Chapter 13

"I still say the wolf is the best," Jayden countered as he and Kai came inside after turning on the battery-powered candles that lit the pumpkins every night.

"No way. Mine is the best. Even the ghost thinks so." This conversation had happened about sixty times in the four days since we'd carved the pumpkins.

"They are all the best," I assured the boys as I dried my hands on a dish towel.

"Yeah, except yours," Maia called from across the room. Kai chuckled, and I swore Finn hid a smile behind his Pumpkined Out.

"Was that a smile at my expense, Mr. Grumpypants?" I teased. Finn quickly schooled his expression, and I missed the almost smile.

"Definitely not." He cleared his throat and took another sip of his beer. Mr. Fall-Hater seemed to develop a taste for pumpkin beer. "Want me to grab you a drink before we start this movie?"

I nodded and watched him move to the fridge. He was becoming more and more comfortable in my house. He'd been here every night this week. And truthfully, it wasn't only the kids who thought it was weird when he wasn't around. Even I was getting used to him being around, trying to wrangle the chaos.

"Ms. Whiteham told me I have to give you this, and I just remembered." Blair handed me the rule sheet for trunk-or-treat.

"What's that?" Finn asked.

"The kids' school is doing a trunk-or-treat tomorrow night, and I signed up to do a car."

"You signed up to do two, Ivy," Shane said as he followed us into the living room.

"Right. Cause there's two of us." I was planning to break the news slightly differently, but now that the beans had been spilled, I would need to roll with it. I batted my eyes and smiled sweetly at Finn. "We came up with a great theme and everything."

Finn's eyes narrowed. "Two?"

Kai tilted his head. "There's eight of us, not two."

Shane stopped suddenly, turning to look at Kai. "What? There's only six of us, seven if you count Finn. But definitely not eight."

Kai crossed his arms and pouted. "We can't forget about our ghost."

Shane and Maia rolled their eyes. I was pretty sure they were both getting tired of hearing about Kai's ghost.

"Kai," Maia started.

"Hold up," Finn cut her off. "Two cars? Who's the second one?"

"There's no ghost, Kai," Blair sighed. "Remember, Ivy said there's an unreasonable explanation."

"Reasonable," I corrected.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Blair shook her head.

"How come everyone's shoes keep moving?" Kai stomped his foot. "Tell me how that works."

"I think you're doing that, dude." Shane flopped down on the sofa.

"I am not," Kai pouted, clearly frustrated with the accusation.

I sighed as Jayden joined in with the weird things that had happened this week. And Blair tried to talk over them both, explaining about the unreasonable explanation.

Finn brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled, and like always, everyone instantly stopped talking. "Who is trunk number two?"

"Obviously you, dude." Shane pointed back and forth between us. "Two adults, two cars."

Finn's eyes doubled in size. "No, oh no." He shook his head. "I'm not doing that. I don't dress up for Halloween."

"But Finn," Blair turned around and leaned over the back of the armchair she was sitting on. "The Addams Family needs a dad."

"I'm supposed to be Gomez Addams?" He scoffed, doing a pretty good impression of a grumpy dad.

I tilted my head and smiled. "It's going to be so much fun."

He pointed at me. "That line is going to be the death of me."

Maia rolled her eyes. But I could see the ghost of smile trying to fight it was to her lips. "I think it's going to be lame."

"Aww look, you're already in character," I teased. "Our own little Wednesday."

She shrugged but her eyes were bright with excitement even if she refused to admit it and tried to change the subject. "What movie are we watching?"

"Not Hocus Pocus again, please," Shane mumbled. "We've watched it three times already this month."

"Why don't we do Addams Family, since that's what you all are dressing up as?" Finn suggested.

"You mean Wednesday?" I wasn't sure the TV show geared toward teenagers would work for the younger kids. "Not sure Kai will be interested in that."

"No." He shook his head. "The original."

"There's an original?" Shane asked.

I shrugged at him. The only one I'd ever heard of was Wednesday.

Shane pulled out his phone, to have Google answer what I couldn't.

"Of course, there's an original." Finn spun to me. "You've never seen it?"

"I've never been a big TV or movie person."

Shane shook his head. "It's from the fifties. No wonder none of us have ever seen it. It's like forty years older than you, man."

Finn scoffed. "I'm not that old."

"Are you sure? You fit the grumpy old man vibe," I teased, and Finn snaked his arm out to tickle my side.

"Stop."

I giggled. Finn chuckled. Shane cocked an eyebrow at me that I couldn't quite decipher.

Finn cleared his throat and shifted slightly away from me. "The show is actually from the sixties, but I meant the 1991 movie or the newer animated one."

"That isn't much better," Shane muttered.

Finn crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. "Then let's go with Hocus Pocus again?"

"Oh God, no." Shane shuddered. "Addams Family it is."

Finn grabbed the remote from the coffee table.

"We get popcorn, right?" Jayden asked.

"Yup, on it." I skipped back into the kitchen.

I'd just put the first bag in the microwave when Shane came in and grabbed a couple of large bowls from a cabinets.

"So, this whole fake marriage thing seems to come with some tension," he said, handing me a bowl.

I was hoping the kids hadn't noticed that. "Hmmm?" I hedged.

"I'm not seven, Ivy. What is it you always say? Just don't lie to me?"

I rolled my eyes and pulled out the first bag of popcorn. "Honestly, nothing's going on."

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure he wants something to be going on." He handed me the second bag of popcorn. "Come on, I might only be seventeen, but I guarantee there's not a man in the world who wants to hang out with our crazy family for no reason."

I put the popcorn in the microwave and shrugged. "He's just trying to help."

Shane shook his head, grinning. "You're missing the sign's Ivy."

Once the popcorn was done, we made our way back to the living room, and I sat on the sofa between Jayden and Finn, tucking my legs under me. Finn leaned over me to grab the popcorn from the bowl before settling his arm behind me on the back of the couch.

I looked across to the other sofa at Shane. He raised an eyebrow with a smirk. Some days it felt like he was seventeen going on thirty.

Stealing another glance at Finn, I couldn't deny he was good looking. And when he smiled, like right now, it was hard to look away.