Page 11 of Heaven Leigh’s Little Halloween

Angel smiled. “You think the Littles will like them?” It wasn’t really necessary to ask, the answer was obvious.

“Yes! They’ll love them. There’s just one problem…”

One eyebrow went up and the smile flickered as he looked down, examining the bowls with concern. “What’s that?”

“Well, the horses are so pretty they might not want to eat them.” Even she might have a problem, and she thought she’d long since moved past that particular issue.

His expression lightened and he laughed. It was a lovely fluid sound. “If that’s the only problem, then I think we’ll be okay. But there is one thing…”

Now it was her turn to worry. “What?”

“I need a taste tester, and since you’ve been so helpful today, I guess that’s you.” He pushed one of the fragile chocolate bowls over to her and waited for her to give it a try.

Getting to taste everything had always been the best benefit of working in a kitchen, and she grinned, delighted to dig in. From the first bite she was absolutely in love with the creamy richness. She moaned with her mouth full and let her eyes slide shut as she savored the rich decadence of the mousse.

She finished it quickly and then looked at the remaining bowl and horse. “It seems such a shame to eat them.” But almost as soon as she said the words, she had broken off a chunk of the shell and popped it into her mouth. It melted into an amazing mix of flavors on her tongue.

“Oh wow… is that… raspberry I’m tasting?”

Angel chuckled. “Yes, nina. Do you taste anything else?”

She broke off another piece and this time focused a little harder on the subtle aspects. “Lemon maybe? It’s really faint.”

“Perfect! We just want a hint of acidity to balance the sweetness.”

And it really did. Everything melded together perfectly, and she sighed as it melted away. “This is so good. How did you get that—”

Just like that they launched into a very complicated discussion about balancing contrasting flavors and for a while they were colleagues instead of the usual dynamic she’d found herself in since she arrived at Rawhide.

It felt wonderful to talk to someone on a professional level. Maybe it was one of the things that had been causing her to stumble, because it was such a nice change to have a conversation that didn’t revolve around who was in trouble for what, and why unicorns were the best things ever. Angel treated her like an equal who also had valuable skills.

They were so wrapped up in the discussion that neither noticed the time clicking by until they heard the distant sound of the class bell. Angel’s eyes flicked to the clock, and he frowned. “Whoops, Heaven, you’re going to be late to lunch. You better scoot.” He waved his hands at her.

She hurried off to meet up with her friends in the cafeteria, practically bursting with excitement after her busy morning. It had all passed so quickly, but she was positive that this was going to work out—at least until Master Derek found her a potential Daddy of her own.

She was sitting at a crowded table teasing the other Littles with hints about the fantastic dessert she’d helped to make, when Sadie appeared and plopped her tray down with a dramatic sigh. Everyone stopped and turned to her.

“Today’s been way tooooo frustrating, and I’m starving,” she announced.

“Something happen in class?” Hayleigh asked. She took college classes over at Rawhide University, and between that and living with her Daddy, she wasn’t in the Littles’ Wing much.

“I didn’t make it to class. I had to help Daddy with some plans for the Halloween party.”

Hayleigh frowned. “That sounds like it should have been fun?”

“Well, it was at first but then…”

Heaven dropped her eyes to her tray and focused on her lunch the moment Halloween was mentioned. She was resigned to never being able to escape mentions of it until it had passed, but she didn’t want to get drawn into another discussion on why she seemed to be the only one in the world who didn’t celebrate it.

And part of the struggle was that there really was no reason, except for some bad memories. Her parents had been very anti-Halloween. It was the “devil’s birthday” as far as they were concerned and any hint that their children were interested in the festivities had led to unpleasant responses.

Her parents hadn’t spanked, though her mother was prone to slapping when she was frustrated. Instead they’d practiced a form of shunning, where the offending child was ignored by the entire family for a proscribed amount of time. She’d rather have been spanked than have to endure that.

Showing an interest in participating in Halloween activities had gotten her ignored for an entire week once and the memory of it was still painful. Since they were all homeschooled and traveled a lot, it was usually easy to avoid the holiday, but that year they’d had a relatively stable six months in one place.

Her parents had rented a small house while her father had taken over a short-term contract as a reverend. The local one, a friend of her parents, was on leave. It had been nice having that consistency. She’d even made friends.

The kids next door had been a lot of fun and their mom, Stella, was happy to have them over daily. When Halloween rolled around, she’d begun working on costumes for her children and it was natural for her to ask the Robertsons what they were all going to be.

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