Snowbound Halloween Page 4

  The word cut through the noise and a good third of the bar turned toward the door.

  “You are not going to believe this,” Patty announced again, “but it is Halloween outside and the skies are snowing!”

  With a flourish of her black robes, Patty pointed dramatically out the open door where huge flakes of snow could be seen raining down to earth.

  “Oh my God!” Jim the bartender shouted and he began fighting his way toward the door.

  “Well I guess there’s a first time for everything,” Kara said from behind Thea.

  Startled, Thea whirled about to face her cousin. She’s been watching the unprecedented snowfall—huge wet flakes which plummeted more than fell to the suddenly white parking lot beneath their feet.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen snow in October before,” Kara continued. “Ron and I went skiing in August once, but I’ve never seen snow in October.”

  Thea didn’t say anything.

  She felt so depressed. How was she going to tell Nick she was pregnant now that she knew what he really thought about marriage?

  “It’s certainly pretty,” Kara continued. “You have to give it that.”

  Thea couldn’t even agree with that much. Nothing seemed pretty to her today. She didn’t want to have a child on her own living with Mom. Why couldn’t Nick have wanted to have this baby with her?

  Kara wouldn’t leave her alone. “It’s not like you to be this silent. Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

  Thea wanted to tell someone, but how could she do that here? The parking lot was packed with people from the bar standing out watching the snow. They couldn’t have a private conversation—not here at the bar on All Hallows Eve.

  Kara continued to press her. “Is it Nick? Ron and I both noticed that you’re avoiding him tonight.”

  Thea turned around to lie about that when a crack like a gunshot split the night. Startled, she whirled back around looking for danger. “What the heck was that?”

  A second crack, followed by the sound of a branch falling from one of the trees on the side of the parking lot, reverberated through the storm. Even as Thea and Kara watched, a huge snow covered branch crashed to the ground shaking other branches down with it.

  More cracks like automatic rifle fire split the night.

  “Oh my God, our cars!” Thea shouted.

  Without pausing to think about the potential consequences, she sprinted across the parking lot toward her little Ford Escort.

  “Thea!” Kara shouted after her.

  Other people were looking at the trees and beginning to recognize the danger. The Church Key was blessed with a pretty large parking lot. Thea and Nick always parked in the back to make certain that the prime spaces were open for patrons. But they weren’t the only people who parked back by the tree line.

  Crack!

  Another branch split away from a tree trunk, weighed down by the heavy wet snow caught in its leaves.

  Thea reached her car, fumbled with her key and got inside. She could not afford another vehicle right now. Well maybe she’d have to with a baby coming, but she didn’t want to buy one because some snow-covered branch fell on top of her old one.

  She stuck the key in the ignition and coaxed the engine to life. Then she quickly stuck the car in gear and pulled it out of her space deeper into the crowded parking lot.

  Other people began to follow her example, hurrying to their cars to move them further away from the trees.

  Thea turned off her engine and got out of her car. The wet snow no longer appeared the least bit enticing to her. She almost returned to the bar, but Nick’s truck was sitting in the back of the lot in just as much danger as her car had been in. She had the key on her ring and decided she better move it too. She hurried back to the truck wondering if it would be a good day or a bad day with Nick’s perpetually undependable vehicle.

  She turned the key in the ignition and felt a surge of relief as it started easily. She pulled out of the space.

  Crack!

  A branch came down right behind her filling the spaces just occupied by Nick’s truck and her little Escort. It was a big branch probably weighing a couple of hundred pounds at least, easily big enough to seriously damage both vehicles.

  Thea parked Nick’s truck away from the line of trees and rested her head on the wheel for a moment.

  What else could happen today?

  Chapter Five

  When Thea got back inside the building, she found Nick going crazy behind the bar trying to keep up with the discounted drink orders. “I’m going to fire Jim this time!” he promised. “I can’t believe he ran out on me again when the bar is as busy as this!”

