Thad whistled as he approached. “Dammn, that’s a hell of a costume,” he said with a laugh. Catherine hadn’t been exaggerating.
“Thank you, darling,” Jesse said in a sultry voice, fluttering fake lashes.
“How’d you pull this off?” Thad asked, impressed.
“Oh, I had a little help from Charlie Monaghan.” Jesse flicked the wig over his shoulder with a purple satin gloved hand. “He taught me how to do the makeup over video chat and everything.”
“Nice,” Thad said. He’d heard nothing but good things about the husband of Jesse’s former captain in Toronto. “Can I get some photos?”
He held up his camera and Jesse gave him a disbelieving look and said in his normal voice, “You fucking better. This was a lot of work!”
Laughing, Thad got a few shots of Jesse alone, then tugged a reluctant Connor over.
Connor let out a big sigh but arranged himself in front of the camera. He hadn’t worn a full mask, just a pair of ears and a rabbit nose with buck teeth and whiskers, held on with elastic along with the red overalls, white shirt, yellow gloves, and oversized polka-dotted blue bow tie.
Jesse—who was taller than Connor in those heels—draped himself around Connor and struck a vampy pose.
After the pictures were taken and Jesse had wandered off, swaying his hips in a way that even Thad found a little mesmerizing, Connor had a vaguely shell-shocked look on his face as he sat heavily on a barstool nearby.
“You know, I’m not usually into that whole thing,” he said roughly, reaching for the pint of stout Liam had pushed across the bar toward him. “But Jesse …”
“Yeah,” Thad said with a quiet snort, patting his captain’s shoulder. “I get it. Enjoy, man.”
Thad went in search of other people and found Tanner, Rafe, and Mickey all wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes. Mickey was Leonardo and Rafe was Raphael, naturally.
“Where’s Donatello?” he asked as he approached.
Tanner, dressed as Michelangelo, scowled. “I couldn’t get anyone else to dress up with us.”
“Bummer, dudes,” Thad said. “Great look though.”
Once their photos were done, he made the rounds, admiring Kady and Mandy’s couple’s costumes of Cruella de Vil and a Dalmatian. Apparently, Jesse wasn’t the only goalie doing a little gender-bending tonight, because Kady was dressed as the villain and his girlfriend as a very cute little spotted dog.
Thad found Crawford playing pool, dressed in black denim and a black T-shirt with the sleeves cut off to show off his sleeves of ink—essentially his everyday wear—along with cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.
“Are you the man in black?” Thad asked.
Crawford cracked a smile. “I do love some Johnny Cash, but no. Just tried to figure out what the bare minimum effort was that wouldn’t get me shit from Jesse.”
“Yeah, fair,” Thad said. “You couldn’t pull off the Jessica Rabbit look anyway.”
Crawford snorted. “Fuck no. Figured I’d go as a cowboy. Thought about wearing my riding chaps too, but they’re hot as fuck.”
“Yeah, I bet they are.” Thad winked and looked him up and down.
Crawford shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Okay, tell me what to do,” he said, in a resigned tone. “Let’s get this shit over with.”
Luke Crawford wasn’t known for liking to be photographed any more than Connor was, but Thad finally got a good shot of Crawford leaning on his pool cue and scowling.
The facial expression worked for the costume at least. He looked like a cowboy gone rogue.
Thad had better luck with Tom Bass and his wife, Krista, dressed as Smoke and Annie fromSinners.
“You two look amazing!” he said as they posed for him.
They’d clearly had the costumes custom-made because they fitperfectly. After Thad was satisfied with the results, Krista thanked him for the compliment and dragged her husband off to dance.
Grinning, Tom doffed his hat at Thad as he followed her.
