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~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Shanie Baxter smiled when her phone rang with the ‘Marvel’ theme she’d set for Carson and dusted off her hands. “Hey, Little Man, what’s up?” she asked when she answered.
“I need your help,” Carson said without preamble.
Shanie’s brow furrowed. “Sure, no prob. Is everything okay? Is Bas alright?”
Carson huffed and she could just picture him rolling his eyes. “Bas is a moron. I need a Halloween costume and he’s being useless.”
Shanie snickered and bit her lip to keep from outright guffawing. No one could do disdain like Carson Matheny. When she thought she had a handle on it, she said, “Cut him some slack, Car. Did you tell him what you wanted to be?”
The boy huffed again. “That’s just it. I don’t know what I want to be. There’s gonna be a party at the library down the street with a costume contest and I want something awesome, but I can’t think of anything!”
He sniffled and Shanie wished she could reach through the phone and give him a hug. Sometimes it was hard to remember he was only seven. “Shh, buddy. We’ll figure something out, all right?”
He sniffed again. “’kay. You’re coming over for dinner tonight, right?”
“I will be there at seven,” she confirmed. “Bas said I didn’t need to bring anything. You gonna tell me different?”
“Nope! We’ve got it covered. Thanks, Shanie. Love you!”
“Love you, too, baby. I’ll see you tonight,” she said with a soft smile as they hung up.
“That boy has got you completely wrapped around his little finger,” Lara said from the doorway.
Shanie just shrugged, because it was true. Both the Matheny boys had made themselves at home in her heart and she was in no hurry to kick them out.
~*~
Shanie knocked on the door and let herself in when she heard Bas yell, “It’s open!”
The house was a little smoky and she wrinkled her nose at the smell of something burning. She made her way into the kitchen and promptly started coughing. Her eyes started watering and she staggered over to the sink and shoved the window open. Then she moved to the back door and opened it as well.
“What the hell happened?” she asked.
Bas was staring down forlornly at the charred remains of what was apparently their dinner. Carson was at the island with his face on the counter and his arms wrapped over his head.
“I had the temperature too high,” Bas said hollowly.
“The oven caught on fire,” Carson said to the countertop.
Shanie bit her lip. It wasn’t funny except for how it really was. Bas had come a long way in the kitchen in the last few months, but he and Carson still ate takeout more often than not unless Shanie cooked for them. Bas had been pretty insistent that he was going to make them a good meal, though, so she had stayed out of it. Maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea. Still, she knew that laughing right now would be really bad, so instead she decided to share one of her own failures.
“I ever tell you about the time I set my aunt’s oven on fire?”
Carson’s head came up and swiveled towards her and Bas looked at her over his shoulder.
Shanie nodded at them and leaned against the island. “Yeah. I’d been living with them for six months or so and I wanted to make dinner for them. Scratch Mac’n’Cheese. I got it all put together and topped it with pieces of butter and put it in the oven. I don’t know if one of the pieces fell off or I had the temperature up too high or what happened really, but after about twenty minutes the fire alarm went off and smoke was pouring out of the oven.” She held out her left hand and showed them the shiny patch of skin that ran just above her wrist at the base of her palm.
“Burned myself pretty bad trying to get the pan out. I was home alone and panicking and finally remembered the fire extinguisher under the sink. I got the fire put out, and the alarm turned off, but I didn’t know what to do about the burn. I finally put ice on it and wrapped it in a towel and just sat at the kitchen table for an hour before my uncle got home. He got me taken care of and cleaned up and we agreed to never tell my aunt, because she would have freaked out and banned me from the kitchen for life.”
“That would have been a shame,” Bas murmured. Carson nodded in fervent agreement.
Shanie leaned in and confided, “I did it again when I got my first apartment.”
Bas snorted and Carson frowned up at her. “How?”
She blushed a little. “I had a new toaster oven and wanted waffles. I didn’t realize the instructions were tucked into the heating element.”
Carson just stared at her for a moment before he said, “Duuude.”
Shanie and Bas both barked out laughs and she hugged Carson to her. Now that the tension was broken she looked at Bas. “Want me to whip something up real quick?”
Bas dropped his head in defeat and waved at the fridge. “Have at it.”
They wound up having spaghetti- and it was delicious.
~*~
“You’re gonna come to the party, right?” Carson asked hopefully.
Shanie blinked at him then looked at Bas. Bas gave her the lopsided grin she loved so much and nodded. She turned back to Carson. “When and what time?”
“Six-thirty on Halloween. Costumes are mandatory,” he answered promptly.
Shanie bit her lip. “I’ll have to leave Haven early. I won’t have time to change, bud.”
Carson shrugged. “Just come as a chef. That way you don’t hafta change.”
She raised one eyebrow. “In that case, I’ve got an idea for yours and Bas’s costumes.”
Bas shook his head. “Nah, I’m good. I’ll just wear one of my uniforms.”
Both Carson and Shanie gave him withering glares. “No,” Shanie said. “I’ve got a valid excuse for not dressing up. You, on the other hand, are not going to cop out like that.”
Bas stared hard at her for moment then raised his hands and sat back. “Fine. What’s the plan?”
She smiled. “You’ll see.”
~*~
The three of them walked into the library and grinned at the mayhem. Shanie knew Bas wouldn’t last too long, but as she looked at him from the corner of her eye, she figured they could go for about an hour. He’d been doing better in crowds, but even she was going to feel overwhelmed if they had to be surrounded by so many sugared-up children for too long.
Carson ran to sign them up for the costume contest. The lady at the table smiled at him indulgently. “And what are you supposed to be, young man?”
Carson gave her a snaggle-toothed grin and held up a pewter candlestick. “Rub-a-dub-dub.”
The woman looked nonplussed as Shanie and Bas flanked him. Then she got a look at the two adults and she laughed in delight. “Good Heavens. The Butcher, the Baker, and the Candlestick Maker. That is brilliant.”
Bas was wearing a heavy canvas, “bloodstained” apron (thank you food coloring), a length of rubber sausages looped around his shoulders, a couple of steak-shaped squeaky toys jutting from the apron pockets, and a rubber chicken hanging from the tie. Shanie had on her own flour-dusted chef whites and the whisk and rolling pin she’d stuck into her apron pocket, a tray of cupcakes for the dessert table in her hands. And then there was Carson in his own little apron that was covered in melted wax smears and assorted taper candles in the pockets. He was carrying the pewter candlestick in one hand and had a bag for trick-or-treating in the other.
Bas wrapped one arm around Shanie’s waist and pressed a kiss to her temple. She looked at him and smiled. “Good?”
Bas looked at Carson who was bouncing in place as he chatted with his best friend, Jamie, and then looked back at her. “Better than. Happy Halloween, Shanie.”
She pressed their foreheads together and said, “Happy Halloween, Bas.”
They took home the prize for Best Group Costume.
Shanie was pretty sure it was one of her best holidays ever.
-30-