  Thea had heard it all before. Jim was one of Nick’s big weaknesses. The other was his half-sister, Cass, who came around periodically to steal money for her drug habit and stir up trouble. Nick didn’t seem able to draw the hard line with them that was required of a successful businessman. He’d known Jim since elementary school and worried no one else would hire him if Nick actually cut him loose. And as for Cass, she was family even if she came from a long ago affair his father had had and Nick had trouble turning his back on family no matter how much they deserved it—just like Thea herself did.

  Nick wasn’t going to fire Jim and she didn’t want to pretend he was so she decided to ignore his statement. “The storm is pretty bad out there. Branches are coming down. I had to move our cars to keep them from getting crushed.”

  A smile lit Nick’s face. “Hey, you’re talking to me. That’s great!”

  Thea felt her face harden into stone again as she remembered how he’d responded to his mother’s suggestion they get married.

  Nick saw the change in expression through the flashing strobe light and frowned. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Hey, Nick, where are those drinks?” a man dressed as a cheesy vampire asked.

  Nick’s hands automatically moved to the tap and began pouring Budweiser. His eyes didn’t leave Thea.

  “Thea!” a familiar voice called out.

  Thea used the sound as an excuse to turn and see her cousin, Liz, and Liz’s boyfriend, Travis, pushing their way up to the bar. Liz was dressed as a cowgirl in a cute leather skirt, plaid blouse, and hat. Travis, quite naturally, was dressed as a cowboy with tight jeans and a flannel shirt. They were another interracial couple just like Kara and Ron, and Nick and herself, assuming she and Nick were still together come night’s end.

  Thea summoned up some fake enthusiasm because she knew that the two had come to support her and Nick. “Liz! You came!”

  “Of course we came,” Liz said. “You work here and Nick is practically family.”

  Not for long he isn’t, Thea wanted to say, but Liz had already stepped past her to lean across the bar and accept a quick kiss on the cheek from Nick. Thea received the same from Travis. Then she caught sight of someone she’d never expected to see in this bar.

  “Becka! You didn’t tell me you were coming tonight,” Thea said. The unexpected show of support caused tears to well up in Thea’s eyes. It was so out of character for her older sister. And Becka had come in costume as well, dressed in a white lab coat with a stethoscope hung around her neck.

  “Well Jamal has his own party to go to,” Becka explained, “and I really didn’t feel like staying at home to hand out candy all night.”

  Staying at home and handing out candy had been what Halloween was all about before Thea met Nick. She supposed that next year it would be about the candy again. It wasn’t like she could bring a baby in here if somehow Nick and she were still together next year.

  Nick momentarily abandoned making drinks to come around the bar and kiss Becka on the cheek. “This is really great of you to come tonight. What can I get you all to drink?”

  “I think I’ll have a glass of Chablis,” Liz said.

  “And I’ll have one of the Sam Adam’s seasonal brews,” Travis told him. “What’s it called? Autumn Mix?”

  N
ick turned to take Becka’s order, but Thea’s older sister wasn’t looking at him. Instead her eyes were locked on Thea with an intensity that was making her very uncomfortable.

  “What is it?” Thea asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

  Becka slowly shook her head. “Nothing but glitter, but there’s something different about you tonight…”

  That expression was really unsettling Thea. Becka was usually a bitch, but every once in a while she showed off an uncanny sense of intuition.

  Becka suddenly snapped her fingers as her eyes widened in surprise. “You aren’t pre-”

  The lights went out all across the room interrupting Becka’s question with squeals of surprise and delight.

  Fortunately, there were candles—both real and battery powered—to keep the Church Key from being plunged into absolute darkness.

  “Whoa!” Nick exclaimed before raising his voice to address his customers. “Looks like we just lost electricity, but the beer is still flowing so there’s no reason to get worried.”

  A cheer resonated across the bar.

  “Now this is a Halloween Party!” someone shouted.

  Nick leaned in close to Thea and her family. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to get back to work. Jim ran out on me again and as you can see, we’re swamped tonight.”

  He shrugged his shoulders apologetically, looked at Thea for a moment as if he wanted to plead for help but was too afraid of her mood tonight to ask.

