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"Of course they are."

She added a couple extra gummies to each one. I giggled and thanked her.

The next table was Jeffrey's. He'd gone as Frankenstein's monster, complete with green makeup that was already starting to melt slightly from the heat in the room. He had bat-shaped chocolates.

"Where's JJ?" he asked while dropping candy into our bags.

"With Daddy."

Jeffrey paused.

"That serious?"

I nodded. He didn't laugh. He just added another chocolate to JJ's bag. "Tell him happy Halloween."

"I will."

We kept moving.

Cris, Gustav's Daddy, was dressed as a warlock and had pumpkin-shaped cookies he'd made himself, still slightly warm. Naomi, the new Domme I'd seen earlier, had skull-shaped lollipops. Someone else had tiny bags of candy corn.

Even Rex was there in full pup gear beside Esteban, helping hand out candy. When Max and I reached their table, Rex barked twice at us. Max laughed.

"Trick or treat, puppy."

Rex shoved his nose toward the bowl. Esteban sighed.

"He thinks that means he gets to choose how much candy you receive."

Rex barked.

"One handful."

Another bark.

"One."

Rex dramatically dropped his head. Max and I both started laughing. Esteban gave us our candy while Rex watched like he'd suffered a terrible injustice. The sadness I'd been carrying started fading by degrees.

"Are you having fun?" Max asked while we waited for the next table.

"So much."

And it was true.

"Me too," he said, looking down at his bag, which was already getting pretty full. "I've never done this before."

"What?"

"Trick-or-treating like this."

I stared at him, my mouth dropping. "Never?"

He shook his head. "When I was actually a kid, my parents wouldn't let me go out asking for candy. They thought it was dangerous."

That made my heart hurt. "That's so sad."

He shrugged. "It was normal to me."