I smiled at him. “You’re a good male, Mancy.”

He leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “I’m best when I’m with you.”

Now my eyes really did sting with tears. Maybe it was the exhaustion or the emotional stress, or maybe it was simply relief of being reminded that what we had was as real as I’d hoped it was. To dispel the tears, I glanced around at the celebrations surrounding us on all sides. After a couple of seconds, I realized something. “You know, it was on another Halloween that we finally admitted our feelings for each other.”

He smiled the same smile that had made me fall for him. “That year was the best trick-or-treat ever.”

I raised a brow. “How are we going to top it this year?”

With a wicked smile, he caught a handful of beads and candy from the air. “Depends on what you’re willing to do to earn these.” His expression took on a particularly roguish tilt.

And with that, Adam and I flashed out from the middle of the parade, for once not caring who witnessed our magical exit.

What started out as a crappy week had turned out to be one of the best Halloweens ever. A night when the lines between monsters and men were nonexistent. A night when the most hopeless beings could find a light in the darkest shadows. And it for damn sure was a night to believe that sometimes even monsters deserved happy endings.