Mind Games

“It’s me!” Bouncing, Bray laughed like a maniac. “It’s really me, Bray!”

“No! Wow, you sure fooled me.” Sliding into the car, she studied Ty’s T-shirt, jeans, high-tops, hoodie. “And who are you supposed to be?”

“Peter Parker.”

“That’s one way to get out of it. But how can Spidey and Peter be in the same car?”

“I’m from the multiverse.”

“That explains it.” She shifted to talk to Bray. “How was the Halloween party at school?”

“So much fun! We got cupcakes, and Miss Hanna was a witch! And Lucas was Blaze.”

“From PAW Patrol,” Ty explained.

“Rolan was Iron Man and Jenny was Princess Peach.”

“You asked for it,” Ty murmured as Bray recounted costumes.

She had, Thea thought, and it delighted her.

So did the ghouls, goblins, fairy princesses, and superheroes walking down Front Street. Kids swarmed the shops where costumed staff handed out candy, and the houses where towners handed out more.

It surprised her a little, and delighted her even more, when she realized how many people who walked their kids or who handed out those treats Ty knew.

It shouldn’t have surprised, she thought. He did business here, banking and shopping and marketing. His little boy went to school here. He’d built a foundation here.

Nearly half a year now, she thought as she shifted Bunk’s leash to her other hand, and took Ty’s.

He hadn’t said absolutely he’d stay, but he’d talked to an architect, and he talked about adding on a studio.

She didn’t look for promises, but she’d take hope.

She felt that hope when they took a sleepy boy home, and with his head on his father’s shoulder, he asked for four books.

“Two.”

“Thea reads one. Bunk sleeps in my room. Daddy reads, Thea reads, Bunk sleeps in my room. Please?”

“Okay with you?”

She went upstairs with them, watched Ty strip off the costume. “Hey, it was Peter Parker under there all along.”

“Daddy.”

“Into pj’s, Pete.”

“I’m Bray!”

“Are you sure?” He flipped Bray upside down, then right side up before tossing him on the bed.

“I’m Braydon Seth Brennan, and I’m five.”

“Huh. Well, you do look familiar.”

“Thea reads first. Picklebottom!”

Ty glanced at her. “We like saying Picklebottom.”