing my biceps dramatically and shooting Selene a playful wink, just to watch the color rise in her cheeks. “You think this one’s going to need its own bedroom?”
