Where the Skies are Blue

Chapter Twenty-Five:

I'm curled up on the couch in the living room, book in hand, when I hear Henry making a commotion in the other room. Closing the book, I toss it on the couch before getting up and following where the sound is coming from. In the foyer, the front door is open, and Henry has bags of Halloween decorations laid out that he continues to grab from then move back out into the front yard.

Curiously, I step into the doorway of the front door, watching as he begins to place headstones on the lawn. "Halloweens in a week." I tell him.

He's out of breath as he situates the headstone. "Well, Auden, I was on my way home from work when I realized I've never decorated for Halloween in my adult years, because I never had kids to decorate for. But now that you're here, I want to have the house all decked out for you. Did you decorate in Arizona?"

A happiness swells inside of me. He pushes his hair out of his eyes before standing up and placing a hand on his hip as he looks over what he's done so far. "No, we didn't decorate. I've always wanted to though." I tell him.

"Great! Want to help me set up?" He asks.

I nod as a smile grows on my face.

"Awesome. You can help with the pumpkins on the porch. I got a whole bunch of them. Apparently, when plugged in, they sing. How cool is that?" He moves past me and begins handing me some of the pumpkins.

"This must've cost a lot." I say, and begin to place them all over the porch.

"Don't worry about that, Auden. We're going to have a great Halloween. I want our house to be the best house on the block." He throws up a finger then runs inside the house. I continue setting up the pumpkins until he comes running back out with an Alexa. He plugs it in then tells her to play Monster Mash.

My head falls back with laughter as he gets back to decorating the front lawn.

"Do you think your mother will love this?" He asks me.

I swallow hard. "Sure, yeah." I lie. She won't care. In fact, she'll be more irritated when she finds out that Henry and I were spending time together. "Where is she today?"

"Oh, she wanted to go to the spa. Get a facial and her nails done." He then pauses and scratches the back of his head. Oh, no. What is he about to say? I grab some spiderwebs from the bags and focus on putting them around the pillars. "Auden," he says slowly. My body grows tight. I feel him walk over to me. "I just want to make sure, are you happy here? Is everything okay at school?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Okay, good, good, I'm glad. I was just wondering. I'm really glad you have Hunter." He grabs the end of the spiderwebs and begins helping me. "How would you feel about me asking your mother to marry me?" He then blurts out, and my body goes slack.

I drop the spiderwebs.

He notices my panic and quickly adds, "Not now. Of course. It wouldn't be for a few more months. But, you know, I just want to see how you would feel about it. Your opinion really matters to me, so if you say no, I will completely respect that. I just...you and your mother make me really happy, and I'd love for us all to be a family one day."

Family? Us? Henry as my stepdad. Honestly, I wouldn't mind Henry as my stepdad. But Katherine marrying him can't happen. She doesn't love him. She's using him, and I can't let her have her way. I can't let her hurt him. He deserves so much better than us. Someone who loves and appreciates him.

I shake my head slowly. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Guilt takes over me as I watch the excitement leave his eyes and his face completely fall. I almost take back what I said. Yet, I remind myself that it's for his own benefit. He's better off without us in his life. He'll soon realize that.

It takes a moment for Henry to recover as he stays busy setting up the decorations. "That's fine. I understand." He says simply, giving me a sad smile before he moves back out onto the lawn and plugs in the Nightmare Before Christmas blow ups.

We work in silence the rest of the time. The mood now shifted. I feel awful. I wish he knew. I wish I could tell him everything. If he knew, he would want us out of his house immediately. He'd hate us. And that terrifies me. I've grown to really like Henry, and I like being here. The selfish part of me doesn't want to lose any of this.

So, I stay quiet. I don't speak of anything. And when Katherine comes home, soaking up all of Henry's sweetness and compliments and using his money until it runs dry, I continue to stay quiet. The two of us pretending, just as we always have.