“If you can guess who’s behind the mask.”
She smiled and slid her key into the lock. “I bet I’ll find you.”
“Tomorrow, then.”
Because he was a gentleman, he waited until she’d secured the door behind her before continuing his walk. That gave her time to run up the stairs and unlock the interior door. Tossing her keys on the counter, she went to her window that looked out over the town square. It only took her a second to find him. Not only because he was tall and blond, but because there weren’t many people walking.
Tori watched him until he got to his car, which was parked a few spaces down from the post office. He unlocked it and got in, taking the time to put on his seatbelt before he turned the key in the ignition. Then, after he’d eased onto the street, he looked up at her window.
She knew he couldn’t see her—or didn’t think he could—but she waved anyway.
Chapter Fifteen
The parking at the Northern Star Lodge wasn’t as bad as Max had anticipated and he was able to stick his car at the end of a row of trucks. He backed it in, hoping to be able to get it back out without having to ask people to rearrange their vehicles.
Once he was out of the car and could see beyond the wall of pickups on the other side of the drive, he realized that not only was much of the town there, but many of them owned—and had arrived on—four-wheelers.
It only took a second to put his costume on, and then he walked toward the table set up in front of the lodge. The flier had said the festivities were free, but it was a five-dollar donation to eat, with a twenty-dollar max per family.
A pirate, played by Josh Kowalski, manned the table. He did a double take when he saw Max, and then grinned. “Well played, Crawford.”
Max smiled, even though Josh probably wouldn’t be able to see it through the Hannibal Lecter mask he was wearing. He’d paired it with a long-sleeved shirt that was probably called melon, but passed for orange in poor lighting. “It seemed apropos.”
Josh looked down at his own costume. “Katie wouldn’t bend on the cheerleading thing, so I agreed to be a pirate just to get her into that pirate’s wench costume she’s wearing.”
Following Josh’s look, Max saw Katie out in the yard in a very sexy—though not inappropriate—wench’s getup, complete with scarves, jewelry and a hint of cleavage. “I think I speak for all the men present when I say it’s unfortunate you didn’t dress up as Jabba the Hut.”
It took Josh a few seconds, but then he laughed. “Wish I’d thought of that. Little chilly for gold bikinis and chains, though.”
Max handed over a twenty. “Put the change in the donation bucket.”
“Appreciate it.” He flipped open an ink pad and stamped a fluorescent orange pumpkin on the back of Max’s hand. “Tori’s around here somewhere. She’s...I don’t know. I think she’s some kind of bag lady or something, but I’m not sure.”
“I’m sure I’ll run into her,” he said, not wanting to sound too eager to see her.
There was a good chance he’d run into everybody, since it looked like everybody was there. There were kids everywhere, princesses and superheroes with costumes bought or made too big so they fit over warm clothes. He saw Josh’s brother Mitch dressed in a farmer’s outfit and he didn’t have to look far to find Paige in a matching farmer’s dress. It looked like Sarah was bundled up under a fat strawberry costume with a green knit hat, complete with stem and leaves. With them was Liz, dressed in a police uniform, but he didn’t see Drew.
The first person he ran into that he knew well was Matt, who was dressed as a game warden. Hailey was next to him in a disturbingly good zombie getup. He hadn’t thought she could be unattractive, but he’d been wrong.
“Warden Barnett, that’s a remarkably authentic costume you have.”
Matt laughed. “Yeah, I know. I’m here in a somewhat official capacity. There are ATVs and kids and a party, so I’m just serving as a visual reminder not to get stupid. If somebody does, my capacity will become very official very quickly.”
“And Hailey, how many kids have you made cry tonight?”
The bloody zombie mouth, complete with flaps of...something, grinned. “Most of them. Have you seen Tori yet?”
“No, I—”
Then he spotted her across the yard and it was like everybody around him disappeared. She was wearing a white dress—or maybe it was a nightgown—that went almost to her shoes, with a long green coat over it. Only the top few buttons were done, letting the dress show. She had on a black, flat-topped hat and was carrying a basket of flowers. Her face was smudged with black. Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady.
It wasn’t the sexiest costume he’d ever seen, but it still took his breath away. She’d chosen her costume for him.