“Damn,” thought Lori, realising that her intuitive daughter had rumbled her. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Lori turned to Melody and said, “Yes, but it’s a surprise. You can’t tell anyone yet. Not Jesse. Not your daddy when he calls. No one. Do you understand?”
“Why is it a surprise?”
“I want to tell your daddy myself when I see him,” explained Lori. “If you tell him, it’ll spoil the surprise.”
“When will you tell him?” asked Melody.
“Soon.”
“And when will the baby be here?”
“Not until the spring,” replied Lori. “April.”
“Is that after Christmas?”
“Yes, a long time after Christmas. Near Easter.”
Melody looked serious for a moment then declared, “You’re not hiding the surprise very well by making it a big shiny moon, Mommy.”
Laughing, Lori said, “No, I’m not but this bump is getting too big to hide anymore. The others know the secret so they won’t tell your daddy either.”
Grey had lined his driveway with pumpkin lanterns and had a string of green, spooky lights wound along the rail of the front porch. As Lori and the kids approached, carrying a large bucket of candy, a skeleton lit up in the corner of the porch and let out a blood-curdling scream. Both kids let out a yell and Jesse began to cry with fright.
“It’s ok, Jesse. It’s only a pretend skeleton,” soothed Lori as her son wound himself round her legs.
“Mommy, I’m Jessie! Jesse’s Woody!” protested Melody, trying to act as if the skeleton hadn’t scared her at all.
“I thought I heard screams,” laughed Grey, opening the front door. “You kids look great! Love the costumes. Wait till you see Anna and Linzi.”
All thoughts of being scared momentarily forgotten, the children ran on ahead into the house. Hallowe’en themed music was blaring from Grey’s sound system as she entered the room. Spying Anna and Linzi, Lori collapsed into a fit of giggles. The two little girls were dressed as Slinky, the dog from Toy Story, and were wired together with curly electrical cable.
“That’s fantastic!” she laughed, watching the two sisters attempt to run after Melody and Jesse.
Both Kola and Grey had gone with a Star Wars theme and were dressed as Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Spying little Kaya in her bouncy chair, Lori laughed again. The baby girl was dressed as an Ewok.
“Oh, Kola, she’s gorgeous,” declared Lori, smiling down at the wide-eyed Kaya. “Too cute.”
Their conversation was interrupted by more screams from the front porch announcing the arrival of Paul, Maddy and the twins, who had come dressed as the Addams family.
“Where’s Becky?” asked Wren, looking round.
“Just getting ready,” replied Grey. “She’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Who is she dressed up as?” quizzed Melody curiously.
“It’s a surprise,” said Kola softly. “Now, who wants a glass of blood juice?”
Just as Kola came through with a tray of blood-red drinks that were really cherry Kool-Aid, they all heard a bell tinkling and then there was a loud “pop”. A glittery confetti cannon hidden up inside the centre light exploded showering them all in “fairy dust” as Becky made her entrance dressed as Tinkerbell.
“Photo!” shrieked Maddy excitedly, once the glittery dust had finally settled. “Family photo time.”
Gathering everyone together, the Silver Lake tour manager endeavoured to take a group selfie. It took her a few attempts but, eventually, she managed to get them all in.
“Fabulous!” she declared as she checked the photo.
Soon everyone was settled in the lounge room with a drink and some Hallowe’en themed snacks. The younger members of the extended Silver Lake family were playing in the dining room under the watchful eye of Becky.
“Lori,” called over Maddy. “Are you going to have that design ready by midweek?”
“Hopefully,” replied Lori, subconsciously rubbing her bump. “I’m borrowing Becky for the weekend so I should catch up. Things got a bit crazy at the start of the week.”
“Careful you’re not overdoing things,” cautioned Kola calmly. “Working long hours won’t be good for you.”
“I’ll be fine,” assured Lori with a smile. “Although this might be my last commission for a while.”
“But you’ve months to go yet!” countered Maddy shrilly. “Is everything ok?”
“So far so good,” replied Lori. “The doctor was mentioning the possibility of total bed rest from twenty-eight weeks though.”
“Oh, that’s early!”
“Well, we’ll see,” said Lori, almost under her breath. “With a bit of luck, I can stall till about thirty-two or thirty-four weeks. If I cut back my workload that should help.”
“Take care of yourself,” cautioned Grey. “You and this not so little Power Pack come first.”
Lori nodded.
“And when are you going to tell Jake?” asked Kola in her usual direct way.
“Next weekend,” answered Lori softly.
“You coming to Garrett’s launch?” quizzed Paul.
“That’s the plan,” she replied. “I need to be in New York on Thursday for a board meeting at Hyde Properties then I was planning to stay for the weekend.”
“You taking the kids?” checked Grey, knowing how anxious Jake was to see his family.
“Yes,” assured Lori smiling. “And your mom to watch them for me.”
“My mom? Good luck with that!” laughed Grey. “Just do me a favour and keep her out of the casinos!”
“No promises,” giggled Lori, knowing that part of the deal she had struck with Annie was a trip to the best casino in the city on the Sunday night.
Entering the dragon’s lair on his own on Saturday afternoon, while Garrett was working upstairs in the store, felt surreal to Jake. With only six days to go until the album launch, he knew time was running out to pull his solo set together. Still wondering how he’d let himself get talked into this,
