Page 35 of Challenged by the Single Dad

“If I see Carnation’s parents there, I’ll have a chat with them tonight. The fact that she isn’t respecting your boundaries is concerning. And you certainly don’t have to dance if you don’t want to. I’ve never been big into dancing either. So I don’t blame you.”

“I don’t like the idea of people just watching me. Having so many eyes on me.”

Dom nodded and sipped his coffee. “I hear that.”

“What time are we going trick or treating?”

“I think the plan is to leave here at about four. Then we’ll do an hour of trick or treating before heading to the school for the party. And we’ll have dinner there. They’ve got Slice of Heaven providing pizza.”

Silas’s eyes lit up. “Will you remember to bring my dairy pills so I can have the cheese and not get the farts?”

Dom nodded and pulled his phone out of his back pocket, setting a reminder for three forty-five. “I just set a reminder. I will bring your lactose pills.”

After some trial and error, and several visits to the doctor, it was determined that Silas was lactose intolerant. It was mild, but nevertheless, they did their best to avoid dairy when possible since it gave the kiddo terrible, very stinky gas. However, on occasions like tonight where there would be pizza made with real cheese and not soy cheese, Silas simply took a lactose pill to help combat the effects. It usually worked well enough. Or, the kid gassed them all out on the drive home and they had to drive with the windows down while everyone hung their heads out and laughed hysterically.

“Are you going to go down to the beach to talk to Mom?” Silas sipped his “coffee.”

Dom gave his son a startled, confused look.

“Aya said she heard Uncle Bennett and Uncle Jagger talking about it. That on Halloween or the day after Halloween you go down to the beach where we spreaded Mom’s ashes and you talk to her. Because today or tomorrow or whatever is the Day of the Dead, and Mom was half-Mexican.” He wrinkled his nose. “How much Mexican am I then?”

Dom was still struggling with the knowledge that his son knew about him going down to the beach to speak with Remy. “I, uh … you’re a quarter-Mexican. Are you okay with me going? Do you want to come?”

Silas got a slightly haunted look in his eyes. “No. I think it would be scary. It’s where the ghosts are, right?”

Despite his son’s affinity for superheroes and fighting bad guys, Silas was a very sensitive kid and easily spooked. That, and his age and early bedtime, were why Dom had never brought him down to the beach with him on Halloween night, the eve of Dia de los Muertos. Typically, The Day of the Dead was celebrated on November 1stand 2nd, but Dom went as close to those dates as he could when it wasn’t pouring rain. And it was slated to be a clear night tonight. It was also the eve of Dia de los Muertos so he figured it was close enough.

He cleared his throat, reached over and ruffled his son’s hair. “It’s where the spirits come. The Day of the Dead is when the veil between the dead and the living is the thinnest. So I will bring her favorite food, marigolds, and her photo. I’ll light some candles and just feel her energy, and speak with her. Do you have anything you’d like me to say to her?”

Silas stared blankly ahead for a moment in thought, then he shrugged. “Just that I love her and I’m sorry I can’t really remember her, but I’m sure she was a great mom.”

Well, fuck. That gutted him to the bone.

Dom was speechless for a moment, so he sipped his coffee to compose himself.

Silas reached for a handful of blueberries.

“I … I will pass that along,” Dom finally said. He glanced at his phone. “Shit! We’ve gotta get moving. The bus will be here in ten minutes.”

Silas’s eyes went wide. Then he crammed another handful of blueberries into his mouth and leaped up from the table. “I need to brush my teeth,” he said through a mouthful of berries. Then he took off at a sprint upstairs.

“Don’t run with food in your mouth,” Dom called after him. With his throat tight, he glanced at the photo of Remy on the small table beside the sliding glass door out to the back patio. “You were a great mom. And he’s a phenomenal kid because of it.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

“OhSilas,thatstinks!”Aya said, giggling as they drove back to the house in Bennett’s truck. Justine, Bennett, and Emme sat in the front seat, while Dom, Silas, and Aya sat in the back. “Dad, roll down the windows.”

Bennett snickered and retracted all the windows.

“Didn’t you take your dairy pills?” Aya asked, hanging her head out the window into the dark and gagging.

“I did,” Silas said. “But that pizza is so cheesy.”

“And we may have waited too close to when he ate dinner to take the pills for them to kick in,” Dom said, catching his brother’s amused expression in the rearview window.

“I’m going to die,” Aya said. “Death by farts is not a very fun way to go.” She leaned forward even more to hang more of her head out. “When I die, I want to be like a hundred and fifty years old, and it’s from being eaten by sharks or attacked by tigers.”

“What?” Justine exclaimed. “Why?”

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