“Too chilly out there for me,” Tootsie answered. “But you go on and have fun. What are you going to give out?”

“Don’t know yet. I’m making a trip to the Walmart store in Paris to buy stuff.”

“Not me,” Joanie said. “I’m watching scary movies, like Zoe and I do every Halloween, though I’ll be pretending that she’s sitting on the sofa with me.”

“I’m with you,” Carmen said.

Tootsie raised a hand. “Count me in, too.”

Luke glanced over at Diana. “How about you?”

“I’d love to go,” she said. “What time are we leaving?”

“The event starts at five, so maybe three. That would give us time to drive down to Paris, load up on goodies, and get there when it kicks off.” Luke was so happy about getting to spend the evening alone with Diana, even if it was just on the drive to the store and home from the festivities, that he could have done a little jig.

“That will give me time to finish up my last little bit of work on the computer.” Diana passed around the plate of corn bread. “This is such a good day for vegetable soup.”

“And apple crisp for dessert,” Tootsie added.

When dinner was finished, Luke went out to the motor home and put in a call to his financial adviser. “I want to put my house on the market,” he said. “I’ll be out of town until the middle of December, but get it appraised, pick out a good real estate agent, and give them a key.”

“Are you sure about that? The market isn’t up much right now,” the man said.

“I’m very sure. I’m moving up around San Antonio to be near my aunt. My uncle died a few weeks ago, and I want to be a help to her.”

“Okay, then, I’ll get the ball rolling. Anything else?”

“Not today, but if I think of something, I’ll call. And thanks,” Luke answered.

“I’m here to serve,” he said. “I’ll keep you posted on how things go.”

At five minutes to three, he crossed the yard to the garage and had good intentions of warming up the truck before he went inside the house for Diana. But she was already in the truck with the engine running and the garage door raised. He slid behind the wheel and put the vehicle in reverse.

“Thank you for getting the chill out of the truck. I had planned to do it myself,” he said.

“I got finished with my work a little early, and to tell the truth, I’m excited to get away for the evening. I don’t like scary movies,” she said.

“But you watch them because everyone else likes them, right?”

A smile spread across her face. “Yep, but I’d much rather be giving out candy this evening to little princesses and astronauts.”

That comment shot his pulse up a few notches. He loved kids, always had, and wished that he’d had a brother or a sister, or even two or three of each, his whole life. The biggest disappointment he’d ever had was when he’d learned that he could never be a father—well, maybe not never, but who was counting that one chance in a couple of million?

He bought two bushel baskets at the Walmart store, and Diana helped him fill the first one with apples, oranges, and bananas. Then he bought five huge bags of candy and filled the second one. This time Diana noticed that he charged it to his own card and not Tootsie’s.

“Now what do I buy?” she asked.

“How about we get one more basket and buy a bunch of those popcorn balls?” he suggested. “When I’m home, that’s what I give out. I spend a couple of days making them and wrapping them all up in spooky plastic wrap. The kids in my neighborhood love them. You looked surprised.”

“It’s just that . . .”

“That what?” he pressed.

“Gerald wouldn’t have been caught dead in the kitchen unless it was to make coffee or get a beer from the fridge.”

“I’m not your ex,” he said. “I’m just plain old Luke Colbert, who enjoys cooking, loves kids and animals, and only served one term in the National Guard, where I was a supply clerk. It’s who I am. And you’re not my ex, either. That woman wouldn’t have ever come to this kind of event with me.”

“Ex? You were married?” she asked.

“No, just almost engaged, until that very embarrassing moment when I proposed and she told me that she had decided to get back together with her old boyfriend,” he said.

“Oh. My. God! That was downright cruel,” she said.

“So was the treatment you got from your ex,” he said. “But it’s all in the past now. It’s only human for us to compare. We can’t help it, but hopefully we’ll both see that what we have now is better than what we had then.”

“And that’s why I like you. I can be honest with you.”

She liked him!

“As a brother, as a friend . . .” He continued to press a little.

“If I had a brother, I wouldn’t make out with him on the back church pew.”

“Fair enough.” He grinned.

Be satisfied that she likes you, and leave it at that for now, he told himself.

Diana pushed the cart around to where the baskets were located and selected an orange one, and together they filled it with popcorn balls. “Rebecca and I make caramel apples to give out to our special friends. What are we going to do with these baskets when we’re done with them?”

“They can be beds for our kittens when we take them home,” Luke suggested.

“Home in Scrap or in Sugar Run or, in your case, Houston?” she asked.

“Right now, home in Scrap, but later just home wherever it is. Can you keep a secret?”

“Depends on who I’m keeping it from,” she said as she paid out and prepared to push the cart out to the truck.

“From everyone, but especially Joanie, and only for a little while.” He opened up the box of big black garbage bags he’d bought and put each basket inside one before tying the tops shut. “That way nothing flies out on the way to the church.”

“What’s going on with Joanie?” She looked worried.

“Not with Joanie as such, but she’s putting her house up for sale, and I’m going to make her a really good offer for it.” He held the truck door for her. “I contacted my financial adviser today and put my place in Houston on the market.”