and then suddenly she turned her emotions off

 "I don't know, I feel weird lately," Maddie finally confessed to Harley. It was the first time seeing her since she got married. "I didn't think it would be this way, after getting married."

They were at the coffee shop for lunch. There was a chill in the air with a chance of snow, so they wore their sweaters and boots for cold weather.

"What do you mean?" Harley's smile was open as she forked another bit of arugula in her Cobb salad.

"It'll sound crazy. It's just I'm not used to being Maddie Hudson. It sounds so strange. And now to be a Mrs., it's just odd." Maddie didn't know anyway else to explain it. 

"Are you doing OK? Are you sleeping?" Harley asked as she bit into a cucumber.

"Um, yeah. I think so." Maddie nodded.

"You think so? Sleep is important." Harley looked at her blankly.

"Really, we're fine. I mean, we slept together before we got married. It's good. It hasn't changed. It's just I feel a little bit ditsy. Especially when they are calling for someone else instead of me," Maddie said about her trips to appointments. "I don't know, it makes me feel I don't have a handle on my ADHD."

"You have ADHD?" Harley looked at her as if that was new.

"I'm pretty sure we do. We've been talking about it at work lately. And when I listen to this coworker and about her problems. I feel I have the same kind of mindset."

"Well, you should see someone and take a test."

Maddie smiled and took a sip of her hot coffee. Really, she didn't want to change anything, but that might sound weird if she said it. Maddie gave Harley an open smile, thinking she needed to remember to keep quiet about these things.

Hey, love, look into your glovebox heart

 Alison knew it had to be something serious when her little sister Vanna called. She never called unless it was serious, usually terribly serious.

"Is the baby alright?" Alison hoped they weren't in the emergency room. Vanna sent pictures of True in his dinosaur outfit for Halloween. She hoped he wasn't sick. Of course, she had a baby son who was about a year older than True. She worked from home these days.

"I'm pregnant!" Vanna practically bellowed.

Alison sighed. She hoped Vanna didn't do anything foolish. 

"Me too!" Alison blurted out a fact, but she had kept to herself these days. She wanted to wait until Thanksgiving to tell the family. Of course, her husband knew, but not her parents. She knew she would hear how old she was to be pregnant again, but she'd been told everything was going well, and so was the baby.

"What!" Vanna's voice was thrilled. It was as if she wasn't worried about her problem. "That's amazing." There was a sweet sound in her voice.

"It's a girl." Alison already knew. "Maybe you'll  have a girl this time."

"I'm not as lucky as you are." Vanna was in tears.

"Stop worrying. Be happy." It felt like a plea in Alison's throat.

"I want to be. But, but I could have been careful. I could have been. But..but I wanted to breast feed and I kept thinking, that's all the birth control I'll need."

"Oh, Vanna, you've got so much to look forward to. You do. You'll see. It'll work out." Alison told her.

"But, but the apartment-"

"It's a nice apartment. You know, you two will make it work. And who knows, you might get lucky. Maybe I'll buy a house there and you can rent it from me." Alison did have the funds, but she couldn't make it completely easy for her sister. 

Vanna just chuckled. 

Must be somebody's baby

 

Vanna thought there was too much leftover Halloween candy.  "Why did we get so much?" She practically bellowed to Koda. It was all his fault that they had it to begin with.

"You said to get more," he said in his defense. The fact remained she'd eaten the two bags of Twix and Kit-Kats from his previous grocery store runs. That was when she thought she was thin and had lost her baby bump, but somehow it had returned this October. Was it really all the candy?

She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Even did a side view of her tummy. She squeezed her eyes tight. How was she getting so fat? She furrowed a frown. Actually, she was still her sassy self, but a little moody. Suddenly, she was straight-lipped.

"Shit!" She sucked in a breath and reached behind the mirror into the medicine cabinet and grabbed the pregnancy test. Granted, it was from Dollar Tree. No way could it be right, but naturally, it was positive when she finally got up the nerve to pee.

She thought she might faint when she got the results. She shivered to think it was actually true. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be.

"Well, you didn't want to go on the pill!" Koda looked at her wide-eyed when she told him the news.

"You know how much I hate the pill!" She snapped.

"There is the patch."

"Well, it's a little too late for that!" 

She went and flung herself on the bed as if this was all Koda's fault and he needed to do something about it. He quietly sat on the bed. Of course, the baby was asleep in his crib in their room.

"Remember that night?" He started. His condom got stuck in a very private place, and they almost went to the emergency room.

"Don't even say it!" She gave him the hand to talk to.

"We'll manage somehow," Koda said.

Vanna nodded, but she couldn't help but cry. God, she couldn't even figure out the math when this one would be born.

I think it's wonderful and how

Boone bought his brother a coffee and a fresh muffin when he stopped by the bakery. 

"How was Halloween?" Boone asked before he had to go back to the kitchen. His denim apron was still crisp, and he looked ready for a rush, but it was at a lull at the moment, and Alfie was going in mid-morning to work.

"Oh, you know, we just took the baby around in his skeleton jogging suit."

"You took him trick-or-treating?" Boone gave him the eye that maybe Alfie wanted that candy.

"No, just out to see some of Zoey's coworkers. We didn't stay out long. It was cold. Besides, you had your lights already out when we came by Mom's." Now, Alfie gave him a look, as if to say maybe Boone was not in the spirit of Halloween.

Boone grinned back and told him that the candy ran out fast. They had the lights off by six thirty.

"When did you even turn on your light for trick or treating?" Alfie wanted to know.

"I guess it was four?" Boone shrugged. 

"Mom didn't turn her light on til six and she only got a couple of kids to treat." Alfie winced as if it wasn't fair. "You know who'll eat all the candy now?"

"Oh, don't be so hard on Joe. I think they are both on a diet until Thanksgiving." Boone nodded about the matter.

"Well, they certainly weren't on one Halloween." Alfie talked about the party food his mom had made with dips and chips and even a veggie pizza with cream cheese.

"I think she's trying out appetizers for Thanksgiving," Boone told him.

"Well, it was enough for a meal," Alfie said. "And she gave us so many leftovers."

"We got some too," Boone grinned. "Face it, she loves us." Boone got out his phone and showed him all the pics she'd sent him on Halloween of baby Lucus. "And she loves him even more."