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He caught Zoe from falling on her butt when she tried to pull out a trident that was twice her height. He placed the weapon in her hands and then pointed at Cathy.
“Zoe, this lady wants to talk to you.” Or wait. He eyed the trident. Maybe the solution to his problem was right in front of him. “Do you want to become Aquaman?”
Zoe rolled her eyes at him. “Aquaman is aman, silly.”
Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.
Cathy hunched down next to Zoe. “Hi, little girl, I’m Cathy and I’m here to help you with your Halloween costume.”
For some reason, the attention of the sales clerk made Zoe shy. She put an arm around his leg and leaned against him.
“I want to be Wonder Woman. She’s a hero.”
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have that costume anymore. So, what do you think about Catwoman? She’s a hero too.”
“Nope.”
“What about Elsa fromFrozen?”
Zoe folded her tiny arms in front of her chest. It took him a sec to realize that she’d taken over his stance.
“Nope,” she repeated. “I can’t fight in a dress.” She gave Cathy a dubious look as if she was debating her mental health.
Cathy came up with a dozen more suggestions, all of which Zoe shut down. The eyes of the clerk got strained and her smile wavered.
Hector knew how she felt.
“Well, it seems like we’re not getting any further here,” Cathy eventually said, admitting defeat.
“Too bad.”
Cathy got up and stepped closer to him. “This doesn’t mean we still can’t go out. How about I give you my number?”
“How about you don’t?”
She blinked, obviously surprised that he was gonna hold them to their deal. He didn’t feel too bad for shutting her down. After all, she’d looked at his ring finger, but dismissed it.
So yeah, he didn’t feel bad at all when he scooped Zoe up and went outside. Sitting back on his bike, Zoe on his lap, he wracked his brain about what else he could do. He came up with nothing.
“Zoe, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can find your costume.”
Her bottom lip quivered, and he felt a pang in his heart. Ah, hell, not the pout.
“But I have to be Wonder Woman. She’s a hero like you!”
What?
“Zoe, why do you have to be her and not someone else? There are other superheroes.”
“But they don’t have her dark hair.”
“You like dark hair?” He got the feeling she was trying to tell him something, but he was clueless.
Zoe nodded and pointed at his head. “Wonder Woman is a warrior like you. She has dark brown hair like you. I want to look like you, so everybody will know.”
“Will know what, puppet?”
“That I’m your kid,” she whispered.