  Thea really didn’t want to be close to Nick right now, but it was the perfect excuse to get away from Becka and her unexpectedly accurate insight.

  “I’d better help you,” she said.

  She moved to the ice chest and put a mix of bottles on her tray. If she just circulated with them, people would buy. She didn’t have to get a specific drink order.

  Nick looked relieved but there was no time for him to say anything.

  “Here,” Nick said as he handed Thea a layered drink which even in the poor light she knew was a black and tan. He was holding one himself, which was really unusual even though it was his favorite. Nick rarely imbibed when he was working.

  “I don’t want this,” Thea told him. That wasn’t precisely true. She couldn’t ever remember wanting a beer more, but with a baby growing inside of her she was not going to drink anything that could possibly hurt it.

  Nick managed a little smile but Thea didn’t think his heart was in it. He looked tired and worried and maybe just a little bit hurt and angry. “That may be true, but I think you need it. You’ve been pushing yourself nonstop for about six hours. I appreciate the help but it’s after midnight and I think you should take a break, sit down on one of the stools and tell your bartender what’s been bothering you all evening.”

  Thea was tired, and Nick’s efforts to press her to tell him something private here in the still-crowded bar stoked her anger again.

  “It’s too busy,” she told him and tried to step past him to slip behind the bar and go fill an order.

  Nick caught her arm to stop her. “As the owner of The Church Key, I’m telling you to take a break.”

  Thea tried to pull her arm free. “I don’t want a break! I’ve got customers-”

  “They can wait!” Nick insisted with a lot more heat. “Sit down, take a long pull on your beer and tell me-”

  “I can’t drink it, I’m pregnant!” Thea snapped at him.

  For the briefest instant, Nick froze. Then a warm excited smile lit his face and he spontaneously hugged her, almost spilling both of their drinks. “That’s wonderful, Thea! Why did you wait to tell me? This is incredible news!”

  He froze again, as if another way of interpreting what she’d just said had just suddenly occurred to him.

  He released the hug, expertly sliding his beer onto the bar and took hold of her shoulders. Holding her out at arm’s length he looked hard into her eyes. The electricity was still out, so he probably couldn’t see as well as he wanted to, but he evidently saw enough. “I’m being insensitive, aren’t I? We really haven’t talked about having kids except for that one time last winter and…this had to be a surprise. You know you’re not going to do this on your own, don’t you? I love you! I’m going to-”

  Nick impulsively dropped onto one knee, pulling the drink out of her hand to set it on the floor.

  Stunned, Thea watched him take both of her hands in his and look up at her with those beautiful blue eyes.

  “Thea,” he said, “I wake up every morning thinking about you. Being with you is the highlight-”

  “Oh, my God, Nick is proposing!” Caitie Morrow shouted. “Quick, Tim, Bob, get your cell phones out and start filming. I can’t believe it! My little boy is finally getting married.”

  The gush of warmth that had been flushing through Thea’s body suddenly froze beneath her skin as a wave of silence rolled across the bar and just about everyone turned to look at Thea and Nick. She felt incredibly embarrassed to be the center of such attention—especially under these circumstances where it was impossible that her knight in shining armor had brought an engagement ring. It was going to look so strange and awkward. People were going to figure out she was pregnant.

  Cell phones began to point in their direction and Nick also began to show the stress of a couple hundred people watching him propose. He cleared his throat. “Well this is a little more public than I’d envisioned doing this, but what the hell, you’re all practically family right?”

  A general chorus of consent reverberated around the bar and Kara’s fiancé, Ron, shouted above the resulting din. “Come on, Nick! We’re all waiting to toast you!”

  A couple of hundred drinks rose toward the ceiling in immediate agreement with Ron’s sentiment.

  Nick glanced away from Thea to look at his mother. “Mom, are you still holding grandma’s ring for me?”

