“They’re coming!” she called, breathless with excitement. “I’ve just seen them, they’re at the end of the prom.” She was smiling so hard she could feel her mouth stretching.
She looked up to see that John was laughing quietly at her.
“Oh, shut up!” she said, though her smile didn’t dim.
“I’m sorry.” John chuckled. “It’s just that I don’t think I’ve ever seen an adult so excited about Halloween.”
“It’s my first Halloween party.” Annie smoothed down her dress and raised her head in the air defiantly.
“What? Ever?”
“My parents didn’t believe in celebrating evil.”
“Blimey! And I thought my family was weird.”
“Shut up and help me get the spuds into bags,” said Annie.
Together they scooped hot crispy roast potato cubes into little paper bags and lined them up on trays to be dished out to cold grown-ups. The sweets—of which there appeared to be thousands—were tipped hastily into two large plastic cauldrons and a giant plastic pumpkin head.
“Wait one second,” said John, disappearing out into the hallway.
He returned a moment later with a mass of black fabric in his arms, which turned out to be a black witch’s cloak and hat that he passed to Annie and a long black Dracula cape with a red satin collar, which he flung around his own shoulders.
“Where did you find these?”
“The leather trunk beneath the telly. I wasn’t snooping.” He wore a sheepish expression. “I knew that’s where Mari keeps them. I don’t know if the hat will fit you; you’ve got a bigger head than she does.”
Annie scowled at him and pulled the witch’s hat onto her head. It was a little tight, and she was pretty sure it would leave a red mark around her forehead.
“Actually, it fits perfectly,” she said.
Chapter 54
It was absolute mayhem, and Annie was delighted. All the children and many of the adults were in Halloween costumes. Annie counted seventeen witches, including herself and two very sexy witches who made her feel quite dowdy. There were werewolves large and small, Draculas, a Morticia Addams, a scantily clad nurse who looked cold to the bone, zombies, ghosts, pirates, a Ninja Turtle, and one Disney princess—this was Esme, head tucked firmly inside Gemma’s coat, fairy wand gripped tightly in her gloved hand.
Saltwater Nook got a unanimous thumbs-up from the Willow Bay Halloween procession, and a lively roar of approval went up when Annie said the café was open for business. John dished out sweets into waiting Halloween buckets held in eager, chubby hands, and offered round the little bags of hot potatoes to the adults. Annie stationed herself at the coffee machine—mostly hot chocolates and decaf coffees at this time of night, she noticed—and doled out cupcakes and crumbly shortbread.
Maeve stood at the door waving a bag above her head.
“Got a washing-up bowl or something I can fill with water?” she shouted over the noise. “I’ve got a bag full of windfalls from the orchard ready for bob-the-apple!”
Annie ducked down into a cupboard in the kitchen area and handed a large clear plastic mixing bowl to John, who duly filled it with water and carried it carefully through the packed café to Maeve.
“Ah, John, good man. Happy to see you,” she said as she took the bowl from him. “I’ll try my best not to let any of the buggers drown.” And she let out a throaty laugh.
Annie glanced over in time to see Gemma raise her eyebrows.
There was much screeching and splashing outside as heads were bobbed, long hair was held back by parents, and grinning children shivered in their sodden costumes, while others waited in line for their chance to dunk their faces in freezing water for a bruised apple.
Annie watched through the window as Lennox tried in vain to catch an apple in his teeth. Each time, he came up for air looking more frustrated. Gemma was trying to coax him away from the bowl, but he was determined. As Lennox plunged his head back into the water again, John shouted, “Hey, kids, is that a witch on her broomstick?” All eyes turned to the sky as John slipped his hand into the bowl and held an apple still below the water. Lennox, with his eyes tight shut, and none the wiser, found the apple and speared it. John surreptitiously removed his hand and wiped it on his cape. The children looked back in time to see Lennox flick his head up out of the water, an apple clamped in his teeth and a look of absolute triumph on his face. Everyone cheered. Gemma—with an expression of deep relief on her face—mouthed thank you to John, who smiled. Annie felt something unexpected bloom in her chest.