Page 56 of Second Chance Baby
We’re fucking trying, kid.
“I’m not sure,” Carrington began, raising her voice over the music. “I’m thinking some kind of cat, maybe. If they have any that aren’t too extra.”
“Aren’t Halloween costumes supposed to be extra? Isn’t that the point? The crazier the better, I say.”
In the rearview mirror, I saw her roll her eyes at me. No surprise there. That was her most common expression in my direction.
“Extra can be good, or it can be lame. Depends.” She whipped up her hair into some complicated twist thing on her head, securing it with the band from her wrist. “It’s like a case-by-case basis, you know?”
I didn’t, but I nodded.
“You guys should get costumes too,” she added nonchalantly.
“What? Why?” Hadn’t I just extricated myself from the costume game by backing off from modeling?
“You intend to hand out candy, don’t you, Dad? What’s the point of all the slay decorations if you’re not even gonna do the thing?”
Another question I couldn’t answer, but I was already warming to the idea. “Why the hell not?” I glanced at Bridget. Her eyes had gone huge in the passing headlights from other cars. “Game?”
“To wear a costume?” She sank her teeth into her lower lip hard enough I half expected to see blood. And her grip on my hand had turned to iron. “On Halloween?”
“Duh,” Carrington muttered.
Bridget didn’t respond, but her hand had gone damp in mine. There was no missing it.
Not that it was the first time today, either.
Because she didn’t want to commit to being here that long? Was I being foolish to assume everything was going so well? We certainly hadn’t spelled everything out, and we needed to.
“Or are you too chicken to wear a costume?” I asked lightly, trying to goad her into getting one without being too obvious about it.
“Oh, I’ll get one.” Her grip on my hand relaxed a little though she squeezed my fingers. “I don’t even know what size I should get.”
“It’s only three weeks until Halloween, Mom.”
“I know, but I’ve been eating like a maniac.” She laughed and patted her belly again, making me think of things that had nothing to do with sizes.
If I hadn’t yet hit that particular target, maybe we could try again.
Again and again, until we got it right.
“You look incredible just as you are.”
She squeezed my hand, so I rubbed my thumb in slow sweeps over her suddenly speeding pulse. I was tempted to never let her go, because I liked having this read on her reactions. She couldn’t pretend indifference when I felt her pulse going wild from my words.
“So, just do extra workouts like the one Dad did yesterday to be able to eat all the junk he’s been housing recently.” She giggled and I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek not to say something extremely inappropriate.
Then again…
“Yes, Brig. I highly recommend my workout plan. You should find a way to work that in at least daily. I’m happy to review the…finer points of it with you whenever you’d like.”
Her pulse was racing even faster now, and I couldn’t keep myself from grinning.
“How soon can we have another round?” She tossed back, sliding one leg over the other so her dress crept higher on her thighs. “I mean, another workout.”
Checkmate.
I swallowed hard. “How about as soon as we get done shopping?”