Page 52 of Second Chance Baby

Including mine.

He made a show of plucking the tarantula off him and aimed a perfect throw at the nearby bin of many more of them. “Touchdown.”

“Always quick to score.” I flashed him a grin, but he tapped his lip as if he was thinking.

“As for saying you wanted to be a teacher young, I remember you announcing so proudly on eighth grade career day that you were going to be the best teacher ever.”

“You remember that? How?” My tone was full of shock.

“I made a careful study of you, Ms. Sheppard.”

“Jeez, I guess so. Gotta say I’m amazed. That was many years ago.”

“But up here,” he thumped a finger against his forehead, “seems like just yesterday.”

“Yeah,” I agreed quietly, giving in to my urge to slide an arm around his waist as we meandered up the aisle to yet another display that had snagged Carrington’s attention.

This one consisted of even more giant skeletons dancing around an expansive beach scene complete with colorful umbrellas, a sandcastle, and a fake fire. And even one lying on its side in a bikini by the real lapping water. I had no clue how they’d made that one work, but luckily, my job was just to enjoy.

That ridiculous dare I’d made before coming into the store aside. I’d just happened to see a billboard on the highway talking about how “in” skeletons were this year.

Must be true.

Travis nodded at the scene in front of us. “Think we could do that at the house? I wouldn’t mind pretending we could extend summer just a bit longer. And maybe you have a bikini like that one…” Innocently raising his eyebrows, he trailed off meaningfully.

Halloween was several weeks away. So, he obviously wasn’t yet rethinking his idea for us to keep this fairy tale going.

Thank God.

“I could buy one for sure. But how do we do that water set-up? I can’t figure it out.”

Before we could delve into that, he wandered down the beach to where a pirate had camped out in an Adirondack chair to toss back some brews with a pal beside him and their boogie boards stuck in the sand behind them. “I’d say we could just skip the ocean ambience and grab a pair of colorful Adirondack chairs and these dudes, plus a suitcase filled with buried treasure, and voila, we’d be all set. Can even use some of my old surf boards.” Then he lowered his voice to add, “But the bikini for you is non-negotiable.”

“Oh, is it?” I had to laugh. “Well, then I should get some eye candy too. If you still have your surf boards from your summer vacations to Long Island, you have to still have some board shorts.”

“Board shorts? Bikinis? Ick.” Carrington crossed her arms as she studied the beach scene. “If these guys have buried treasure, they should be dressed in pirate gear like these ones are. No nudity needed.”

“Oh, I didn’t say we’d be naked. The skeletons will be the ones dressed for the beach, and yeah, maybe we can use the beach gear on the actual beach someday. Hello, we are respectable parents.”

When Carrington wandered off with an indignant sniff, he leaned toward me and muttered, “Ish.”

I almost didn’t recognize the sound of my own laughter yet again. Did I really sound that carefree and, well, happy?

Yes, I did. Somehow. And I didn’t want these days to ever end.

Maybe they didn’t have to.

We finally rolled our extremely overfilled cart to the very long line at the checkout. I didn’t even know what was in there at this point. Some of it I didn’t even recognize. The cart was busting at the seams at this point. How had they managed to get so much in it?

I supposed it would be a surprise for me too when they finally finished decorating.

Not to be outdone, I grabbed a couple of packages of what looked like iridescent cobwebs, thinking we could just drape those over the bushes and along the trees. I grabbed a few more. The balustrades and columns of the porch needed attention too, not to mention the shrubs and trees I’d shaped so nicely yesterday.

Maybe Trav could drape some from the roof and along the fences. Luckily, cobwebs would work just about anywhere, and we had a large property.

So much room to decorate. So many happy hours. We didn’t have to spend time lost in the past.

I swallowed hard. Perhaps we could get couples’ therapy and just continue forward.

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