* * *
I wokeDavy up as we pulled into Harrogate station. There was a break in the rain. The sun was setting; the historic buildings and the tall clock tower were silhouetted against the orange rain clouds.
I lovedGilmore Girls, and the New England town of Harrogate feels like the closest you can get to Stars Hollow. It even has a town square with a bandstand. The Halloween festival is held there every year. I snapped pictures of it from the window as the train chugged into the ornate station.
"I’m so excited for Halloween in Harrogate," I said to Davy as he yawned. "You're going to love it!" I picked him up and carried him off the train. He had a small grocery sack holding a few clothes and a stuffed animal.
I bounced him in my arms and looked around the train station.
"Look at the decorations!" There were workers in the station stringing up fake spiderwebs and arranging displays with hay bales, pumpkins, and colorful leaves. I breathed in. It smelled like fall. "It's going to be so awesome! You can go trick-or-treating."
He nodded and wiped his eyes.
"Davy!" a deep voice barked.
A tall man with gray eyes, broad shoulders, and military-short hair stalked over to me. He was wearing a suit with a black overcoat that brushed around his knees. Must be Mr. D-bag Svensson in the flesh.
"What are you doing with him?" he demanded, glaring at me with steely eyes.
"And a Happy Halloween to you, too," I said tartly as the tall man snatched the kid out of my arms.
He glared down at me. He was hot in a sort of growly, dangerous way. Unfortunately, he did not seem to like me. And honestly, I didn't like him very much.
"You shouldn't have let Davy travel across the entire country by himself!" I scolded. Davy's lower lip was trembling. "He didn’t even know what stop to get off at! You’re his father. You should have gone and picked him up." I jabbed my finger in his face as I chastised him. Actually, he was so tall, my finger came up at chest height. I poked him. "He could have been hurt."Jab. "Kidnapped."Jab. "You are a terrible parent!"
The man grabbed my hand with his larger one then seemed to realize he had touched me. He released me and stepped back.
"I’m not his father. Davy is my little brother."
Davy's trembling lip turned into full-blown crying. I winced as he screamed like a murder victim in a haunted house and reached for me. I held out an arm to him.
His older brother snatched him away.
"I don't need judgment from a girl who wears a sweater covered in pumpkin pom-poms," he sneered. "Of course someone like you is infatuated with such a childish holiday. I bet you drink pumpkin-spice lattes and decorate cookies and post pictures of orange candles on your Instagram," he barked over Davy's screams.
"And I bet you sit at home alone on Halloween with the lights off, refusing to hand out candy to children!" I screeched.
We glared at each other.
"I don't know why I'm even wasting my time on you," he huffed.
"Poor Davy. He should come live with me. We'd bake cookies and make candied apples. He shouldn't be subjected to some Halloween-hating Grinch."
"That's—those aren't even the same holiday. You know what? Never mind. Stay away from my family," he snarled.
I watched him stalk off. Now I was doubly glad I had taken that freelance job for my mom. That Svensson was going down.
2
Garrett
"Ican’t believe the nerve of that woman," I snarled as I buckled Davy into his booster seat.
My little brother was still screaming. I've been trying to rescue my brothers from the cult at younger and younger ages. I had a plan. The noose was tightening around my father. I refused to leave any more of my siblings in that environment. I’d hated every minute of my childhood that I’d spent stuck in that polygamist cult with an inattentive mother.
I loved my family and would do anything for them. Which was why I had lost my temper when that curvy redhead had looked at me with such scorn, as if I was going to hurt Davy.
He was still letting out that ear-piercing scream, and I patted him on the head as I finished securing the booster seat.
