Page 22 of Losing the Rhythm

“Sure.” I stepped closer and opened my mouth, tilting my head up. He put the nozzle close to my mouth and sprayed the whipped cream inside. It was oddly intimate with how close he was to me, and our gazes never moved from each other.

Once he finished, he stepped back and I closed my mouth around the delicious sweetness.

“Looks like a party in here,” Seth said, holding a bunch of reusable bags.

I wiped at my mouth to make sure none of the whipped cream was on my face and then smiled at him. “Welcome home.”

Seth paused from putting the bags on the table and gave me a funny look. Then he broke out in a grin. “I’m home.”

For some reason, that made my cheeks feel hot, and I pretended to distract myself with finishing making the hot chocolate.

“What do you got?” Paxon asked, trying to peek into the bags.

Seth slapped Paxon’s prying hands in warning. “Do you still have time? The others will be here soon.”

“For what?” Paxon asked.

Seth pulled out bags and bags of candy. And apples. A ton of it.

“Oh?” Paxon perked up.

“What is all this for?” I asked, scrunching up my nose at the insane amount of candy corn.

“We’re going to make candy treats,” Seth said. “We build whatever creation we can with only candy.”

“Last year, we ended up making a bunch of edible garlands. Justin figured it out first and we ended up running with it,” Paxon said.

“Knock, knock! We’re here,” Toby called through the house. A moment later, he, Bryan and Justin streamed in.

“Playing taxi is getting old,” Bryan said. “You need to get your own car.”

“And you know why I haven’t,” Toby said.

They bickered back and forth a couple moments longer.

“Ignore them,” Seth whispered to me. “They bicker like this every so often.”

“Yeah, and then he’s back to taxiing us around again,” Toby snickered.

“Shut up,” Bryan grumbled as he dug into another bag and pulled out even more candies.

“What is that?” I asked, lifting up small bottles.

“Edible glue. The only two rules are that whatever creation we make is Halloween themed and completely edible,” Seth said, organizing all the goodies on the counter.

“Let me check in with Dad,” Paxon said, stepping out of the room.

“I saw a pumpkin gnome. I want to try to make one,” Calvin said. “The belly was a pumpkin.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I said, already trying to imagine what that looked like.

“Dad has to stay at work for a couple extra hours, so we have time,” Paxon said, coming back in, staring down at his phone with a frown.

“Is everything okay?” Bryan asked.

“Yeah. He’s just dealing with something at work is all. He’s still going to bring us dinner, if you don’t mind a later dinner,” Paxon said to Calvin. Calvin was too busy trying to figure out his little project.

“With all this candy, he’s probably good,” Justin said.

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