Eye Candy

Mia gasps and grabs hold of my hand as something warm spreads underneath my ribs. “I know you are,” I tell him, smiling proudly.

“I really am. I mean it. She says she’s my friend, but I just love her so much. Do you think she loves me too?”

“Ben,” Mia whispers.

I don’t need to look at my wife to tell she’s crying again. I know she is. Every sweet word out of Nolan’s mouth gets to her. So I keep my eyes on my oldest, and answer, “I’m sure she does.”

He smiles then, the dimples caving in his cheeks, and nods once. “Yeah, me too. I think she loves me. Mommy, guess what she’s being for Halloween?”

“What, baby?”

“A princess!” Nolan’s eyes brighten as he sits up, leaning his elbows on his drawing pad. “That’s so perfect, right? I didn’t even tell her to be that! She’s so cool. She just knows.”

When Nolan gets back to his drawing, Mia drops her head on my arm and squeezes my hand. “I love the way he loves. He’s just like you,” she says, quiet enough for only me to hear.

I kiss the top of her head. “You ready to tell them?”

“Yes.”

I pull out the chair closest to me and guide Mia to sit down, then I pick up Chase and stand with him beside her.

“Nolan, come here.”

Nolan puts his colored pencil down, slides out of his seat, and stands in front of Mia. “Yes?”

She grabs his hands and holds them in her lap. “Daddy and I have something very important to tell you.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “Are we taking another trip to Chicago?”

I shake my head, smiling.

One-track mind—getting to see his girl.

He is definitely my son.

“No, not right now, baby,” Mia says, holding his cheeks. “I love your heart, Nolan. Do you know that?”

“Yes. You say that all the time.”

“Good. Because I don’t want you forgetting. And I don’t ever want you to stop loving the way you do. It’s really special.”

“Well, I don’t know any other way, so . . .”

Mia whimpers and pulls Nolan against her chest, crushing him into a hug. His muffled protest doesn’t stop her.

I look to Chase and shake my head. “We do have news, little man. Not sure you’re going to hear it today, but we do have news.”

“Oh, Ben. I can’t help it. Did you hear what he said?” Mia looks up at me with big, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. She wipes at her face, then eases Nolan back with her hands on his shoulders. “Okay. Okay. I’m ready to tell you the news.”

Nolan blinks, looks up at me, and then back at Mia.

“We’re having a baby, Nolan,” she shares. “You’re going to get another little brother or sister. Isn’t that exciting?”

“Do I get to pick?” he asks.

“Do you . . . get to pick what, sweetheart?” Mia cups his cheek.

“If I get a brother or a sister, because I want another brother.” Nolan looks between Mia and myself. “I think sisters are cool and everything, but Ryan has two sisters and I want us to match. So, I’m gonna need another brother. If I get a sister, we won’t match.”

“Buddy, we don’t really have control over that,” I tell him.

“Just do what you gotta do, Dad.”

I laugh.

“Baby, whatever is in my belly right now, that’s it,” Mia tries to explain to him. “We can’t change it. I might have your little sister growing in there.”

“She’s growing in there right now?” His eyes light up.

Mia nods. “Yes. He or she. They’re really tiny right now.”

“Can I feel them like I did when Chasey was in there?”

“Not yet. But as soon as you can, I’ll let you know, okay?”

Nolan nods and looks up at me. He smiles. “Cool. This is the best Halloween ever, and I haven’t even gotten any candy yet.”

Smiling, I crouch down beside Mia. I put my hand on her belly, and grin when Nolan puts his hand on top of mine. Chase reaches out too, and Mia takes his hand and rests it next to Nolan’s.

“Chasey, say baby,” Nolan prompts.

“Baby,” Chase repeats, the word getting muffled around the thumb in his mouth.

Mia smiles at me with tears in her eyes again.

“Angel.”

She leans forward, meeting me halfway, and we kiss until Nolan whines and tells us to stop.

“Okay. Now, who wants some special Halloween pancakes?” Mia asks.

“Me!” Nolan yells.

“Me!” Chase echoes. “Pamcakes! Pamcakes!”





REED


Staring up at the ceiling, I toss one end of the rope I’m holding over the exposed beam above me and catch it when it drops through.

The bar is quiet. McGill’s typically doesn’t close on Saturdays, but with Danny and Hattie, Beth’s uncle and aunt, being out of town most of the day, they decided to keep things locked up so Beth wouldn’t be running things alone.

I appreciated that. I didn’t want her stressing out or worrying she wasn’t handling things. And it worked out with the Halloween party tonight. We’ve had time to get everything ready.

“I don’t know about this,” I say, giving the two ends of the rope a tug. “I get making this place look creepy for the party, but what about Nolan and Chase? Isn’t it kind of fucked up having nooses hanging from the ceiling with kids here? It’s morbid, right? What if Nolan is like ‘Uncle Weed, what’s that for?’ What am I supposed to say? No. Yeah, no, we’re not doing this.” I pull the rope off the beam. “The spiderwebs and ghosts we got up are enough. I’m not traumatizing kids and then getting my ass beat when I do traumatize them.”

Ben wouldn’t hesitate. He’d kill me. I know he would. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been friends or how much my death might upset people—mainly the girls in the group.

I can’t imagine Luke shedding a tear over my demise.

Beth doesn’t respond, not even with a reassuring, “You’re being silly. Ben would never kill you,” and when I turn around to look for her, expecting an empty bar behind me to explain her silence, I see her standing in the same spot she was in a minute ago.

Behind the counter, rag in one hand and an apple she’s wiping off in preparation for tonight in the other. Bobbing for apples is one of the games she’s putting together for the kids. I didn’t think it was necessary to clean off the apples since they’re going in a big bucket of water anyway, but Beth thought it was important, and while I’ve been decorating, she’s been wiping pesticides off fruit.

Up until this point, she’s moved through the process rather quickly. Now, though, with her eyes fixated on the rope in my hand, she seems to be slowing down. Or maybe she just found the world’s dirtiest apple. I don’t know, but if she doesn’t move on soon, she’s going to take the skin right off that thing.

“Sweetheart.”

Beth’s eyes snap up, and her hand holding the rag stills. “Mm?”

She’s fresh-faced, no makeup on yet, has her hair pulled back in a messy pony with several pieces falling out by her ears, and looks one bend away from busting out of the Nirvana shirt she’s wearing. The material is stretched tight across her belly.

I smile at her.

My wife is sexy as fuck pregnant.

“What are you doing, Mrs. Tennyson?” I ask.

Beth smiles then, and fuck, what that smile does to me.