Mistletoe Bay (3 page)

Corey laughed. “He's not really green.” He took a step back just in case.

Mr. Kingsman handed Corey a big candy bar from the bowl near the front door. “Only leprechauns and Kermit the frog are green.”

“What do you say to Mr. Kingsman, boys?” So much for her drumming it into their heads all night long to say ‘thank you' to everyone.

“Thanks, Mr. Kingsman,” said Chase politely.

“Thanks.” Corey grinned and he dropped the goodie into his bag.

“Thanks, Frankenstein.” Tucker chuckled as he sprinted down the steps.

“Thank you for taking the time to reassure Corey, Mr. Kingsman.” She followed her sons down the pathway.

“My pleasure. I have grandsons about their age on the west coast. They made me feel like a real grandpop there for a little while.”

“It was our pleasure.” She didn't want to think about how much her own parents would have loved their grandsons. But at least she had Dorothy. She wouldn't know what to do without Dorothy, the boys' only grandmother.

“Okay, kids, to the car. It's parked around the corner. I can't walk another step.” She bent down and picked up Corey. It was getting dangerously close to Corey's bedtime, but she couldn't tell his brothers that. Chase wouldn't care much, but Tucker would hound Corey for a week for making them stop trick-or-treating earlier than he wanted.

She had wasted half this afternoon, between dragging Bojangles out from underneath the porch, bathing the hysterical mutt, and bathing Tucker after he'd made a bigger mess in her tub than the dog. Then she'd had to sop up the water all over the bathroom floor, clean the tub, and take a shower herself. By that time Dorothy had dinner ready and none of the boys wanted to eat anything nutritious before they went out. It had been a battle of wills, of which she probably came out on the short side.

She still had a good four hours' worth of work out in the shop tonight before she could think about heading for her own bed.

She helped Corey into his car seat and wrestled the seat belt on. All of his caterpillar legs were getting in the way. Tucker and Chase got their own belts buckled and were working out a deal on what candy could be swapped for what. She closed the door as they started to argue what was worth more, a Snickers bar or a peanut butter cup.

She smiled as she headed for the driver's side of the car. When it came to her sons, she was the world's biggest pushover. She made a mental note to work on that before they hit their teenage years.

Chapter Two

Coop was pounding in the last nail when Jenni and the kids pulled up in front of the house. He had wanted to be done and out of there before she even returned, but Dorothy Wright had had other ideas. The older woman kept plying him with fresh hot coffee, pumpkin cookies, and praises.

It really wasn't any big deal, and he had told Dorothy that the first six times she had thanked him. It was for his own peace of mind that he had returned after work with an eight-foot-long four-by-four and tools. He had kept picturing the porch roof caving in on top of a ghost, a caterpillar, and their hazel-eyed mother.

He had had less frightening nightmares after watching horror movies as a kid. A piece of lumber and some nails were a cheap price to pay for a good night's sleep.

“Wow! Hi, Mr. Brown,” shouted Tucker as he rushed from the car. “What'ya doing?”

Coop tried not to chuckle as he climbed down the stepladder and took a look at the Wright family as they tumbled, rolled, and stepped out of the midsize SUV that was a couple years old. The vehicle appeared to be in a lot better shape than the house, which was good, considering he didn't know what he would have done if he'd spotted duct tape on the car, like the porch.

Instead of using nails, someone had duct taped three of the porch balusters onto the railing. The one shutter to the dining room window also was held on to the house by a dozen strips of the silver tape. Here he had thought it was part of the overzealous Halloween decorating. It wasn't.

“‘Hi' back.”

Tucker had a string of lights lit under his ghost costume. Coop guessed that to a kid it would appear cool. To his eye, if Tucker added some big wings and a halo he would look like an earthbound angel. He chuckled at that comparison.

A second kid followed Tucker up onto the porch. He guessed this was Chase, the boy he hadn't met yet. Chase, who was a couple inches taller than Tucker, was dressed in a purple and gold robe with shimmering stars all over it. A purple dunce cap was perched on his head and a fake gray beard was covering most of his face. Chase was also carrying a five-foot-tall wooden walking stick.

“What'ya doing?” asked Tucker again as he stuck an unwrapped candy bar up under his costume and into his mouth. Under the porch light Coop could see chocolate smears all over the sheer costume. Tucker was beginning to look like a Dalmatian ghost.

Coop glanced at the SUV as Jenni reached in the back door and unbuckled a squirming caterpillar. Corey exited the car carrying a bag almost as big as he was. It appeared to be holding an impressive amount of candy.

“What did you do—hit every house in Misty Harbor?” Jenni was bundled up against the cold, her cheeks were pink, and she looked tired. But at least she wasn't covered in pink shaving gel and muck.

For a woman who'd just herded three kids through the streets of Misty Harbor, she shouldn't have looked that beautiful.