  The expression on Caitie Morrow’s face was so rapturous she might have started floating up to heaven. “Of course, I have it.” Her hands immediately opened her purse and began rummaging furiously through the contents until she held it up triumphantly then rushed over to place it in Nick’s hand.

  “Thanks, Mom,” Nick said. “It would have spoiled the surprise if Thea had found this before I was ready.”

  Thea knew that Nick’s mother had been carrying that ring around for months—Caitie was desperate for her son to get married and start having children—but she still appreciated that Nick had just made it look like he’d been planning to propose tonight all along. A few months from now, people would figure out that she was already pregnant, but tonight she didn’t have to worry about that.

  Nick returned his full attention to her.

  Thea felt like she was in a fairy tale. Nick was dressed as her knight in shining armor and she with her wizardess gown felt like a lady fair as he took her hands back into his. His eyes were such a beautiful blue as he looked up at her.

  “Thea, for years I’ve been living for this bar. You know how much I love this place and all the friends who come here to drink and chat each week. But in the past few months I’ve realized that living for a thing isn’t enough for me. I want to live for you.”

  Women throughout the bar sighed and out of the corners of her eyes, Thea could see their men slipping their arms about them and holding their dates and wives a little closer.

  Nick wasn’t finished proposing. “I love you, Thea. I want you in my life forever. I want to raise a family with you. And I want the whole world to know how wonderful you make me feel.”

  Still feeling a bit shocked at the suddenness of it all, Thea watched Nick as he slipped the ring onto her finger. “This was my grandmother’s ring,” he said. “It’s not the largest stone, but it has fifty-two years of love and devotion embedded in its soul. I’ll bet you we can add at least fifty-two years more.”

  The ring fit perfectly on her hand.

  Nick looked up into her face again. “Will you marry me, Thea Clarke?”

  Thea felt the eyes of the world on her
as she stared at that ring and thought about the new life growing within her. Last Halloween she had no thought that anyone would ever make this proposal to her. She was a thirty-eight year old spinster living with her mother to take care of her. Who on earth would want her under conditions like that?

  Her eyes moved from the sparkling little diamond in Nick’s grandmother’s ring to her boyfriend’s eyes where the answer to all her questions waited for her. Who wanted her? Why Nick did, of course. She didn’t understand why at times but she certainly couldn’t doubt it any longer.

  Tears began to flow down her face. “Of course I will, Nick! I love you!”

  Nick surged to his feet and took her in his arms while the patrons of The Church Key clapped and cheered. As Nick lips moved toward hers Thea could see his mother, Caitie Marrow, drop to her knees to thank God and beg the almighty for grandchildren.

  She’d get the first of those sooner than she expected—not that that mattered now. No what mattered now was Nick’s hot lips and the comfort of his strong arms.

  The End

  If you enjoyed this story, why not see how the other relationships in the Snowbound Series began:

  Thea and Nick: Another Snowbound New Year

  Thea doesn’t remember how she let her cousin, Kara, convince her to go out with her on New Year’s Eve. The weather looks terrible and her mother is up in arms over their plan to ring in the New Year at a local bar. It would have been so much easier to cancel the plans and stay in for the night as she’s done every year since she moved in with Mom to take care of her. So why is she out now while the snow begins to fall drinking beer and playing pool with her cousin? And why does she keep making excuses to talk to the bartender with the long blonde hair and the dreamy blue eyes? Could he really be interested in a woman more than ten years older than him? If the snow keeps falling, she may just build up enough nerve to find out.

  Kara and Ron: Snowbound Christmas

  Kara is flying home to spend Christmas with her family after a disappointing visit with her boyfriend. She’s not thinking about romance and is completely uninterested in the handsome young white man sitting next to her on the plane. But when snow keeps her flight from leaving, Kara begins to discover that the stranger is mighty interesting indeed. What begins as an innocent bet over whether or not their plane will take off, quickly transforms into a captivating night of fiery romance and covert excitement as the two struggle to get to know each other better amidst the chaos of thousands of people stranded at the airport. Was it bad luck or serendipity that Kara must enjoy a Snowbound Christmas?