Merry with a Brewmaster (The Love Beach Holiday Collection)

11. Wells

11

WELLS

W ith each day closer to Halloween, my house somehow acquired more decorations or lights or something festive. Haven couldn’t stop talking about her costume and swore I couldn’t see the finished product until today for the trunk or treat event.

As negotiated with Vienna, I’d gone to the store and grabbed enough things to turn the back of my sensible dad SUV into a magical fairy woodland scene. Haven had been thrilled, and I’d earned a thumbs-up from Vienna for tying my design into the unicorn—alicorn—vibe.

“Girls! We’re gonna be late!” I yell from the kitchen as Haven bounds down the stairs and barrels into me at full speed. I grunt and make a show of bending over at the impact, making her giggle and shove my shoulder.

“Daddy!” She laughs and then steps back and frowns. “Where’s your costume?”

“I’m a tired dad, can’t you tell?”

“Daaaad,” she whines, and I kiss the top of her curled and sprayed hair.

“I have to do a lot of moving around, so I have something to change into after we get there and set up.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Vienna calls, her voice muffled over the sound of the garbage bag in her hand.

“What is…”

Holy fucking hell.

I can’t even finish my question because Vienna is dressed as a fairy and I damn near swallow my tongue. It’s modest—definitely appropriate for an elementary school event with her gold nylons and a sparkly gold dress, the fabric cut to different lengths in the skirt, giving it a fun and whimsical feel with the longest pieces hitting right above her knees. Gold wings are fastened to her back, and she’s wearing an obscene amount of matching glitter on her face.

And still, she looks absolutely stunning.

“Oh, these are Haven’s wings. You just can’t see them yet,” she says as I try to figure out what my question even was before she appeared in front of me. “Are you ready?”

Swallowing hard, I nod, thankful she seems to be oblivious to my inner turmoil. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Loading everything into the car, we drive the short distance to the school and find our designated spot. The lot is already packed, and my heart squeezes in my chest as people laugh and talk over the music as they decorate their vehicles.

It feels like a community.

It feels like home.

Haven’s little hand slips into mine as she looks up at me. “I really like it here.”

“Me too, baby, me too.”

VIENNA

The trunk or treat event was just about three hours from start to finish, and I don’t think I’ve ever smiled that much in my whole life. I manned Wells’s car so that he could take Haven around to see all the other displays. She came back with a bag so full that her father had to carry it.

I had my suspicions that Reece had dumped most of her candy into Haven’s bag, but no one would confirm that for me. Haven had raved about the fire department’s spider web-decorated truck but Wells—unsurprisingly—didn’t have a comment.

Most likely due to the fact that Jace was the representative.

Wells will have to get over my friendship with the probationary firefighter eventually.

“Vienna!” Haven squeals. “Everyone loved my costume!” She does a little dance, her sparkly pink wings bouncing around her, and I smile.

Because I love seeing her happy.

I’d surprised her and stitched some extra crystals on there and along the horn headband she’d helped me make. She’d been a natural—excited about picking out fabrics and trying out my sewing machine.

She was secretly working on making a tie and matching hair bow so that she and Wells can match at the father-daughter dance the school hosts in the spring. I blinked back the tears hard as she hunted for the perfect fabric in my bins.

“You’re the star of the show tonight, Haven,” Wells says proudly, the man booping his daughter on the nose while he’s dressed as a sexy elf.

Sexy probably wasn’t his intention, but I’d still had to stop myself from staring more than once tonight.

And he hadn’t been so good at hiding his perusal of me either.

She preens and then rubs her belly. “I’m hungry.”

“You just ate half your weight in candy,” Wells teases her as I swipe a piece of chocolate from her bucket.

“Good news, then. My sister is right over there in her truck, the Taste of Magnolia, that she runs with her best friend, Cora.” I point and they both look over at the black food truck with the huge pink magnolia flowers that my sister painted. “I know for a fact that they planned a spooky menu just for tonight.”

“Can we go, Daddy?” Haven says, bouncing up and down and earning a chuckle from Wells and me.

“Sure, Haven, let’s go meet the other Greene sister.”

Grinning, I lead them toward the truck with Haven between us, her hand in each of ours. An elf, an alicorn and a fairy.

Almost like a family.