When most of the food was gone, the leftovers were packed up, and the bill was paid. Ryan then made his move, just as Keeley was hurrying her family out the door.

"Keeley, is that you?"

She froze. Busted.

Robert looked back and forth between them before recognizing Ryan. "I know you. You were Keeley's friend in college. Ryan, right?"

He nodded. "Hi, Mr. Hall. What brings you here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Aaron said, his eyes narrowed.

Ryan hadn't yet gone into "ice mode," thankfully. That would have been the case had Aaron noticed Ryan staring at his wife earlier.

"I'm based in Detroit now, but I had a conference, and my wife wanted to see where I went to college," Ryan said, shrugging before turning to his wife. "Leah, Keeley was my classmate at NYU. This is her husband, Aaron, her father, Robert, and their kids…whose names I don't know."

Why was he acting like he'd never been a jerk? Keeley thought. How much had this man forgotten in the past fifteen years? He was probably keeping up appearances for his wife's sake. Keeley wasn't going to interfere with that.

She wasn't in the mood for a confrontation and wanted this over quickly. She forced a smile and shook Leah's hand. Leah seemed nice; how had she ended up with that nut?

"Keeley Hale, nice to meet you," she said, forcing a smile. Keeley introduced her children: "This is Kaleb, my oldest, and his twin sister, Violet. They're fourteen. Oliver is nine, and Nathan is seven."

"Oh, how nice! We only have one daughter, Ivy. She's eight." A thoughtful expression crossed Leah's face. "Keeley Hale…by chance, were you featured on the AWIS site a while ago? I'm in pharmaceuticals as well, so I've always loved their articles."

"I was," Keeley replied cautiously.

Leah clapped her hands. "What a small world! I thought your work was interesting. Have you started human trials yet?"

"That's actually what we're here celebrating," Aaron interjected, unable to resist bragging about his wife. "She got the approval this morning, and more people signed up than expected."

Ryan watched, with an odd expression, as if disbelieving what he saw: Aaron bragging about his wife, their happy family chatting amongst themselves and with Robert. He'd been watching them the entire meal; was it that shocking that the Hales were a normal family?

"How wonderful! Congratulations. Well, it was so nice meeting you, but we should probably let you go. Right, Ryan?" Leah asked cheerfully.

"Yeah," he agreed immediately. "Nice seeing you guys again."

Sure it was, Keeley thought.

"The feeling's mutual," Keeley lied. "Enjoy the rest of your visit."

She made sure her children were ahead of her before leaving. What a strange encounter. She'd certainly proven Ryan's assumptions wrong. He had to have seen how happy she was, and that she was definitely not a "sugar baby."

A few days later, while getting their kids ready for trick-or-treating, Jennica whispered, "You ran into Ryan?"

"Yeah, it was super weird. He has a family, so I don't think he was staring at me because he liked me. It was more like he was shocked I was actually happy and normal with Aaron," Keeley replied.

Her friend snorted, straightening Logan's cowboy hat. "Serves him right."

The conversation shifted as it was time for pictures. The Quinns, Clarks, and Griffiths had joined them to hit the best houses in the neighborhood.

They first took individual family photos, then photos of all the kids, or kids with their friends (like Violet, Noah, and Kaleb). Finally, they took a group photo of the adults.

The older kids went to watch a movie while the others went trick-or-treating, except for Aaron and Aiden, who stayed behind to chaperone.

Noah, not wanting to dress up, wore his karate uniform and black belt (he'd earned his black belt long ago). Violet loosened her bun and removed her pointe shoes, but kept her leotard, skirt, and tights. Kaleb only removed his helmet and cleats, and Noah simply untied his belt.

More comfortable, Violet popped some popcorn while the boys argued over a movie. She chose one with less gore—a supposedly good serial killer film.

She munched popcorn, watching blankly, though her brother and friend jumped a few times. This was supposed to be good cinema? The only creepy thing was the music until about halfway through, when the serial killer started pursuing the protagonist. Then, a jump scare caused Kaleb to throw the popcorn bowl.

"Kal!" Violet protested. "I have popcorn in my hair!"

"That wasn't even that bad, dude," Noah said, shaking his head and grinning.

Kaleb's face flushed. "I hate jump scares, okay? They always get to me, like in those creepy video games Oliver plays."

Their friend shrugged. "They don't affect me. Logan's jumped out at me too many times trying to scare me. I'm used to it."

"And Violet's just a perfect goddess above us all who doesn't get scared by anything," Kaleb mumbled sourly.

She frowned. "I don't get scared by dumb things, but that doesn't mean I don't get scared."

"Define a fear that isn't dumb, then," he challenged. "I'm very curious!"

"Failure," Violet said simply, silencing her brother. He couldn't make fun of her for that.

"Like you would fail at anything," Noah said. "You're good at everything you do."

Unlike her brother, Noah wasn't teasing. He meant it. She didn't know how to respond to his idolization, so she simply smiled.

The final paragraph about a website was removed as it appeared to be an advertisement.