Chapter 11

I didn't see how this was supposed to be fun. Another pumpkin seed went flying past my head and I ducked. I felt like I was in the dugout at one of Declan's games with the number of seeds whizzing through the air.

I wasn't even sure why they were still being launched. Everyone had finished scraping out their pumpkin guts ten minutes ago.

"Who's throwing the pumpkin seeds?" I grumbled.

"Not me," the table full of kids replied. Ivy and I had helped the kids tape their stencils to the sides of their pumpkins, and most of them were dotting their lines to carve.

"One of you is a liar," I muttered.

"Hi pot, meet kettle." Shane cocked a brow, smirking at me over his own big orange pumpkin. "And you aren't really married?"

I shot him a glare. Wasn't the same thing at all.

He shrugged. "Just saying how it is."

"Shut up and carve."

His brow cocked. "You haven't started yours."

I pulled the pencil away, studying my drawing. "Yes, I have. Just wait and see."

I glanced to my other side, where Ivy sat. She wasn't even carving, just picking pumpkin seeds out of the pulp we each pulled out of ours.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't want to waste any of the seeds. Baking them is the best part."

My eyes locked onto the orange slime-covered seeds. "You're going to eat those?"

"Trust me. They're amaztastic. Right Blair?" She smiled at her daughter.

"They are. I feel you though. The goo was something. It took me some time to get over too."

"Goo?" Ivy's mouth fell open, and she looked adorably offended.

"I was going to say slime." I shrugged, fighting the smile pulling at my lips.

Instead of getting more upset, her smile widened, and she lifted her pumpkin gut-covered hands toward me. "Slime?" she taunted, messing with me. But that twitch was back on my lips. Damn, she was cute.

"Don't you dare," I warned.

"Or what?" Her fingers danced and little drops of stringy slime fell onto my jeans. Her glossy lips pursed and damn if I didn't want to lean in for a taste.

I set my pencil down and locked my hands around her wrist, leaning closer to her. "Don't test me, Mrs. Lowery." Her eyes flashed and a tingle shot down my spine when her breath hitched.

Shane cleared his throat, and I jerked back, dropping her hands. What was I doing?

"Are you going to goo him, Ivy?" Blair asked.

She blinked and turned her focus back on her bowl of slimy seeds. "No, I'm just going to make him eat his words."

"Doubtful." Picking my pencil back up, I went back to my pumpkin.

She tilted her head. "How are you so anti fall stuff? No pumpkin spice, pumpkin seeds, no carving."

I smirked. "I'm actually good at this."

"Really?" Jayden asked.

Blair's head popped up. "You are?"

"Yeah, I do it with my niece and nephew."

Ivy raised an eyebrow.

"I'm the one that gave Natalie the idea about a pumpkin patch, but then they didn't show up to carve them." I shrugged.

"It's good you have us then." Kai sat up straight, smiling at me.

"Yeah, bud it is."

I caught Ivy's smile before I went back to my design. By the time I finished and was ready to carve everyone else was almost done. A grunt of frustration came from Ivy, and I glanced over.

"What's wrong?"

She huffed. "I can't get one of the eyes to carve."

Ivy had opted for the traditional jack-o-lantern. At least that's what I thought she was making. It was hard to tell.

Shane chuckled. "Ivy, how did you mess up the eyes so badly? I mean, they're just circles."

"I did circles," she said as she slumped back in her seat.

"Those are the most pointy, uneven circles I've ever seen." His chuckle turned into an outright laugh. "I love you, but that sucks."

"Oh, stop it." Ivy leaned over me and playfully slapped Shane's arm.

Pumpkin spice enveloped me, and my gaze slowly tracked up over the swell of her breasts and the column of her throat before landing on her glistening lips. I shook that off.

"Here, give it to me." I took the little carving tool from her and pulled the pumpkin over.

The waft of pumpkin spice hit me again as Ivy leaned forward, her long auburn hair brushed my arm. I glanced over my shoulder.

"What?" she asked.

"You're crowding my space," I muttered.

"Rizz dude, rizz." Blair rolled her eyes. "Tell her you were distracted because she smells like the best part of fall."

I scoffed.

"Okay, Mr. Grump."

How did I become the grump? That was usually reserved for Declan. I'm not sure my family had ever called me grumpy. Maybe it had something to do with being surrounded by kids because suddenly I was as grumpy as my brother.

Pumpkin carving was usually my thing, although normally it wasn't chaos while I was doing it. Another pumpkin seed hit my cheek.

"Who is throwing the pumpkin seeds?"

"It's the ghost." Kai jumped up and down hardly able to contain his excitement at the idea.

Yeah right. The ghost was throwing pumpkin seeds. I believed that as much as I believed it was stealing shoes.

Blair's head popped up. "My favorite white scrunchies are missing again."

"Yeah, the ghost took my creeper, too." Jayden added with a frown.

Ivy looked up at the kids with a shake of her head. "Stop it. There's no ghost. You all have to quit messing with each other."

"I saw him last night when I got up to go pee. It was white and ran down the hallway." Kai bounced on his chair as he told the story.

"For goodness' sake." She sighed. "There's no such thing as ghosts, Kai."

Ivy got up and headed into the kitchen to finish roasting the pumpkin seeds. All the kids' pumpkins were coming along. Blair's flower and Kai's ghost were almost done, although Jayden was struggling with his creeper design. He might end up needing help, but I would let him try longer. I had no idea what Maia was making. Maybe it was a witch and moon, but I couldn't be sure. Her skills at pumpkin carving were like Ivy's—pretty much non-existent.

"And I still can't figure out what you're doing." Shane was now studying my pumpkin. Because unlike everyone else, I didn't use a stencil.

"Just wait, you'll see it." I'd only done the trees, but once I carved the details around the wolf, it would become clear what it was. "You just go back to your cheater paper and skull."

One by one all the kids finished theirs, and I carved the last of my wolf before collecting the knives and tools. I stepped up next to Ivy in the kitchen and placed the items in the sink.

"Here, try one." She held up a seed she'd spent the last fifteen minutes roasting.

Not at all convinced this would be my thing, I leaned forward anyway, letting her pop the seed into my mouth. Her finger brushed against me and an electric tingle radiated across my lip. Our eyes locked, and I felt my heart pick up. She was so close. Just a foot between us. Pumpkin spice filled the air, and I leaned closer. Her chin tilted up as her lips separated. I raised my hand.

"Look!" Kai yelled.

We jumped apart, turning toward him. I expected him to be pointing at us. Claiming we were going to kiss. But he was facing the pantry.

He pointed down the hall. "It's the ghost."

Ivy shoulders slumped. "This ghost is getting to be too much."

"We'll figure it out," I assured her, dying to lean back in. I'd even settle for simply wrapping my arms around her and holding her close. But our arrangement wasn't supposed to include that type of intimacy, so I needed to get those ideas out of my head. "But for now, we should get cleaned up and I should get going."

She nodded. "Yeah."

But when I finally got back to my kidless, ghostless, Ivyless house, it felt too quiet. And I had no clue what to make of that.