Page 26 of Cadenbury Town Does Halloween

I pull back and sigh. “Tell him, babe.”

He flicks my nose and grins. “Sorry sweetheart.”

Alfred the annoying puppy just laughs.

“I've come to take you to lunch,” Adhan says.

“Can we eat here? The shop is busy today and I don’t want to leave our son struggling alone.”

See I can be nice even if Alfred can’t.

“Are you sure? You were only working half day today,” Alfred says with a frown.

“You want to deal with the credit card machine alone?” I ask in surprise.

“Not really, but if I need to I can,” he assures me.

I laugh. “I don’t mind helping for as long as I’m needed.”

“No,” Alfred says suddenly.

“What?” I go for the innocent look.

“You just want to stay out of the rain and only go home when everything is ready.”

“Umm no, I want to stay and help,” I say, even to my own ears I don’t sound convincing, but it’s still raining heavily

“Pretty much everything is ready for the BBQ later,” Adhan tells me. “But we can eat here if you want to.”

Just then the door opens and Justice stands there closing his umbrella before entering.

The smile Alfred gives him lights up the room. He walks over to Justice and kisses his cheek. “What are you doing here?”

“I knew Ernest was only working this morning and John was off today, so I thought I’d come and join you this afternoon.”

“Thank you, my Doc,” Alfred says before turning to grin at me. “You can take off now Pops.”

I shake my head and look at Adhan. “Pennicks?”

CHAPTER 13

After an amazing lunch at Penn’s, we head home. Thankfully the rain seems to have stopped for the moment, but the clouds are still dark and threatening.

We arrive back at the manor and head through the kitchen straight into the garden. The marquee is massive, there are benches set out towards the back for food, tables with drinks, seats and tables for people to sit down and space heaters here and there. There is flooring on the ground and there is even a cover over the BBQ area.

I watch as Ben starts putting food on the grill.

There are actually two BBQs as some of Elliot’s family are vegetarians.

“What do you think?” Temp asks, walking over to us.

“It looks awesome. Anything I can do?” I ask.

“You can help bring the food and plates out.”

“I can do that.”

We spend the next few minutes setting everything we need out. With so many of us, it never takes long. We have just put the last plate of food out when Elliot and his family arrive.