Page 38 of Daddy’s Little Secret

“Come on, boys.” Uncle Chuck held his hand out to Tae. “Let’s go play some games, get hopped up on too much sugar, and crash hard. Tomorrow, we took the day off so we can sleep in and be lazy.”

On the way to join the cornhole line, a young boy dressed as Fiona from Shrek stopped us. “I like your pretty pink dress,” he told Sasha.

“You do?” Sasha clearly hung around with the wrong people. He’d fit right in with us.

“Yes. I was a princess last year, so Mommy said I should pick a different costume this year. Do you like Shrek?”

“I love Shrek,” Sasha said, “And I love, love, love your Fiona costume!”

“Thank you. I’m gonna go swing now.” And that was it, he said what he had to say and moved on. Kids were funny that way, but Sasha was all smiles.

The first table we stopped at gave us trick-or-treat buckets to put our goodies into. We went table to table, filling them up, then switched to the games. Bobbing for apples washed off most of my make-up, but I got a yummy apple treat, so I didn’t mind. Daddy and I beat Tae and Uncle Chuck at Cornhole, but Sasha and Samian beat us in the next game.

By the time the burgers and hot dogs were ready, we were starving. It was fun, looking around at all the costumes and people having a good time. I hoped Daddy and Uncle Chuck would do this more often. We had plenty of space for people to hang out; maybe they’d make it an annual Halloween party place.

Around eight, the party wound down, but everyone was respectful and all the trash was placed in the cans we put out, and their areas were cleaned up. As expected, they ended up selling all of the picnic tables, including the four they’d wanted to keep, with orders for several more.

Our found family had seeped into a found town.

16

“Doesn’t it feel like we just put all these decorations away?” Chuck complained as we pulled the tubs out of storage. One of the smartest moves we made was turning the overhead area of our shop into a storage area.

“Yes, and why does it feel like we’ve accumulated more?” I don’t remember putting this much shit up here in January.

“Because we have. Between the boys and the Momma/Grandma QVC addictions, they keep ordering and I keep storing.” Chuck handed me another tub. “I have no clue what’s in any of these, and to be honest, I’m afraid to look.”

Yeah, I was of the same mind.

“At least it’ll all be down for Samian and Sasha to help with this weekend.” Samian’s classes were over, so Trey and I were headed down tomorrow to move them up. Samian felt there was no reason to stay for another month until the ceremony with nothing to do all day. Instead, we were all gonna drive down together for that and crash at Chuck’s house in the valley.

“The Christmas trees the boys wanted that can be planted in the spring will be delivered tomorrow as well. The nursery in town gave us a great price after all the landscaping business we sent their way. Tae already ordered a stocking for Sasha to match his and Trey’s. I don’t know who’s more excited for this, Sasha or Tae and Trey.”

“No kidding. Trey has filled his online cart with a ton of presents for Tae and Sasha. From what Samian said, Sasha’s only got a suitcase and the things we bought him when they were here last.” Another grateful boy was added to the family. Sasha just wanted to be loved and appreciated for who he was. He’d get that tenfold with this family.

“Tae’s excited to paint a princess mural in Sasha’s new playroom,” Chuck said. “It’s gonna be amazing.”

“I don’t doubt that. My brother is extremely talented.” We’d started Samian and Sasha’s cabin shortly after Halloween, given the short window we had to pour concrete in before the cold weather hit. There was still a long way to go, but they were fine crashing at Chuck’s until it was ready. Neither of them had much, so storing their belongings wasn’t a problem. “How many trees are being delivered?”

“Five, and the driver is bringing a dolly to help me get them into each cabin.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, but with three boys, one tree would’ve been hellish.”

“Ha-ha, true. It’s good for each to have their own so we can have a special Christmas with our boys before the whole family one.”

“Exactly, and once I said they’re live and we’re planting them in the spring, Momma and Grandma both asked for one.”

“I like that the boys opted for that. I know we’ve done our best not to remove any trees while building, but we did have to take a few down. This is giving back to nature what we took from it.” And that felt pretty damn good. “How are the greenhouse plans coming?”

“Not too bad. I should have something for you to look at next week. I know this weekend we’ll be busy following the orders our boys will be barking. And I thought we hung a lot of lights for Halloween.” Chuck rolled his eyes. “I have a feeling Christmas will surpass that.”

“Speaking of the boys, shouldn’t they be back soon?” They’d gone into town with Momma and Grandma to stock up all the fridges and most likely to pick up more Christmas decorations.

Boys who worked and had their own checking accounts could be dangerous.

About the time we finished pulling down all the totes, Trey’s SUV was coming up the gravel drive. “Do you need help unloading?” I asked, headed toward them.