Epilogue
Kady
One Year Later
Orange and purple lights twinkle as a fog floats through the night air.
Halloween has become a very special holiday for me. I always enjoyed it for the candy and the costumes and the scares. Now I love it because it will forever remind me of finding love. Of swallowing my pride and fear and taking a chance on someone who deserved it.
Falling in love is the scariest thing I have ever done.
But,being in lovewith Keegan wasn’t scary after all. When we first met, I knew he was different. Even if our first meeting was a disaster. We joke it was sexual tension getting in the way. Our attraction and connection was kinetic—it was impossible to deny.
We’ve made mistakes a few times and had to learn that those mistakes don’t mean we just walk away. Walking away is impossible. I learned that the minute he walked away last fall when I got scared. I barely made it through the few days he was gone from my life so I know I can’t make it through a lifetime without him.
“Babe, do we have enough candy?” his voice calls from the doorway.
I turn as that rumbling sound makes my heart go crazy. Keegan is still the prettiest man I've ever laid eyes on. With those bright blue eyes locked on me, his sexy crooked grin, and that unruly hair of his, he’s breathtaking. He’s ready for tonight in a skeleton get up that makes the lines of his handsome face even more striking.
This year I want to match so I have on skeletal leggings and will don the special made top soon. It’s a surprise for him so he has to wait for the full effect. Before I can answer him about the candy, he has me wrapped in his arms, kissing me silly.
“I love you baby,” he husks against my mouth, his tongue tracing my lips before he kisses me again.
“I love you back.” I lift up on my bare toes, winding my arms around him, hungry for his taste, the weight of him, his scent.
“Behave baby, little kidlets will be here soon. Go get Halloween one cued up for us. I got the candy so I will go first.” He kisses me again and swats my backside, sending me to start our traditions.
Last year we did just as he promised. After he stole my heart by carving his feelings into some adorable pumpkins, he decked the house out for Halloween. Our doorbell rang all night long. In between watching Halloween oneandtwo, we took turns handing candy out.
Best Halloween I can ever remember.
After that, he gave me the best Thanksgiving by hosting here at our place, helping me cook, and inviting all our friends. After the meal, we announced the permit issue was resolved—he and his partners agreed Bite deserved the expansion, so I got my permits. We also made it known he was moving in while he helped me expand. Together we put in a new kitchen, some new intimate booths, and a new prep area. He never quit between my place and their new build down the street and it was ready before Christmas.
For Christmas, he outdid himself once again. Besides helping me launch my new bigger better Bite, he lit my house up like a fairytale holiday house. We did up a massive tree on the front lawn and one inside too. Like always, the best was yet to come.
On Christmas Eve, he had Boomhauer help him propose in the falling snow beneath the colorful lights.
Now, the sparkling ring he put on my finger shimmers in the twinkling Halloween lights. Beside it, a silver band reminds me of the perfect wedding we had after the New Year. It was just us and our friends in a cute ceremony in the park downtown. I joked once that Chantel and Baker’s honeymoon never seemed to end, but we put them to shame.
I am a married woman with a booming business, great friends, and a happy home—that is some witchy magic.
“I love your costume,” I hear my husband say at the door, “Timon is my favorite too! Oh, Pumba too! Here, take extra.” He’s likely to give lots of extra away but it’s adorable, so I don’t mind.
Besides, his attention is on the kids, so it allows me to finish putting on my own costume. I slip on the top to go with the leggings and pose in the hall mirror, turning sideways. I don’t see a difference, but hopefully he’ll get the picture.
I cue up our ritual movie, Halloween, and the music creates the perfect setting. It’s dark in the room besides the glow of the television and a few candles. Keegan comes to join me, and I am so nervous I feel sick. It could be that, but I have a very good reason to feel sick.
“Setting the mood, huh? You don’t need spooky movies or snacks to seduce me, baby. Say the word and we hit the lights and....your costume.” He blinks in the flickering lights, eyes going wide.
Yeah, he maybe gets the picture.
If not, the little pumpkins lining the mantle behind me should do the trick. Like his pumpkins last year, they spell it out for him. Flickering candles light up the room with one simple word:Daddy.
“Last year I thought you gave me everything on Halloween. You told me you loved me. That was....it waseverything, Keegan. And then you helped me with Bite and made it bigger and better—you gave me more. And then you made me your wife. I knew it was magic and who gets magic like you’ve given me in their life? I never thought I’d get to know romance and love and happiness like this. You give me all of that.” My voice is shaking so I take a deep breath, beaming through my tears.
“Kady, baby....” his voice is tight, his big hands coming out to cover my belly.
My costume is a skeleton get-up just like his. But mine shows a little skeleton baby over my stomach. I’m only a few months along so there’s no visible bump but he rubs at it gently. Then he drops to his knees, touching his face there. Tears stream down my face as he starts talking to our child.