I felt my hackles rise, but Callum was faster, immediately stepping up to bat for Brody. He crouched down to Brody’s level, his voice carrying just enough for the man to hear. “Hey, champ. You worked hard on this costume, didn’t you? And you’ve been polite all night?”
Brody nodded, his eyes wide.
“Then you deserve better than one measly piece of candy,” Callum said, straightening up with his gaze fixed on the other man. “Halloween is about fun. If you can’t get behind that, maybe you should turn your lights off.”
The guy grumbled something under his breath, but he dumped a handful of extra candy into Brody’s bucket before he shut the door. My little boy shot Callum a blinding grin, bouncing on his toes as he peered into the bucket.
“You’re the best, Callum.”
I couldn’t exactly disagree. What Callum had done had impressed the heck out of me and I gave him a smile of my own as we strode back to the sidewalk. “That was awesome. I think you missed your calling as Halloween bouncer for kids against stingy grownups.”
He chuckled, bumping his hip playfully into mine as we walked. “Your mom sent us on a mission to get as much candy as we could. I’m only following orders.”
By the time we circled back home, Brody’s sword was dragging from exhaustion and his bucket was overflowing as a result of how intently Callum had followed said orders. Our porch lights were still glowing when we got back, the neighbor’s fog machine in full swing next door lending a creepy feel to our cardboard graveyard as well.
Mom was handing out candy like she’d been born for it. Callum’s phone had been buzzing incessantly for at least the lasttwenty minutes, but as we walked into the house, the vibrations felt that much louder.
He sighed and set it down on the counter, the screen lighting up with call after call, his brothers’ names flashing across it. It served as a stark reminder of the fact that the world he came from was still waiting.
In my world, Halloween was just about done. Brody would crash after a very quick shower and Mom would be packing it in soon, too. She and I would lounge on the couches in our pajamas and watch a scary movie, probably both falling asleep not long after the opening credits.
Callum, however, hadn’t even really started yet. I forced a smile I didn’t feel as I looked up at him from across the counter where his phone was still going nuts. “You should go. They’re probably waiting. We’ve kept you from your party for long enough.”
He looked back at me, not seeming any more eager to leave than I was for him to go. “I really should get going, but would you like to come with me? As my date.”
My heart skipped. “I wish I could, but?—”
Mom cut in, not missing a beat after she stuffed another handful of candy into a kid’s bucket. “Go with him, honey. You deserve a night out while I’m still here and Brody might even already be asleep after the day he’s had. I’ll watch him. It’ll be no trouble at all.”
A few minutes later, I was upstairs, digging through the back of my closet until my fingers landed on silk and sequins. It was an art-deco gown I’d worn to a party in college, a lifetime ago, but it still fit.
I barely recognized myself after I’d slipped into it and hastily applied some makeup to my face. When I got downstairs, Callum was waiting in full hockey gear—pads, jersey, and all—grinningsheepishly like he hadn’t just stolen the breath right out of me by looking at me the way he did.
“Wow,” he said, his voice low and almost reverent as his gaze dragged along the length of my body. “I thought I’d pulled a rabbit out of my hat with my costume, and it had all been in my gear bag in my car, but you?”
Mom smirked from her candy throne at the door. “Don’t hurry back.”
I swallowed hard, my heart pounding. Callum offered me his arm. The way his eyes swept over me, unguarded and burning, made it impossible to breathe. It was going to kill me, how much I wanted him when he looked at me that way.
God, I want him.
But the secret I carried sat like a stone in my chest, eating me alive. Because if he knew the truth—if he knew that Brody was his—would he still be looking at me the same way, or would he never look at me again at all?
CHAPTER 29
CALLUM
“So, uh, you should know that our annual Halloween party is always a shit show,” I murmured to Maisie as I watched the digital numbers above the elevator doors tick closer to the top floor. “I apologize in advance for anything you might see or hear.”
She glanced up at me, fingers wrapped gently around my arm and her green eyes wide but excited. A playful smile ghosted across her lips as she cocked her head. “Anything in particular you’re worried about me hearing or seeing?”
I shrugged, but I was saved from having to answer when the doors slid open in front of us, depositing us right in the middle of the mayhem. The regular lights were off, replaced by strobe lights that had been brought in for the occasion.
Fog machines were working overtime and everywhere I looked was a slutty nurse, a slutty vampire, a sexy fireman, or some kind of shirtless beast. In short, it was already a circus by the time we walked in. None of the glam or boundaries that applied to other holidays at the office ever seemed to apply to this one.
The Halloween party was legendary for being no-holds-barred, with an open bar that was guaranteed to destroy a fewreputations before sunrise. Usually, I would be right in the thick of things, shoulder to shoulder with the guys from the office, tossing back rows of shots lined up on the bar.
Even just last year, I’d been part of the wreckage, accidentally hooking up with Sterling’s secretary in the stairwell and Jameson’s assistant in the elevator. There might also have been at least one tequila-fueled rendition of “Sweet Caroline.”
