Dressing Up Romance

Happy Halloween!
I love this time of year. The colors. The fun. I don't deal with the ultra scary or gory, but the fun stuff, I love. Including dressing up. My husband doesn't love it as much, but he goes along with it to make me happy. He's pretty great that way. ;)

But we're not the only ones who like to dress up for Halloween.
In my first novel, which celebrates its FIFTH birthday tomorrow, they have a Trunk or Treat at the church. My characters, Chad and Jessica, are just getting to know each other and whether or not they want to explore more. Thought you might like a peek inside that scene. ;)

“So, this Trunk-or-treat thing tomorrow night, it’s a costume thing, right?” Chad pointed to the announcement about it in the bulletin.

“It’s optional, but quite a few people do dress up.” Jessica gave a little shrug.

“So are you and Courtney dressing up?”

Jessica shook her head. “Courtney’s not really a dress-up kind of girl.”

“I’m not a what?” Courtney asked from her conversation a couple feet away.

“You don’t like to wear costumes.” Chad pointed to his shirt.

“Oh,” Courtney said. “At least if you’re talking about me, you’re telling the truth.”

“What about you?” Chad turned back to Jessica. “Are you a dress-up kind of girl?”

Jessica looked up at him. “I do occasionally wear a costume for fun, if I know other people will be, too.” Who was she kidding? She loved dressing up, but for some reason, she was holding back tonight. “I think it’s fun to dress up fancy, but that’s not really the kind of event this is. It’s outside in the parking lot, and it’s supposed to be cool. Basically, you decorate the trunk of your car and then kids come by and get candy from you. There’s hot dogs and chips and caramel corn. You know, the usual.”

“We’re going to dress up as transformers.” Garrett leaned toward them.

Amber rolled her eyes. “How are you going to do that?”

“We found some boxes and spray-painted them silver and then drew the faces and stuff on them.” Kyle did a few moves of the robot dance. “It’s going to be great.”

“You could join the boys and be a transformer.” Jessica cocked her head to the side. “Doesn’t every boy want to be a robot?”

“They’re not robots, they’re aliens.” Garrett shook his head, his voice laced with incredulity.

Everyone laughed and then started gathering their things to head home.

“We could get some red yarn and be Raggedy Ann and Andy.” Chad walked Jessica out to her car.

“I didn’t realize you were a dress-up kind of guy.” Jessica poked him in the arm.

“I guess this is really the first Halloween I’ve had a girlfriend, and I thought it would be fun if we dressed up as a famous couple. I mean, Romeo and Juliet are too depressing, and they were the only other option for a famous couple I could think of.” Chad opened the door for Jessica.

“I’m amazed you could think of Raggedy Ann and Andy.”

“Oh?”

“Not a couple you’d expect a guy to know much about.”

Chad stuck his hands in his pockets and ducked his head. “My Grandma made us all one when we were kids. And I figured it would be easy to find some red yarn and paint our cheeks ... you know last-minute costume stuff.”

Courtney got in on the driver’s side. “You coming, Jess?”

“Yeah.” Jessica turned back to Chad, her hand on the door. “I don’t think I’m going to dress up this year, Chad. But it’s sweet that you wanted to.”

“It’s okay.” He nodded. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night. Save me a hotdog if I get off work late.”

“Sure,” she said.

He squeezed her hand before she got in the car. She waved at him as they drove away.

“You okay?” Courtney lightly elbowed Jessica as they stopped at a red light.

“I guess.”

“What’s up? Because the normal you would have loved to be Raggedy Ann with him as Andy.”

“I wish I knew.” Jessica fiddled with the ribbon on her Bible. “I told you that things were feeling weird. Maybe if I can get a hold of my mom tonight I can work through some of this mess.”

Courtney nodded. “I hope so, too, because Chad seems like a really great guy, and it would be a shame if you let him go just because your aunt is weird.”

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Want to read more? Check out An Unexpected Legacy, free on KU or available in ebook or paperback.

An Unexpected Legacy

Smoothies brought them together, but would the past tear them apart?

​When Chad Manning introduces himself to Jessica Garcia at her favorite smoothie shop, it's like he stepped out of one of her romance novels. But as she tentatively walks into a relationship with this man of her dreams, secrets from their past threaten to shatter their already fragile bond.  Chad and Jessica must struggle to figure out if their relationship has a chance or if there is nothing between them but a love of smoothies.

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