He wasn’t sure he was ready for them yet, though. He didn’t know how to admit to Bekka that he wasn’t going to mourn their momma for the rest of his life, although he would miss her.
Hearts healed, even if the world left scars on them.
One way or the other, the questions were absolutely coming.
“Sure, baby, what do you need?”
She was chewing on her bottom lip, making scabs. “I hate to ask…”
“Ask anyway, and I’ll just tell you what you need to know.” It wasn’t like he was ashamed of Cam or anything for God’s sake.
“Well…”
“Spit it out, girl.”
“There’s a Girl Scout party soon,” she blurted out, shocking the fire out of him, “and then there are three parties for Halloween in between now and trick or treat. One’s a birthday party. I mean, and then there’s actual Halloween, and there’s Sarah’s birthday.”
He looked at his daughter, confused for half a second before he caught up. “Okay, what’s the problem?”
She stared at him as if he’d lost his good senses. “Well, can I? I mean, is it cool if I go to some of them? I know that it costs money to have costumes and presents and all, but?—”
“Let’s just write them all down on the calendar so we know, and so you don’t miss any of it. You need to tell me if there are ones for just you or all of you too.” He wasn’t about to tell her no.
She looked at him, her eyes wide as saucers. “You mean it?”
“I mean it.” Had he been that shitty of a father that she was scared to ask to go to a damn Girl Scout party or something? “Lord knows, I’m not rolling in dough, but Cam is helping out with some bills now, and I’ve got that job doing the roofing for a couple of houses where I’m the boss. So I think now it’s getting better.”
She stared at him and nodded. “Speaking of Cam…”
Oh God, here it came. Now he was at least ready for it. He tensed, prepared for the questions.
“Is he gonna be home for trick or treat? Is he going to be home for the Girl Scout party?” Those were not the questions he was expecting either.
Thank God he had the answers.
“Yep, he’s going to be home for the Girl Scout party and trick or treating. He’s riding that event this weekend, and then I think he’s doing one right before Thanksgiving, but besides them, he’ll be back home. That should be it.”
“Oh, that’s good. I know everybody’s looking forward to trick or treating, especially Sarah and Rachel. They’re just little.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t let your sisters hear that, they’ll skin you alive.”
“Yeah, that would be gross.”
“And painful.” Weirdly enough, it would be Rachel who did the skinning. That wee one didn’t want to believe for a second that she wasn’t as grown as anybody on Earth.
Sarah wasn’t worried about growing up. She was worried about body count.
“So, what are you guys going to be for Halloween? Have you thought about it?”
She glanced and asked, “Have you seen the light-up costumes? We saw them on Amazon at Girl Scouts. They have a unicorn rainbow light-up one and a light-up witch one. I think Sarah wants to go as Wednesday, no lights though.”
“All right, we can do that, yeah?”
She looked a touch nervous, her eyes searching his wildly. “They’re like twenty-nine dollars apiece. That’s a lot of dollars.”
“They are, but are they really cool?”
She giggled, and that was the sound he was desperate to hear. “Yeah, they’re really pretty and they light up, and a bunch of us from Girl Scouts wanted to go as the unicorns.” She kept lookingdown and then glancing up at him as though she couldn’t believe she was asking.
