Page 29 of Second Chance Baby

Like shredded wheat pocket thingys filled with fruit? I knew food was a personal choice, but my mom liked shredded wheat, and I just would never understand consuming bowls of that shredded, lumpy-looking cereal doused in milk as a snack.

Took all kinds, I supposed.

“Gams and Pop love shredded wheat,” Carrington said as she climbed in the back. “Not with fruit though.” She snapped her belt into place.

“It’s actually a pretty healthy thing to eat,” Bridget said, thanking me as I held open her passenger door. “I nosh on that when I’m reading before bed. Has a bit fewer calories than all that goodness you grabbed for us in the candy aisle.”

“Yeah, but it tastes like cardboard.”

“Yet it’s much better for my ass,” she said under her breath, letting out a laugh as I surreptitiously patted her behind as she climbed in.

“It’s perfect just like the rest of you, Brig.” I shut her door.

I circled the truck to the driver’s side and bumped up the sound system so Carrington could sing along as she sometimes liked to do. It took a few songs for her to join in, and then Bridget did too, leaving me feeling like the lame third wheel until I decided to try my best to not have them show me up.

I wasn’t a great singer, but at least I was enthusiastic. The next thing I knew, we were all trying to outdo each other, singing unabashedly and even gesturing as if we were on stage—well, that was just Carrington. Bridget soon dissolved into laughter, and I used the distraction to reach over and lace my fingers with hers.

Carrington didn’t miss a beat.

On the way home, we passed probably half a dozen ornately decorated homes covered in lights. Giant blow-up creatures danced on lawns and one of them was even blasting Michael Jackson’sThrillerfrom unseen speakers.

“Oh, Daddy, we gotta do that! We have to have music with our decorations.”

“Thriller?”

“No, it doesn’t have to be that. What’s that Nightmare song from a million years ago? We could use that one. You know, so older peeps have some representation too.”

I met her gaze in the rearview. “I have not one clue what song you mean.” I glanced at Bridget, circling my thumb over her palm. “Any idea?”

“I think I might. Is it this one, Carrington?” With her free hand, she did something on her phone—not letting me go even for a second—and a moment later, an old school Halloween song piped out of my speakers. “Yay, Bluetooth,” she mumbled.

“Yes, that’s it, Mom.Nightmare on Elm Street.Super old, right?”

Bridget laughed. “Not that old, but old enough, I guess. Sure, we can play that for our Halloween scene.” Then Bridget added in an undertone to me, “Can we?”

“Of course. We’ll figure it out, Brig.” I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed her knuckles, as I’d used to do a million times a day without thinking. Then I lowered her hand to my thigh, cupping it against my leg while I circled the block to where more houses were festooned with more Halloween creatures and tons of blinking lights. “Oh, Care, see that there? That looks kinda like the Gideons’ spider.”

“Yeah. And that web goes over almost their entire lawn. I mean, spiders are kind ofdone, but we will figure out something equally wow for ours, right?”

“We sure will,” Bridget said before I could answer.

Good.She could help finding thewowitems then, because my own seemed to be on vacation.

“But first, we will watch all the Halloween movies,” I added, hoping I’d soon be blessed with some inspiration to excite my kid.

I headed home, zooming into our long driveway a little too fast, clipping the currently overgrown hedge.

Bridget laughed. “I always did that with that stupid bush.”

“Easy to do when Dad never cuts it back,” Carrington chimed in.

I was still trying to figure out why spiders weredone.John’s was so cool, at least to me.

“Hey, hey, I’ve been busy.”

“Miss Kelly has been coming over to trim our trees where they hang over her lawn.”

I let out a big sigh. “I’ll catch up with it soon. I’ll have to, if we are going to cover the entire yard with every Halloween decoration we can find.”

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