“Yes you are,” I say. “You sure are.”
I watch as Ashley's eyes start to water and I can’t help but lean in and give her a big hug.
“So we just came to say thank you,” she says in-between sniffles.
“Thank you, Penelope,” Amber says and that little girl absolutely melts my heart.
“Thank you,” I say giving her another hug. I realize this is turning into a cry fest so I have do something fast.
“High five!” I say and I give Amber a high five and then think, what the hell, and give her mom a high five too.
“Wish you all a happy Halloween,” Ashley says. “And congratulations!” she says looking at my stomach.
“Thank you so much. And happy Halloween to you two too. And don’t be strangers!” I say.
“Bye,” they say together and then disappear into the night.
Bishop puts his arm around me and shuts the door.
“She was hugging you for a long time,” he says. I quickly slap him on the arm. “What?”
I start laughing non-stop for a good ten or fifteen seconds. I’m really emotional right now to begin with and that little touching moment was a lot to handle in addition to everything else that’s going on.
“I can’t wait until we get to take this little goblin around trick or treating, can you?” Bishop asks putting his hand on my tummy.
“No. I really can’t. I wish this was a year, or three, from now and we were doing that right now. Don’t you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“No?”
“I’m not trying to speed up time, Pumpkin. I’m trying to slow it down. I want as many minutes and memories with you as I can. We’ll get there when we get there and when we do it will be well-deserved with a lot of memories from now until then…and a whole lot more then and after.”
“You’re right,” I say.
“We’re right,” he says. “For each other. Forever and always.”
“Forever and always,” I say.
“I love you my Halloween treat three hundred and sixty five days out of the year, every year,” he says and we kiss.
“And I love you my Halloween hunk, every day, but what about leap year?”
“I like the way you think. That gives us an extra day. And by the way, did you say leap?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because I think it’s time for the two of us to leap into bed.”
“Bishop!” I plead as he scoops me up and carries me right past the couch and to the bedroom. “We haven’t finished the movie.”
“We can do that next year. Halloween’s our special time of the year and it’s time to have some more special moments with the most special lady in the world.”
“Living world or dead world?”
“If you find a way to turn us into vampires I’m all in. Then we truly can be together forever.”
“This is New Orleans, home of black magic and voodoo.”
“Voodoo schmoodoo. Right now I wanna hear about all the things that youuuuu wanna dooooo,” he says.
“Why don’t you give me a treat? No tricks!” I say pointing up at him from my position in his arms.
“I’ve got one trick you just might like.”
“No tricks. I said it.”
“But this trick is with my tongue,” he says as he carefully places me on the bed and his hands find the side of my yoga pants and he beings working them off.
“On second thought,” I say.
“I second that,” he says and a second later he’s got his face in my lap, but I can’t see him.
Why? Because my baby bump is blocking my view of the man who put that baby bump there.
And at this rate it’s gonna be the first baby of many. My baby with my Bishop. My Bishop baby.
Because he’s mine. Mine all mine.
All treats and no tricks…except for the ones that are actually treats in disguise.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Bishop
Halloween – five more years later
I kneel down by the door and clasp my hands together.
Jack, our four-year-old, puts his little spaceman costume boots into my hands and I lift him up that extra few inches he needs so he can reach the doorbell.
The little guy is growing like a weed and next year he won’t need my help.
But Janet, our two-year-old, will, and I’ll be right there to do this all over again, but next year for the pointe shoes that go with her little ballerina outfit, or whatever she picks out as her costume.
Because when it comes to our kids they grow fast, and I try and give them plenty of room to grow.
Just like I do my wife.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that she’s only twenty-three years old. It’s tough to remember sometimes, especially considering how mature she is and how much she’s accomplished in her life already.
It’s just that a man like me wants to do everything for her. I want to make her day easier while she relaxes. Isn’t that the way a man is supposed to treat his queen?
But then I have to remind myself that life isn’t about me anymore and what I want, even if it makes their lives easier.
My life is completely about them and what they want. To give my kids room to grow and even fall sometimes, but I’m absolutely there every time to pick them right back up, dust them off, and tell them to try again.
And then to keep trying, to stay with it, until they fulfill their dreams.
Because as much as I want to reach up into the sky and grab their dreams and yank them down here and deliver them to them on a silver platter I know that they’ll get way more satisfaction if they achieve them themselves.
Which is just like my life. My biggest achievement couldn’t have been given to me. I had to discover it myself.
Sure my woman basically put what I needed to “find” literally right on my front doorstep and then put a “sign” on it in the form of a super sexy Halloween outfit five years ago, but the fact remains.
It was always her. She was my dream even though I didn’t know it until she showed up gift-wrapped that fateful Halloween night.
And now instead of sitting at home on holidays drinking bourbon and grading papers I’ve got my own family to go trick or treating with.
And when Thanksgiving comes around we’ll all go up to grandpa and grandma’s house and celebrate that as a family together too. As we always do.
It’s still kind of strange referring to my best friend as grandpa in front of the kids, but that’s what he is.
And the best part is that I get to tease him that he’s a grandpa because of me.
At first the jokes were a fun way to rib him, but now I think grandpa is his favorite word in the English language. He absolutely loves spending time with our kids.
And I know there are more on the way. I’m still obsessed with having ten of them running around, partly because my favorite word in the English language is Pumpkin.
As in her.
We go together perfectly.
Pumpkin and Bishop. Even our names are P and B, and it just so happened we gave our kids names starting with J.
So we’re PB and Js.
We liked the name Jack because of Jack-o-lantern and also that was the name of the Pumpkin King from the film The Nightmare before Christmas.
And Janet we got from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Yeah, you could say we have eclectic tastes.
But one thing is for sure. She will always be my sweet treat, and not just on Halloween but every day of the year.
“Somebody’s coming, dad!” Jack says and I put his feet back on the ground.
“Trick or treat!” we all say in unison when the door opens.
“Trick or treat!” Janet says about a full second late.
We all laugh including our neighbor standing in front of us. We call them our neighbors even though they technically live down the street.
But our street has become a community just like Pumpkin m
ade my house a home.
That’s how it works when you find love and then find the ultimate happiness in the world…by seeing the smiles you put on the faces of your wife and your kids every day.
And that’s what really matters in this world.
And now that I have tenure at the university I have more time to spend at home.
Which means more opportunities to see those smiles and witness all those first time moments that kids do.
And it all started with the first woman I ever loved.
My perfect Pumpkin Patch.
A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy
Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol
Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess
Book 32: Statham
Book 33: Bodyguard
Book 34: Greek God
Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter
Book 36: Mountain Man
Book 37: SEAL’s Justice
Book 38: Royal Romance
Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery
Book 40: Crocodile Dan D
Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby
Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter
Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door
Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace
Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée
Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny
Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter
Book 49: Steamy
Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend
Book 51: Possessive Professor
Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter
Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby
Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day
Book 55: Doctor Next Door
Book 56: Possessive Policeman
Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter
Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter
Book 59: Virgin in New York
Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby
Book 61: Possessive Protector
Book 62: Possessive Australian
Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother
Book 64: Possessive Cowboy
Book 65: Summer Romanced
Book 66: Possessive Prince
Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy
Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend
Book 69: Possessive Firefighter
Book 70: Football Next Door
Book 71: Doctor December
Book 72: Possessive Canadian
Book 73: Blue Collar Billionaire
Book 74: Possessive K-9 Cop
Book 75: Possessive Brazilian
Book 76: Hockey Obsession
Book 77: Possessive Boston Irish American MMA Fighter
Book 78: Halloween Next Door
Book 79: Possessive Russian
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Halloween Next Door: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 78) Page 9