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Sumner flips him off but quickly turns away when a boy dressed like Spider-Man comes running up the walkway. He’s got his mask shoved up on his head and he looks a little crazed.

He grins at Colston in his costume before eyeing Sumner.

“Doesn’t that Goose guy die?” he asks while digging through the candy bowl in my lap.

Colston makes a choking sound beside us.

Sumner looks down at the kid. “You’re like ten. How do you know that?”

The boy shrugs. “My grandpa loves that movie.”

Now Colston is completely losing it and can’t hide his laughter.

Sumner gives the kid a flat look. "Yeah, well, I came back from the dead for Halloween.” He points at the bowl. “Now take your candy and go."

The kid snatches two Reese’s cups and sprints toward the next house.

Colston wipes a tear out from under his aviators. “I’m so glad I came.”

“You just wanted an excuse to wear that costume.”

“An outfit this good deserves an audience, Goldie girl. I couldn't just sit on my couch.” He grins. “Watching Shamu suffer is just an added bonus.”

Another group starts up the driveway before Sumner can attempt a clapback. He grabs the second candy bowl off the porch table and starts handing stuff out while Colston starts negotiating with a tiny princess who’s demanding four packs of Sour Patch Kids instead of the two he offered her.

It’s adorable. And it makes me wonder about next Halloween, whether we’ll have a tiny princess or Spider-Man.

I lean back carefully against the cushion and stretch one leg out, then the other.

My entire body has felt wrong since I woke up this morning. It’s not really anything I can pinpoint outside of the usual discomfort. And it’s not bad enough that I’m worried something serious is going on.

I just feel sort of… heavy and sore and generally fucking over being pregnant. The baby’s way, way down in my belly and if I thought my bladder issues were bad before, they had nothing on this.

My back’s been aching on and off, too, and every so often my stomach tightens hard enough to make me have to stop whatever I’m doing for a minute.

It reminds me of what happened a month ago when Sumner was up in that bitchy hurricane Ruth.

I’m not convinced this is labor, though. I mean, yeah, I’m uncomfortable but it doesn’t hurt. Isn’t labor supposed to be super painful?

Sumner disagrees.

He hasn’t said it out loud yet, but I’ve caught him checking his watch enough times to know exactly what he’s doing.

Another tightening starts low across my stomach while a family dressed like the Scooby-Doo gang walks up the driveway.

I keep smiling at Velma while the pressure builds and I blow out a slow exhale. This time, it wraps all the way around into my lower back.

Okay. That part is new and not exactly a picnic.

I breathe slowly through it and hand a miniature Snickers to a toddler dressed as Scooby.

“Thank you,” his mom says.

“Happy Halloween.”

They head back down the walkway, and the maybe-contraction finally starts to subside.

I exhale a long breath and reach into the bowl in my lap to steal a Reese’s cup for myself.