“Just about,” answered Jenni as she climbed the steps. “What are you doing?”

He looked at the three boys and couldn't very well tell her the roof was about to cave in on them. He didn't want to frighten the boys. “Since I noticed the dry rot this afternoon, I figured I'd just give this post some additional support until you get a chance to have it replaced.” He had almost purchased a new post at the hardware store after he had finished his route, but that would have been like putting a new door on one of the cabins in the
Titanic.
Without a major overhaul, Jenni's house was still going to sink.

“Thank you, but you didn't have to do that.” Jenni looked embarrassed. “What do I owe you?”

“I already have a job.” He didn't want Jenni, or anyone else, thinking he was trying to hit them up for money. “Consider it a good deed.” He could see the uncertainty on Jenni's face. “Besides, Dorothy has already paid me with enough coffee and pumpkin cookies to fatten me up till Christmas.”

“She's a great cook.”

“I noticed.” He also noticed that Jenni didn't have any electrical outlets on the porch. Dorothy had had to run an extension cord for him through the dining room window. As he was looking for the nonexistent outlet, he'd spotted a heavy-duty orange extension cord coming out of the living room window that the lights in one of the trees were plugged in to. Someone had plugged the inch opening in the window with tube socks and more duct tape.

Another cord snaked its way around the side of the house, giving electricity to the ten-foot-high blow-up Snoopy vampire. A soft electrical hum filled the silence.

Six carved pumpkins were lined up on the porch. The candles were nearly burnt out and the stench of scorched pumpkin hung in the air. The candles had been so powerful that the faces had all contorted and become mushed on the pumpkins. They now resembled aged apples.

The blind, menacing-looking panda sat in the rocking chair in the shadows, occasionally being rocked by the wind. It had been freaking him out all night. The wooden skeleton was still hanging out of the upstairs window, banging against the clapboard siding. The bones actually rattled softly against each other with every breeze.

At thirty-two he had thought he was a little too old to be getting the shivers on Halloween. Then again he had never met the Wrights before.

“Tucker, put that down,” Jenni said.

He glanced around at the boy and saw him holding Coop's drill. Thankfully it wasn't plugged in. Corey was using a pair of needle-nose pliers on one of his caterpillar legs. The older boy, who he was guessing was supposed to be a wizard or a magician, was inspecting the four-by-four piece of lumber Coop had just put up.

He quickly took the power drill from Tucker's sticky hands. “Whoa, you shouldn't pick up tools. They might be plugged in and then you could hurt yourself or someone else.” The drill bit had been dangerously close to Corey's thigh.

Now, there was his nightmare for the night.

He unplugged the circular saw he had been using and put the drill back in his toolbox. The saw went to a safe spot, between his feet on the porch, away from the curious boys, because it didn't fit in his box. He shuddered to think what Tucker could do with a ten-inch circular saw.

“Boys, why don't you go ahead inside and show Grandmom how much candy you collected.” Jenni took the pliers out of Corey's hands and put them in the toolbox.

The boys went running into the house. Shouts and pounding feet seemed to echo in every direction.

Coop felt sorry for Grandmom. “Are they always this vocal?”

“They're on a sugar high that will last till Thanksgiving.” Jenni shook her head and unzipped her jacket. “I'm not quite sure what to say about all of this.” She pointed to the post. “You didn't have to do this, Mr. Armstrong.”

“It's Coop, remember?” Coop started to pack up the rest of the tools. “I need to work on some brownie points to make up for my misspent youth—karma and all that stuff.”

She didn't need or like charity. Although she couldn't afford to have the entire house redone from top to bottom, she could pay a handyman to do some of the jobs to keep it from falling in on them. “I had two different men out here to help fix up the place. Neither lasted more than a week.”

She sighed as she looked at the wrinkled, mushed pumpkins. Four of the candles were out, one was burning okay, and the sixth pumpkin was giving off black smoke. She walked over to the smoldering gourds and blew out the remaining candles. Burning the place to the ground might solve some of her problems with the house, but then it also would create a whole new list of them.

Jenni disliked holidays and all the hoopla that surrounded them. She felt inept, even though she knew she was quite capable of handling anything thrown her way. Two years ago she had learned the hard way just how strong she could be.

Easter wasn't too bad. It wasn't hard to hide some eggs and fill colorful baskets. Halloween was a challenge. At her age she shouldn't be climbing trees to string lights or hang ghosts. This year she had paid her sister-in-law's boyfriend, Sam, to do the climbing and the stringing. Felicity and Sam had had a ball with the boys decorating the other weekend, even though the house looked a little over-the-top.

The panda still freaked her out every time she saw it. The plastic eyes, hanging out of its face, seemed to follow her every move.

