“Mia.” Lance held his free hand out, and she grabbed it. “Ava, hold Mia’s hand.”

Getting three small children across a parking lot safely took more precision and planning than executing an arrest warrant on a violent offender. A bell jingled as Lance opened the glass door and herded the girls inside.

“I know exactly what I’m going to be.” Ava took off down the princess aisle.

“Hold on!” Lance picked up Sophie, grabbed Mia’s hand, and hurried after the oldest. Normally, Ava made a point of acting more mature than her younger sisters, especially in public. But Halloween costumes were too exciting.

Ava turned, her eyes huge as she scanned the high walls covered with colorful ruffles and tiaras. “I have to be Elsa. Where is she?”

“Elsa from Frozen?” Lance asked. Over the past six months, he’d seen every animated princess movie in existence.

“Yes.” Ava spun in a circle, her eyes widening and her voice rising in desperation. “I don’t see her!”

Proud that he could identify all the princesses on the wall, Lance pointed to a blue dress. “What about Cinderella?”

“Kaitlin is being Cinderella,” Ava said. “And Jessie is gonna be Belle. Kinsey picked Ariel.” She rattled off several more names. Her second-grade class was going to be a sea of princesses.

Lance spotted the shiny blue-green dress hanging high on the wall. “I see Elsa. Hold on. I’ll get it for you.” Lance set Sophie down and released Mia’s hand with a firm, “Don’t move.”

He reached up and tugged an Elsa costume from the hook. Turning, he handed it to Ava. “Here you go.”

“Yay!” Ava’s squeal could have ruptured an eardrum. She hugged the costume to her face.

Lance spun around. Shit!

Mia and Sophie weren’t in the aisle.

“Where are your sisters?” Panic sparked in Lance’s chest like a struck match. How far could they go?

Ava lowered the costume. “What?”

“Your sisters?” Lance took her by the hand and hurried to the end of the row. They went around the corner and looked up the next aisle. Relief stole his next breath when he spotted the two little girls about twenty feet away. He caught up with them and let go of Ava’s hand.

“Look what I got!” Ava thrust her shiny costume at her sisters.

“That’s the one I want!” Mia was jumping up and down and pointing to a white unicorn costume. It was a wearable stuffed animal with four dangling legs, a pink mane and tail, and a shiny silver horn. On her next jump, she caught a leg and yanked. A dozen costumes cascaded to the floor. Lance picked them up to replace them on their hangers, but all the legs were tangled. He gave up with a prickle of guilt.

Job security for the clerk, right?

“Girls, you cannot walk away from me,” he said.

Ava hugged her costume. Mia danced in a circle with the unicorn. Both nodded and looked appropriately apologetic—for about two seconds.

The girls were usually well behaved. What had gotten into them?

Gianna’s voice echoed in his head. Halloween.

“Where is Sophie?”

Ava pointed. “Right there.”

She was only about six feet away, but her little body was half-hidden by an adult-size cardboard cutout of a zombie. She extended a hand toward a display of rubber zombie masks. They were gory and bloody and completely inappropriate for a four-year-old. If she wore one of those to school, every kid in her class would have nightmares for a week.

Lance felt a tug on his pants. Mia had wrapped one arm around his thigh. She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.

He crouched down to her level. “What is it, Mia?”

She pointed at the zombie mask and whispered in his ear, “That’s scary.”

“It’s all right.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’s just a mask.”

Mia leaned into him, sniffed, and wiped her nose on the unicorn. He was definitely buying that costume now.

He turned to Ava. “You two stand right here. We found your costumes. Now it’s Sophie’s turn.”

“OK.” They nodded. Mia moved to stand next to her sister.

Lance turned back to Sophie. The way her eyes glowed with excitement reminded Lance of Drew Barrymore in Firestarter.

Or that kid from The Omen.

Lance walked forward to stand next to her. “That costume isn’t for a kid, Soph.”

She didn’t say a word, but her expression was all So what?

What is she going to be like as a teenager? Lance shuddered.

Wisely, Sophie chose bargaining over confrontation. “Ava and Mia got to pick the costumes they wanted.”

“Yes, but they picked from the kids’ section. These are adult costumes.” Lance stared at the mask. There was something about it that nagged at him. He tore his gaze away. “How about we look at the rest of the kids’ costumes, OK?”

Sophie tilted her head, as if she was contemplating how far she could push him on the issue. She was a cagey little thing, and he admitted, he was usually a pushover. She glanced back at Mia, who was wiping her eyes. “OK.” Sophie turned away from the zombies, slumped her shoulders, and dragged her rain boots on the floor.

Lance took her by the hand. They turned back to the kids’ section and strolled up the aisle. Mia and Ava fell into step beside them.

He spotted a display of puppy and kitten costumes. “How about this kitten? You like kittens. Isn’t this Marie from The Aristocats?”

“I don’t want to be a kitten.” Sophie shook her head hard enough to sway her pigtails.

“You spent most of last year dressed as a kitten,” Lance reasoned.

“I’m four now,” Sophie said. “I want a scary costume.”

Mia’s lip quivered.

“Let’s keep looking.” Lance scanned the walls. He spotted a zombie princess across the aisle. Ragged purple dress, greenish-white makeup, no splashes of blood. He pulled it down from the hook. “How about a zombie princess?”

Sophie deflated with exaggerated disappointment. “There’s no blood.”

Exactly.

“It’s still scary,” Lance said. There was no way he was buying Sophie a Halloween costume that made Mia cry and would terrify half the kids in her preschool class. Morgan would kill him.

“I could get two costumes,” Sophie offered. “One for school and one for trick-or-treating.”

He steeled his gaze. “One costume.”

Sophie scuffed a yellow boot on the waxed floor.

Lance spotted a vampire makeup kit. “But we could buy some red makeup and draw a little blood on your face. But not for school, all right? Just for trick-or-treating. We don’t want to scare your classmates.”

She gave him a deadpan look that suggested that’s exactly what she’d wanted to do.

Lance met her gaze head-on.

“OK.” Her sigh was long-suffering.

“So we’re done.” Lance plucked the makeup kit from its peg, hung the costume over his arm, and steered the girls toward the front of the store. The wall of adult masks caught his attention again as they walked past. They were made of rubber and were meant to be worn over someone’s whole head. There were witches, skeletons, and horror-movie characters. His gaze lingered on the zombie mask Sophie had wanted. It was flesh colored, with open wounds and sunken eyes.