“I love the teeth, and the tongue was a neat touch.”
It was a pink blanket that was Rachel’s, but they had put a stripe of black construction paper down the middle of it and then folded it up so it looked like a tongue.
“All right, so now we hand out candy and make sure your kids don’t run off into the ether.” Cam searched the crowd for said kids.
“Rachel’s with your mom, she just attached herself to her again. Sarah is with Teresa, wandering around, you can’t miss her inkblot self, and Bekka is with the other older Girl Scouts, over there in the spotlight.” Someone had set up a wildly swirling rainbow light in a clearing. Thumping music played from someone’s fancy speaker, and the kids were having a ball. “I think they’re doing some sort of interpretive dance.”
“Or maybe a TikTok dance?” Cam thought he had seen this weird jerky thing they were doing wasn’t the floss, but kind of looked like it, on one of the videos the girls had insisted on showing him.
“God save me from all these TikTok dances. I keep telling the girls they have to take dance classes so they can figure out what real dancing is supposed to look like. Standing in one place and jerking isn’t it.”
“Well, it is for a high school dance,” Cam pointed out. “That hasn’t changed.”
“I know, but I think Rachel wants to do ballet and jazz.”
“I had a sister who wanted to do that stuff. She watched thatDance Momsshow.” Cam pulled out the fancy-ass folding chairs he’d bought at the Walmart, then put a butt cushion on one for Mitch. “You want a Coke or a glass of tea?”
They were all saving the beer for when they got home, at least on the Halley/Gonzales side of things. Over at the barbecue area, there might be beer. But that had a contained element to it anyway, to keep the kids away from the fire.
“I’d take a diet, man.” Mitch was a weirdo. He loved the taste of Diet Coke.
Leanne wandered by and dropped the baby off in Mitch’s arms without so much as a by-your-leave. Mitch didn’t seem to mind though, cuddling in and rocking her nice and easy. Little Elizabeth was dressed as a puppy—Toto, obviously. Leanne’s family was doing the wholeWizard of Ozthing.
Lori and her family were doingThe Addams Family, which was adorable because their Wednesday was Sarah and Teresa was the bubbly roommate from the TV show. It was adorable.
Lizzy wasn’t there. She was working at the hospital, but Ramsey had all the kids up here, and they all did, in theory, have costumes on. The triplets were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dumber, or maybe Tammy was supposed to be Alice—her wig was on one of her brother’s head, and she was wearing a beanie. The younger set of twins were dressed up asThe Shiningpair, and, of course, the older set were unicorns dancing with Bekka. He had to admit that was adorable.
His second-to-youngest sister wandered over, a hangdog expression on her face, her shearling coat surrounding her like a cape. She stood there for a minute, shaking her head at him. “Really? I thought you were the cool one.” Then she winked at Mitch and stuck her tongue out at Cam.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am cool. I am the king of the kids trunk or treat. What are you dressed as anyway?”
“Can’t you tell?” She opened her jacket, and the shirt said,Homicidal Maniacacross the front. “We look like everyone else.”
“Nice.” Mitch chuckled and shook his head.
Cam waved to the cooler, offering her a drink. “I’m surprised to see you out here. Why aren’t you somewhere having a party?”
She shrugged. “I sort of got broke up with, so I’m absolutely not going to Denver for Halloween.”
“Ouch.” At least she was already home and not stranded in the city.
She shrugged. “That’s what I get for being— it doesn’t matter.” She glanced at Mitch.
“It’s cool, sister. He knows what poly means; he’s bi.”
“Labels, labels, labels.” She rolled her eyes. “I had a married couple I was talking to, and I thought one thing, and they thought something completely different. Don’t tell Momma.”
“I didn’t even want you to tell me.” Cam rolled his eyes at her. “God, you think I’m going to talk to Momma about this? Don’t you have a sister you can discuss this kind of thing with?”
“Are you kidding? Diana is old.”
Mitch started chuckling, the sound barely held back.
“I mean, seriously, she’s, like, ancient, and she’s been married since she was seven. You mean she’s like the most boring, normal queer human being on earth—married, babies, executive job, house in the suburbs.”
“Oh my God, really?” Because he was thirty, poor Diana was six years older. Although he supposed five years and eleven years was a relatively big difference. “Well, you’re welcome to come hang out with us.”
“Yeah, no. Thanks, though. I appreciate it, but I’m going to go find a bar and see what kind of trouble I can get myself into.”