Christmas was the worst. Last year she'd had to rely on the kindness of a neighbor to help get the eight-foot tree into their house and anchored securely. Then she had nearly broken her neck trying to get the star on top. The only outside decorating she had done was nail a wreath to the front door and drape a red scarf around a half-melted snowman the boys had built the day before. Her heart just wasn't into Christmas or any other holidays.

She missed Kenneth too much.

For living in a house filled to the rafters with people and pets, she was lonely. She was a horrible person. Here she had so much to be thankful for, three beautiful and healthy boys, a mother-in-law who not only did all of the cooking, but also helped run the house and the boys. Then there was Felicity, Kenneth's younger sister, and now hers.

“What happened to them? Did Dorothy make them explode with too many cookies and cups of coffee?” Coop closed up the toolbox.

“Power tools, electricity, and my boys aren't a very good combination.” Then again, Tucker could make breathing dangerous.

“Ouch.” He placed the toolbox in the bed of his truck. “Want to elaborate, and was anyone hurt?”

“Mr. Carter swears Tucker took ten years off his life. Considering he was seventy-eight, he wasn't real thrilled with my son. Lesson learned; never leave exposed wiring sticking out of the wall when you leave a room.”

“I didn't know Vince Carter was still doing odd jobs around town.”

“He's not any longer. He officially retired.”

Coop laughed. “What happened to number two?”

“An unattended caulking gun loaded with something called Liquid Nails. It took the cat months to grow back all its hair.”

Coop's laughter filled the night. She chuckled for the first time about the incident. At the time it had been anything but funny, with poor Dumb stuck three feet up the dining room wall screeching its head off. The sounds that cat made were enough to raise the dead.

“Bob Sanders asked if Tucker's middle name was Damian. He packed up his tools and hasn't returned one of my phone calls since.”

Coop continued to laugh as he picked up his ladder and placed it in the bed of his truck. “Don't worry about Sanders. He never did have a sense of humor.”

“You know him?” Maybe if she begged nicely she could get Coop to convince Sanders to come back for a couple of days. She'd even promise to lock Tucker in the attic, if need be. “He not only unjammed three of my windows, but he got the hot water working in the sink in one of the bathrooms.”

“I went to school with his two sons.” He placed the saw in the truck. “Don't you have hot water in the other bathroom sinks?”

“Dorothy and Felicity's sink doesn't. But we did manage to get it to drain properly.”

“Who's Felicity?”

“Dorothy's daughter, and my sister-in-law.”

“She lives here too? How many people actually live here?” Coop was staring at the house like he was counting bedrooms.

“Six; me and my three boys, Dorothy, and Felicity, who is seventeen and dating Sam Fischer, Eli Fischer's son from East Sullivan. Do you know him?” Being new to an area held some disadvantages, one being not knowing family histories. Sam seemed like a very nice boy, but maybe his family tree had a few ax murderers hanging out on some branches.

“I know Eli. Good, honest man. Can't imagine the son being too much different. Hardworking family.”

Dorothy would be relieved to hear that, even though she was having a hard time adjusting to her baby dating boys who drove. “There is also Bojangles, whom you met, two cats, Dumb and Dumber, an iguana, and a twenty-gallon fish tank that usually has a dead fish or two floating on the top.” No matter how hard she tried, it was nearly impossible to keep any fish alive for more than a month. The boys already had next month's fish picked out.

“I'd hate to have your food bill. What do you do, own stock in Purina?”

“I'm not that lucky.” She wished she owned some stock, any stock. Then again, with the way the stock market rose and fell, it would probably cause her more headaches than it was worth. How rich could she get on cat food?

“Mom!” shouted Corey from inside the house. “Tucker's taking my candy.”

“I'm not!”

“Are too.”

Chase, minus his beard and hat, opened the front door. “Grandmom says that Mr. Armstrong has to come in. She has something for him.”

“Could you tell her that I really don't want anything, Jenni?”

“Not in this lifetime. No one says no to Dorothy. Just take whatever she's giving you. It's probably pumpkin bread or sugar cookies.” She smiled at Coop as she held the door open for him. “It's how she thanks people. By giving them high cholesterol.”

Coop brushed sawdust off his jeans and wiped his feet. “What, she wants to keep the doctors in practice?”

“No, but she does own a few shares of stock in some drug companies.” Jenni tried to hold her smile as she entered the house. She had been hoping that some magical little elves had visited and cleaned up the place. No such luck. If possible it was worst than when she had left two hours ago.

The kids had been stripping out of their costumes, leaving them where they landed. Candy wrappers were everywhere, and it looked like Dumber had been eating the mulberry candle she had on the coffee table again. Chunks of maroon wax were hacked up on the area rug that hadn't seen a vacuum in days. Legos and Hot Wheels were scattered everywhere, along with some of the boys' artwork.