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“Where’s Kaidence?” I asked.

“Upstairs getting ready for bed.”

“Already?”

“Girl, it’s almost eight.”

I checked my watch and frowned.

Damn.

Time had gotten away from me.

“Granny?”

“In her room. She already ate.”

“Good.”

Willow pulled a black decorative skull from one of the boxes.

I stared at it. “Absolutely not.”

She looked up. “What?”

“Put that shit back.”

“Lakelyn!”

“Willow, that is not going in my living room.”

“Good thing I bought everything myself,” she quipped.

I couldn’t argue with her about that.

She sighed dramatically before placing it back in the box. “See, this is why I wish you were coming to the party. Maybe a few drinks would loosen you up.”

“I don’t have to attend a Halloween party to get loose, Willow. There is a bar two blocks away, and they serve alcohol without making me walk through fake spiderwebs to get to it.” I gestured toward the boxes surrounding us. “You can keep your skulls, fog machines, fake blood, and whatever demonic arts-and-crafts project you’ve got planned in here. But when it’s over, you’re going to be the one dealing with all this shit.”

Willow pressed a hand to her chest. “First of all, nothing in here is demonic. It’s festive.”

“It’s a skull.”

“It has glitter on it.”

“That does not make it less dead.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “You are such a hater.”

“I’m a realist. And my realistic ass is not waking up the next morning sweeping up plastic spiders and peeling fake cobwebs off furniture because you wanted to turn the mansion into Halloween Horror Nights.”

She waved me off. “Yeah, yeah. I heard you.”

“Good. Because I’m serious.”

“I know.” She glanced at the decorations around her and grinned. “Still gonna be worth it, though.” Willow set the clipboard down and gave me that same hopeful expression she had been wearing every time the party came up. “Anyway, I still wish you would come.”

I sighed. “Willow, we discussed this.”