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Chapter Forty Six - October 31

"So what's the plan?"

"The plan is just to keep AJ busy."

It was October 31, Halloween. My favorite holiday of the entire year. Unfortunately, it was also AJ's wedding anniversary.

AJ was acting strange. For the past two weeks he had practically been floating on a cloud. He was acting happier and happier. Me and the guys were sure that he was going to crash into a deep bout of depression today. We wanted to make sure that didn't happen.

That's how we came up with 'Operation Distract AJ.' The plan was simple. We were going to take the kids trick-or-treating and then have a huge party back at Casa de Carter.

"This is the first Halloween I haven't been pregnant," Liv called out happily from the bedroom. I heard Leighanne laugh.

Leighanne was the master of themed costumes. She was dressed as Alice in Wonderland. Baylee was the Mad Hatter. Little Kayleigh was dressed as the Cheshire Cat. That left Brian. I was standing in the living room talking to a giant rabbit.

"Why are you the bunny?" I asked.

Brian took out a pocket watch and flipped it from hand to hand.

"Baylee refused to be the White Rabbit so...here I am."

I laughed. "Dude that sucks."

"Where's your costume?"

I grinned. "It's coming."

"Are you doing a theme?"

"Liv wanted to do Little Red Riding Hood. I'm the wolf. Then Liv picked out Noah's costume and I picked out Brooke's."

Brian looked down. Noah was dressed as a pumpkin. He kept yanking off his orange stem hat. Brooke was running around with Kayleigh giggling hysterically. I grinned.

I had found the perfect costume. Brooke was Wonder Woman...complete with red cape and little red and white tights. I hadn't dressed her until Liv went into the bedroom and changed. I couldn't wait to see the look on her face when...

"Nick, what is Brooke wearing?"

I looked over. I was all prepared with a smart-ass comment, but the moment I saw Liv I'm pretty sure I forgot my name.

When she had said we were doing the whole Little Red Riding Hood / Wolf thing I pictured a long peasant dress and a red cape and small hiking boots.

She must have gone to Hookers-R-Us for her Halloween costume. She had white stockings that came to above her knees and tiny little black heels. The little red and white dress looked like something those German beer girls wear while holding up two frothy mugs of ale. The corset was pushing things up to new heights. To complete the outfit there was a short little cape.

"AAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOO," I howled.

She smiled and did a slow turn. Then she looked back at me. "What is Brooke wearing?"

"She's Wonder Woman!" I said with a smile. "Complete with red cape."

Liv started to laugh. Bri just looked confused.

"I'm missing something..."

I grinned. "Inside joke."

I went down the hall and got into my wolf costume. I was going to be sweating balls by the time the night was over.

By the time I got back out to my living room, it was wall to wall Backstreet. I glanced around for AJ. I spotted him in the corner. He was dressed as Cap'n Jack Sparrow. He was holding Ally, talking to How.

"Hey guys, it's almost seven!" I called out.

Mason began an excited chant that Shelby quickly joined.

"CAN-DY! CAN-DY! CAN-DY!"

Addy gave a loud finger whistle. She was dressed as a nurse. It wasn't near as slutty as Liv's costume, but Kevin seemed to be admiring it all the same. The room quieted down. Liv grabbed a kitchen chair and started to climb up, but I pulled her down. Heights and short skirts don't mix when I had four other warm-blooded guys in the room. I scrambled up on the chair instead.

"Alright, here's what's going down. Liv, Leigh, and Leighanne are going to stay here and order the grub for the party and watch Noah, Ally, and Joe. The rest of us are headed out for candy.

"CANDY!" Shelby squealed. She as dressed as a T-Rex. Her whole face was painted green. Mason was dressed as a train conductor.

Then there was James. He was decked out in head to toe leather.

"What the fuck is he supposed to be?" AJ said. "One of the Village People?"

Howie made a face. "He's a motorcycle guy."

"All he needs is a handlebar mustache and he could be the dude from the Village People," I said.

"VROOM!" James said. He shook his little plastic pumpkin bucket. I laughed.

"Let's go."

----------------------------

I had been prepared for a disatrous trick-or-treating experience, but all in all it didn't go too bad. Having both AJ and Molly to corral Shelby had been a good idea. She had started to sing the 'Trick-or-treat, smell my feet song,' but Molly warned her that if she heard it again that AJ and her were going to eat the whole bucket of candy. Shelby's mouth snapped shut.

You've never seen a quieter kid.

Brooke had been too small to do much last year at Halloween. This year she was much more interested in everything.

"Daddy, ooooh," she said as we passed a house filled with coffins. I laughed and held her closer.

The best houses we visited were the ones with the little old ladies. Brooke put on the Carter charm and held out her bag, grinning ear to ear.

"Oh, aren't you adorable?" they'd say. She always seemed to get an extra candy bar.

Then there was the houses with the women around our age. I guess it must have been pretty shocking to open your door and see Nick Carter and his little girl begging for candy.

By the time we made it back to the house, I could barely carry Brooklyn's bag. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed my wolfy cheek.

"Did you have fun?" I asked. She nodded and put her head on my shaggy shoulder.

"She got more candy than me!" Shelby complained as she skipped by and eyed Brooke's bag.

"You've got plenty of candy," Molly said patiently.

"If we put our candy together, we'll have GIANT candy!" Mason yelled at Shelby. He took off at a run towards my front door. Shelby picked up her dinosaur tail and chased after him.

