Her Last Love (Small Town Hearts Trilogy #1) (12 page)

Now, he was gearing up for a different kind of fun. Nathan and Logan, like most kids their ages, had been planning their costumes for months in eager anticipation of this night. The final selections had been made weeks ago, with Nathan going as Iron Man, and Logan as Spiderman. The boys hadn't let him see their costumes - they wanted them to be a surprise. 

As much as he was looking forward to getting his boys and taking them around his neighborhood, he was dreading having to deal with Hillary. He knew what was in store for him. Screams, hysteria, some tears. The usual for her these days. But he would make damn sure the kids were in the truck, out of sight and earshot of the conversation that would take place.  

He took a deep breath as he rounded the curve going to his ex-wife's new house. As he pulled into the driveway, he studied the place. The grass hadn't seen a mower in what looked like a couple of weeks. The garage door stood open, revealing the trash that hadn't made it to the curb in some time, either. Carter shook his head and climbed from the cab of his truck, made his way up the walk to the front door. He knocked and waited, hands on his hips as he tried to keep himself calm. 

He couldn't do anything but smile when the inner door swung open to reveal his youngest son, dressed in his costume, minus the mask. Logan was looking more like his dad each day, with curly dark hair and bright blue eyes. Those eyes lit up at the sight of Carter standing on the other side of the door. 

"Dad!" he exclaimed through the glass, before turning to yell into the rest of the house for his brother. "Nathan! Dad's here!" With that, the glass door flew open and Carter found himself with an armful of boy. 

"Hey buddy! Nice costume." 

"Thanks! I have a mask too, but it's in my room. I'm gonna go get it, and my bag. Be right back, okay?" He wiggled and squirmed his way down and was off again as soon as his feet hit the ground. He passed his brother, who was coming down the hall, in a blur. A couple years older than his brother, Nathan had received his father's blue eyes, but his mother's red hair. 

"Hey big man." Carter reached out to Nathan, ruffling his hair. 

"Hey Dad," Nathan replied in a low, almost defeated sounding tone. 

"What's wrong?" Nathan shook his head in a silent reply. 

"Nate, look at me." Carter crouched to be at the boy's level. "What's wrong?" The boy looked around wearily, his eyes falling to the ground when he saw his mother coming to the door. 

"Okay, buddy." Carter put a hand on his son's shoulder as he stood, the light having dawned. "Go get your stuff, and tell your brother to come on, so we can go." 

Nathan scrambled back into the house, where Carter could hear him calling for Logan to hurry up so they could leave. Carter glanced over at Hillary, saw she was leaning against a column of the porch, arms crossed and a nasty smirk on her face as she watched him.

"You and I need to talk." 

Hillary’s thin, bony shoulders lifted and fell carelessly as Carter heard the kids approaching again. His eyes narrowed a fraction as he spoke again.

"As soon as the boys are in the truck, we're going to have a long overdue conversation." Hillary shrugged as if she couldn't care less and rolled her eyes just as the boys were coming out the door again. 

"Alright, guys. I will get you up into the truck, and I need you to get yourselves buckled in while I talk to your mom for a minute,

okay?" 

              The boys nodded, then ran to the truck with Carter following behind them. After making the sure the door was closed behind them, Carter went back to where Hillary still stood.

"Let's take this inside. I don't want the boys having to see or hear this." 

Hillary shrugged again and not saying a word, slung open the door, almost catching Carter in the face with it. Carter gritted his teeth, plastered on a smile, waved to the boys, and held up a finger in a signal telling them he'd only be a minute. He stood as the door closed behind him, so he could be where he could keep an eye on the boys in the truck. Hillary swung around and threw her arms into the air. 

"You wanted to talk. So talk." 

"Where do I start? Let's see... how about you breaking into my emails again? Or the nasty phone call you made to Lynn last night? Which would you like to begin with?" 

"Really? You want to talk about that slut?" She snorted. "Figures she'd go running to you as soon as I called her." 

"She isn't a slut, and she didn't come running to me. I walked into her house just after she got off the phone with you. Which is how I heard about the emails. Who the hell do you think you are, Hillary? It was bad enough you did that shit when we were together. But to do it now that we're soon-to-be exes? It's pathetic." 

"Pathetic?" She repeated, her eyes narrowing. "You want to talk about pathetic? Then let's talk about your little girlfriend." 

"I don't think so," Carter retorted. "She has nothing to do with you, so you need to keep yourself out of my business and leave her alone. Understand?" 

"Oh, I understand perfectly. She's a home-wrecker. If it hadn't been for her, we could have gotten back together." 

"No, Hillary." Carter shook his head. "We couldn't have. We were making no progress in counseling, or anywhere else. The timing of her coming back was just coincidence." 

"Well, coincidence or not, I don't like her. I don't trust her--" 

"You don't 
know 
her."  

"And I don't 
want 
to. But here's what I 
do 
want. I want you to keep her trashy little self away from my boys. 
I 
am their mother. There is no way in hell she will ever be with my kids." 

"See, that's where you're wrong," Carter corrected. "We're all going trick-or-treating together. And I better not find out you're trashing her to the kids. We both have separate lives now, Hillary, and we're each entitled to be friends with whoever we want, as long as it doesn't affect the boys." Carter stopped, and looked around the entryway and through the opening to the kitchen where he could see a mountain of dirty dishes and trash piled up on the counter. "And speaking of affecting the boys, clean this place up. It's disgusting and they don't deserve it." 

Without another word, Carter pushed through the door and was halfway to his truck when he heard Hillary screaming behind him. 

"Don't you dare tell me how to take care of my kids!" 

