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I bent down and picked Sophie up, then pulled Ember into me with my free arm and kissed her on the forehead.

“Now, how about you get your things, and come home?”

Chapter Thirteen

Ember

Halloween Night

I watched from the sidewalk as Sophie stood at the front door of one of our neighbors’ houses in her dinosaur costume and waited while someone dropped a handful of candy into her pumpkin bucket. She thanked them and came running down the stairs.

“This one has peanuts,” she said to me, pulling a candy bar out of the bucket. “I’m not allergic, but I don’t like them. Ember, can you hold this one for me?”

I took the candy bar and added it to the growing pile of candy in my jacket pocket.

“Next house!” Sophie shouted, grabbing Everett’s hand and pulling him down the sidewalk. Everett wore a black sweater and jeans. He had refused to wear a costume until Sophie gave him that look. He then reluctantly allowed her to pin a small dinosaur badge on his chest.

“I’m a paleontologist.” He said flatly, pointing at the badge. “This is my costume.”

“It’s lazy, Dad.” Sophie had replied, and Margaret and I laughed so hard we both had to sit down.

Once we had finished trick-or treating, we made our way back home to have our first small Halloween party.

Earlier, when Margaret had arrived, she’d brought in a tin which she’d set on the counter without a word, and we made our way out the door. Once we were back, I put Sophie’s candy on the table, and when I turned around, Margaret stood there looking at me.

“Is everything okay?” I questioned.

“Yes, first, I want to apologize. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions without asking you.”

I nodded. “I understand. Thank you.”

“Now, I saw you looking at this tin when I came in, and I know you were wondering what was in it. These are for Sophie, they were Rebecca’s,” she said, pressing her lips together, shoving the tin toward me. “They are pumpkin sugar cookies. I used the exact recipe that was in her recipe book.”

I opened the tin to see perfectly iced cookies cut into jack-o’-lanterns and ghosts.

“Margaret, these are beautiful.”

“Thank you, but I already know they aren’t as good as the ones she used to bake,” she said, straightening her shoulders. “They don’t quite taste the same, but Sophie asked me to bring them.”

She then unpacked the bag she’d been holding under her arm.

“Then I have these. These were Rebecca’s cookie cutters. I thought Sophie might want to have these. For next year,” she said, and put them next to the mixer.

She turned and looked at me, giving me a small but soft smile.

“I hope we can start over again, and get to know one another.”

“I think we can.”

I walked over and hugged her. At first she stiffened, but then she surprised me by slowly hugging me back.

Now, three hours later, the party was winding down. Ms. Shelly from the Book Nook had come dressed up as a book, and she had just finished telling ghost stories to all of us in the living room. The house was a wreck. Fake cobwebs hung from every surface, and jack-o’-lanterns glowed on the porch.

Once we said goodbye to everyone, the three of us sat out on the front porch. Everett, and I sat sorting through Sophie’s candy haul I’d dumped into a big bowl, while Sophie watched. The street was quiet, the last few trick-or-treaters had already gone home. Sophie leaned up against me, still in her dinosaur costume, her hair sweaty and tangled.

“This was the best Halloween ever,” she said, letting out a yawn. “Even better than Mommy’s.”

She caught herself and looked up at me, then at Everett, worry lining her face.