I glanced back. Baylee was eating a Snickers bar. His orange wig was crooked. Howie and Leigh were at the back of the pack. James decided to sit down and open a bag of M&M's right there on the sidewalk.

Liv, Leigh, and Leighanne had worked their asses off. There was punch with candy corn floating in it, pizza, hot wings, bat cookies...just the perfect amount of junk food after a night of pilaging the neighborhood for sugar.

Noah had ditched the pumpkin costume. He came crawling up to me and sat on my shoe looking up. Brooke pointed down.

"NoNo!" She smacked him in the head with some Sweet Tarts. Instead of crying, he picked up the candy, looking interested.

"What you got sweetie?" Liv asked. She knelt down next to him. He grinned and held the tarts out to her.

"MAMA!" he said happily. I looked down at him in surprise. His first word...and it hadn't been dada.

Liv's eyes widened. She scooped him up and beamed.

"That's right!" she said. She took the package from him and blew a loud raspberry on his cheek. He giggled.

It's funny, but even though they're so little, there was a definite difference between Noah's voice and Brooke's. Brooke's reminded me of a little bird. Noah's reminded me of a rambunctious little boy.

A little boy who had his mom wrapped around his little finger.

Liv kissed my cheek and then went off to make the announcement that our son was a genius.

I fixed up a plate of food for me and Brooke and sat down at a makeshift table.

"You know what we should do?"

I looked up. AJ had Joe in his arms.

"What?"

"Play poker."

I snorted. "With all these kids?"

"They'll eat some candy, run around for an hour, then crash hard," he reasoned.

He had a point. Plus he looked relaxed and content. If the poor guy wanted to play poker, who was I to say no?

"I'm in," I said. He clapped his hands and disappeared.

About ten minutes later, Kev leaned across me.

"Addy wants to get in on the poker game," he said. I laughed.

"Really?"

"Yup."

I shrugged. "That's cool. The more the merrier."

Brooke fell asleep on my lap about fifteen minutes later. I bumped into Liv. She was coming out of Noah's nursery.

"He's exhausted," she said happily. She followed me into Brooke's room.

"Was that not the most adorable thing you've ever heard? He said mama!"

I laughed. "It ranks right up there with Brooke's 'dada,'" I said.

Liv wrapped her arms around me and sighed. "We have amazing babies."

I tucked a light blanket up around Brooke. I had given her a couple small candy bars and after twirling around in circles and laughing, she had been down for the count. Even so, her face was still flushed.

"I agree," I said. I turned around.

"You know you shouldn't stand so close to the Big Bad Wolf," I teased. Liv smirked.

"We have a whole house full of people. I think I'm safe."

She turned around and grabbed my paw. We a laugh I followed her back downstairs.

She was safe. This time.

---------------------------------

"Texas Hold'em," Addy announced. I watched her deal out the cards like a professional Vegas dealer.

Liv was sitting behind me. I was stacking up my chips in neat little rows. Across from me, AJ had his scattered haphazardly in front of him.

Bri and Leigh had left early. After the awesomeness of the candy had worn off, Baylee had gotten bored. That left Kev, Addy, Howie, AJ, and myself to play.

"This is going to be like taking candy from a baby," Howie announced. I looked over at him. He smiled.

"You have a horrible poker face," he said.

"Pa-pa-pa-poker face. Pa-pa-poker face," AJ sang.

"Shut up. I bluff really well."

I bluffed lousy. Within an hour I was out. My neat chip stack had pretty much been divided evenly between AJ's messy stack and Addy's color-coded one.

"This calls for some music," AJ said as I was relegated to being the drink boy. "Got any Enya?"

"Enya?" Molly said. She had been sitting by him. I'm pretty sure that he was using her as a good luck charm like old ladies do at Bingo with those troll dolls. Each time he petted Molly's hair, he won a pot.

In the end, it was Addy who won. About a half hour before the game was over, Shelby woke up and decided to be helpful. Unfortunately, her version of helpful was asking questions like - 'Are three of those A's a good thing?'

Addy swept the floor with him.

"I had a really good time tonight," Howie said.

"That's because we didn't do anything stupid," I said. Howie laughed. James shifted in his arms, the leather outfit creaked. I tried hard not to make a comment.

"That's true."

"Thanks, man."

Kev and I did one of those weird brotherly handshakes. I gave Addy a hug and they were out the door.

"Good game," AJ said. I grinned.

"You too."

"Night, Bob!" Shelby said. It was two thirty in the morning and she was wide awake.

"Bye nutty," I called out. I closed the door.

"Bob?" Liv asked. I laughed.

"She thinks I look like Spongebob 'cause my hair's 'yellow'."

Liv laughed. "She's a weird little kid."

I tugged myself out of the wolf costume. I was surprised at how cool the house felt without a huge layer of fur all around me.

"Yeah, but I think AJ's really getting attached to her."

Liv hummed. "Not just her."

"Yeah, Molly's grown on him too."

"I think she's good for him. I saw him smile a lot tonight."

I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. I was tired. Even the sight of Liv's costume wasn't giving me energy. I stifled a yawn.

"Bedtime?" Liv guessed. I smiled.

"You've outwitted the wolf," I admitted.

Liv grabbed onto the railing and pranced upstairs.

"Well, that's how the story ends!" she called out happily. I snorted.

I had married a bookworm...

And I loved it.