"Hillary, I'm done. I'm not doing this now, not in front of the boys. Now you can go in the house, or stand out here and make a spectacle of yourself. I don't care either way, but I'm leaving." With that, he took a deep breath as he climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine. Not bothering to glance over to where Hillary had stood, he backed out of the driveway, catching a glimpse of the kids as he looked over his shoulder. 

"You guys okay?" he asked. 

"Yeah. But Mommy was yelling again." Logan sniffed. 

"Again?" 

"Uh-huh. She does that a lot now." 

"You guys know you can tell me anything, right?" he asked, concerned. "Even if it's about Mommy?" A glance in the rear view mirror showed him two small heads nodding in unison. His gut churned at what his kids may be enduring while in their mother's care, but he decided that tonight was not the night to make them dwell on it. But he would make damn sure it was dealt with. 

"Good. Now, let's get this party started. Who's ready to go trick-or-treating?" Twin cheers went up from the backseat.  

“Daddy?” Logan fidgeted with his mask as he kicked his feet. 

“Yeah, buddy?” 

“Ms. Lynn’s still going with us, right?” 

“Sure is.” 

“Cool.” 

“Yep, she’s a cool girl. Did she tell you she used to be a soldier, like your GI Joes?" 

"Whoa." 

"Yeah, whoa." 

"Did she have big muscles and everything?" 

"No, buddy." Carter laughed. "She’s a regular lady, except she was in the Army." 

"If she was in the Army, and you were in the Navy, then how did you meet her?" This from Nathan, who had said little. 

"We met a long time ago, before I was in the Navy and she was in the Army." 

“Oh.” 

"And she's gonna go trick-or-treating with us?" Logan asked. 

"If you want her to. She's looking forward to going, though. She's got a costume and everything." 

"Really? Is she dressing up like a soldier?" Logan, excited at the idea, pictured a woman in fatigues, camo face paint and a bandana. Just like Rambo. 

"No, she's got something else planned. In fact, we're going to go to my house, I'm going to put on my costume, and then we'll go pick her up. She's looking forward to seeing you guys again." 

"Cool! Let's go Dad! I'm ready to get that candy!" 

* * *  

Thirty minutes later, Lynn was walking around her living room in her Merida costume, tidying up as she waited for the guys to arrive. The only sounds in the room were the ticking of the clock and the skirt swishing as she walked the floor. She couldn't believe that she was as nervous as she was about seeing a couple of kids again. But these weren't any kids. These were Carter's kids. 

And that made all the difference. 

The sound of his truck pulling into her driveway drew her to the window. She watched as Carter, once again decked out in his Batman costume, opened the door to the extended cab and lifted two kids out of the vehicle. Before she knew it, she had a trio of superheroes making their way to her front door. Lynn took in as deep a breath as the dress would allow, and prepared to greet her guests. At Carter's knock, she opened the door wide and waved them inside the house. 

"Hi, everybody. Great costumes!" Lynn looked down at the boys standing next to Carter, masks still pulled down over their faces. She glanced up at Carter, who smiled and shrugged. Lynn nodded and began to head towards her kitchen. 

"Well, I'm a little hungry, so I think I’ll head into the kitchen for a snack before we go. I've got some Halloween cupcakes and juice left in there, so if anyone wants to join me, I'll share."

Two masked faces turned up towards Carter, who smiled and nodded that it was okay. All at once, the masks came off, and the guys made their way to the kitchen in a run. They came through the doorway to see that Lynn had set out cupcakes that looked like mummy faces, and glasses of ghoul juice, otherwise known as green Kool-Aid. Everything else forgotten at the sight of the snacks, the boys climbed into chairs to enjoy them. Nodding when their father told them they could have one apiece for now, they turned their attention to Lynn. 

"Did you make these?" Logan asked, as he licked frosting off of his thumb. 

"Yes, I did." 

"They're good," he declared around a mouthful of cake. 

"Well, thank you." 

"Dad says we're all going trick-or-treating tonight." 

"That's right. But only if you want me to go." 

"I don't mind." 

"Thanks, I'd love to go with you. I haven't been trick-or-treating in a long time." Turning to the older brother, she asked, "What about you, Nathan? Do you mind if I go, too?" 

Nathan, his mouth full of chocolate cupcake and sticky white frosting, shook his head. 

"Guess that's settled then," said Carter from where he stood, leaning against the counter eating his own cupcake.  

"Guess so," Lynn agreed. "So, Logan." She turned back to the boy. "I've not been around little boys very much, so can you tell me who you guys are dressed up as?" 

Logan nodded before slurping at his ghoul juice. He put the glass, now covered in icing fingerprints, back on the table and pointed to his brother. 

"Nathan is Iron Man, I'm Spiderman, and Dad is Batman." 

"Nice. And do you know who I am?" 

"I think so. You look like the girl from that movie we watched where her brothers turned into bears." 

"Very good!" 

"Cool! Do you have the bow and arrow too?" 

"As a matter of fact I do." 

"Wow. Can you shoot it?" 

"Okay, Spiderman, enough with the questions. What do you say to getting cleaned up, then hitting the sidewalks and begging for candy?" At the enthusiastic answers from the kids, he glanced at Lynn. 

"The bathroom is down the hall and to the right." 

"Alright, guys, you heard the lady. Head to the bathroom and get cleaned up. No touching the walls with sticky hands and no playing in the water!" Turning to Lynn as the boys took off down the hall, he smiled. "Helluva an idea there, bribing them with cupcakes." 

"Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do." She laughed as she cleaned up from the snack. Carter pitched in, washing the cups the boys had used. 

"And sorry about the gazillion questions. Once he gets rolling he doesn't know when to stop." 

"It's fine." She assured him. "They're sweet kids, Carter." 

"Now they are. Wait until the sugar kicks in, then we'll talk." She laughed again as the boys came running back into the kitchen, masks in hand, ready to get started. It was going to be an interesting night.