A Sweet Alaskan Fall by Jennifer Snow

Author:Jennifer Snow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2020-07-09T13:00:51+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“CAN I SKYPE with Grandma and Grandpa to show them my Halloween costume?” Kaia asked as Montana returned from handing out candy at her apartment door a few weeks later.

Or rather, giving the kids in apartment 4C her stash of oversize chocolate bars because she hadn’t expected trick or treaters in an apartment building and was caught completely off guard when kids started knocking on the door that evening. She had two bars left and three cans of Diet Coke, then she was out. She’d head down to SnowTrek Tours and help Cassie give out candy there while Kaia was helping out at the Haunted Trail event.

“Um, sure,” she said. Should she give Kaia another heads-up that her parents weren’t exactly into the Halloween thing and they probably wouldn’t get the scary, realistic-looking zombie makeup job Cassie had helped her perfect? Maybe they’d pretend for Kaia’s sake.

A minute later, her mother’s blood-curdling scream could have come straight from a horror movie. Montana hurried over as Kaia tried to get her to calm down. “It’s okay, Grandma. It’s just makeup,” she said.

“Good heavens, why would you do that?”

Montana shot her daughter a Told you so look.

“It’s part of my Halloween costume,” Kaia said, standing to show them the ripped, blood-stained clothes.

“Halloween is tonight?” Montana heard her father ask.

“Yes, Grandpa. It’s October thirty-first every year,” Kaia said with a laugh. “Don’t you have trick or treaters?”

“We don’t answer the door to strangers—big or small,” he said.

Montana remembered hiding out in the basement of their house with her parents and sister on Halloween nights, watching movies, ignoring the ringing doorbell. Maybe it should have bothered her not to participate in the festivities like the other kids did, but she and Dani had popcorn and full-size candy bars and pop, and the family had their own fun evening together, so she really hadn’t felt like she was missing out on anything. They’d always been on the move, seeking out one new adventure after another, so the slower pace of that family movie night had been special.

“Who did that to your face? Your mother?” Montana’s mother asked, disapproval evident.

As if. Kaia genuinely looked like she’d just climbed out of a grave. Gray and purple makeup paled her complexion with a creepy undertone effect. Facial prosthetics covered in blood gave the look of gashes along her forehead and cheeks, and black eyeliner applied thick around her eyes completed the terrifying look. No number of YouTube tutorials would have helped Montana pull off something like this.

“No, my stepmom—I guess you could call her—Cassie, did it,” Kaia said. “Dad’s girlfriend.”

“Ahh,” came the reply on the screen.

Ah, the undecipherable ahh. Montana had never known exactly what that simple word meant when her mother said it, but it was never good. It was usually the response to something she was disappointed about or didn’t understand. When she didn’t want to start an argument or give a real opinion on an issue but she wanted Montana to know that she wasn’t completely on board with an idea.

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