"You're Hildie," Noah announced.
Teagan's costume fit the bill. Brightly colored, check. Would scare Zane's dog, check. Liked chatter, major check.
She tipped back and howled. "That may be the funniest, most Eagle's Ridge thing you have ever said." But Teagan righted herself, giving him a quick headshake. "But no." She turned to Will and Bella. "Please don't repeat what Noah just said."
Oh yeah. Whoops. He'd never live that down. "Let's keep those lips zipped. Please."
Neither kid seemed clued in, and they agreed.
Teagan wriggled her jewelry again. "I'm a psychic! Don't I look like those ladies who show up on late night commercials?"
Both kids took turns jumping up and down and calling out "You do, you do."
Noah's confused glance at them didn't slow down their reaction. He was positive neither had seen a middle-of-the-night television commercial.
Teagan wryly twisted her lips. "So many parents assume I can predict the future that I thought a little bit of school counselor humor would be fun."
"I love it," he said.
"It'll be lost on the people who might be offended." She crossed her fingers. "I hope."
There wasn't anything about Teagan he didn't adore. Even the way she worried about the people who drove her crazy. Noah walked toward his grinning psychic and took her hand in his. "Time to go?"
"Yes! It's time! Can we go now?" Will asked. "Please!"
"Please?" Bella pulled her stack of books toward the front door. "I think it already started without us."
"It didn't," Noah said.
The kids weren't sold on that answer and peered out as though they could see through the dark and down the block to the start of the parade. He leaned close to Teagan. "What, pray tell, does this psychic foresee in the near future?"
Her fingers intertwined with his as they ambled behind the kids. "A long walk for me in the dark with two awesome kids and then a long night for the two of us warming up."
"Is that what you think?" She didn't know he planned on walking with the three of them. Nuts and Bolts used to hand out candy to the parade goers and people along the sidewalk. Hell, Teagan was the one who reminded him. But there was no way they were walking in that parade without him. He squeezed her hand tight. "Wait outside for me. I'll be there in a minute."
Will and Bella were already outside and racing around, Will chasing Bella's books on wheels, and Teagan pressed up on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Sure thing."
Then Noah walked behind the counter and pulled out two large buckets full of candy, stacked one on top of the other, and took his keys and cell phone from a shelf. He slipped them into one of the pockets of his astronaut costume.
He lifted the heavy containers of candy and pushed out the front door of Nuts and Bolts, surprising Teagan.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Get ready." He made way to the first orange tower of tractor tires and dropped the heavy container of candy to the ground.
Teagan stepped closer. "For what?"
He hoisted the first bucket, wondering how many pounds of chocolate, licorice, suckers, and taffy it took to fill each, and placed it on top of the straw-covered tower. Then he grabbed the second one, carried it to the other side of the parking lot entrance, and did the same in the other tractor tire tower he'd made to hold the candy.
Noah dusted off his hands and looked at the two tire towers, topped with enormous buckets of candy. "That'll do the trick."
"Are you kidding me?" Her excitement made his orange-painted fingernails worth it.
"Nope." Noah space-walked to the sound of the kids' laughter toward the side of the shop where he'd painted "Help yourself" on the front of two rusted-out, abandoned car hoods. He moved each one to stand by a tire tower, securing them with the metal poles he'd attached.
Teagan jingled and clinked her way to meet him in front of Nuts and Bolts, and he hooked his arm around her. "I don't know about you, but I think it gets the point across."
"I can't believe it." She laid her head against his astronaut arm. "You're not staying here?"
He kissed the top of her head. "You're going to have to work on your fortune-telling if you want to be the Eagle's Ridge psychic. Because I'm walking with you all night long. And I'll be up with you tonight too. All night long."
She swung in front of him so that their torsos touched, and her smile was sweeter than any of the sugar he had put out.
"Is Teagan your girlfriend?" Bella called from across the parking lot.
A grin cracked on his face, and he chuckled at their pint-sized audience and the commentary. There was no use trying to tell Bella that Teagan was his world because Bella would take him literally, and they'd never make it to the Halloween parade if Noah had to explain that he understood that Teagan was a person and not a planet. Nothing like a five-year-old who was smart as hell except when the topic wasn't quite at her level yet. "I don't know, Teagan. How do you feel about titles? Are you my girlfriend?"
She tipped her head, tapping a finger against her chin. "Hmmm. I do collect them."
"I should have realized that." He took her thought-pondering finger and counted off, "Mom. Counselor. Psychic. Girlfriend."
Teagan's eyes lit. "Girlfriend."
They needed a candy apple or whatever the Halloween equivalent was for mistletoe because he had run out of excuses for randomly kissing, but oh well. Noah kissed his girlfriend only to receive cheers from Bella and Will.
Teagan ducked her head, giggling quietly, then turned against him as he wrapped her to his chest. "Well, that's a first."
"Let me go get my helmet and lock up."
As Noah walked by Bella and Will, he laughed as he heard their whispers.
"Noah?" Will ran up to him.
"Yeah, buddy?"
"Thank you."
He stopped. "What for?"
"Even though it's Halloween, you make people smile. Even when it's not Halloween. Like Bella and my mom." Will ran back to Bella, not knowing what his words might've meant to Noah.
"Thank you too, kid," Noah said quietly. For all the classified ops and the good they'd done around the world, never once had a single mission made him feel as that kid just had. He was where he was supposed to be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Kids in costume and their in-costume parents walked the Main Street route waving to the community who brought candy and tossed it from the sidewalk as they walked by. The Eagle's Ridge tradition was a slight twist on trick or treating, replacing the door to door knocking. It brought families out from both sides of town, and added that little touch of specialness that the community thrived on.
Teagan shivered and curled under Noah's astronaut arm as they walked behind Bella and Will who ran from one side of the street to the other with a group of their friends, showing off their costumes and snatching thrown pieces of candy. "Can you see through that thing?"
His helmet-covered head tilted toward her. "What?"
"Can you," she raised her voice, then stopped. Obviously, he couldn't.
Noah pulled off his helmet. "Just kidding, I could hear you fine. But I'm fogging up."
She snickered but then burrowed into him. "I'm cold, even with long johns under my outfit and heating packs tucked everywhere that they'd hold."
He pulled her close, and she snuggled against him, enjoying the festivities.
"Hang on a sec." Noah gave her a quick squeeze and stepped away.
She followed his gaze toward one of the Eagle's Ridge police officers who had them in his sights. The man's tight face was pinched and locked on Noah, even as the astronaut separated from the parade and moved closer.
Will fell back. "Where's Noah going?"
"Just to talk with a friend."
"His friends are the police?"
She nodded and her jewelry clinked as they continued to walk in the parade. "Sure. He has all kinds of friends. Just like you do."
"It's good that he's a good guy." Will spun away.
Amused, Teagan watched her son run back to his group of friends then walk with Bella. "It's good, that's for sure."
Bella and her rolling tower of books stopped with Will, and Teagan continued to walk in the parade. The kids started walking again when she reached them.
"If Noah is a good guy, would that make him like a prince?" Bella asked.
Teagan tried to understand the basis of her question. "I'm not sure I understand."
"You could be a princess and he could be a prince. Then you both could match."
She held her bangled wrists out. "But I really liked being a fortune-telling gypsy, so that wouldn't have worked."
Bella and Will scowled, and Will asked, "Are you sure?"
Her smile cracked. "Yup. Positive. And I'm also positive Noah wanted to be an astronaut."