Chapter Text
Sidney loved his nieces and nephews. Really, he did. What he didn’t love, however, was that Tom was under the impression that his babysitting services were available at all hours of the day and night.
And so here he was: another Saturday morning with Alicia, Jenny and George dropped off on his doorstep like a bag of unwanted groceries.
“Uncle Sidney, we want candy corn!”
“Can we watch Hocus Pocus?”
“I’m a dinosaur-- ROAR!”
Or maybe a trio of feral kittens was the more apt observation.
Sidney sighed. “No sugar until after dinner, Alicia. And, Jenny, remember your mum said no screens until after you’ve done your reading-- and well, George, I suppose you being a velociraptor is the least of our worries, eh?”
“I’m a stegosaurus,” said George, terribly offended.
“Right,” he said, properly chastised.
Jenny crossed her arms over her chest. “So if we can’t have sugar, or watch a movie, or be dinosaurs… what can we do here?”
Not for the first time, Sidney sent a prayer up for Mary and Tom. Jenny and her pre-teen attitude was growing worse by the day.
“We can go to the pumpkin patch,” he said lightly. He didn’t want to go to the pumpkin patch. In fact, he couldn’t think of a place he wanted to go less. But with a brewing mutiny on his hands, he knew the smart choice was to bend to the demands of the republic and give them exactly what they wanted: “And… we can carve them tonight.”
Jenny’s eyes brightened. Alicia and George whooped.
Thinking he’d done well, he gave himself a mental pat on the back. His self-gratified smarm lasted until it was time to wrangle the children into his car which, predictably, was terribly unsuited for the amount of passengers he was subjecting it to. George kept unbuckling himself, and Jenny and Alicia fought tooth-and-nail to sit in the front passenger seat, even as Sidney hollered above the caterwauling that neither of them were allowed to do so. Which, of course, led to tears, tears, and more tears.
By the time they arrived at the pumpkin patch, Sidney was on the brink of a meltdown himself.
Thankfully, the little farm’s charm couldn’t be denied. As soon as the children were let from the vehicle, their spirits lifted, and they descended into the verdant fields with aplomb. Sidney kept to the bales of hay on the sidelines, but he made sure to keep the kids in his line of sight -- mostly for the sake of everyone else and the poor pumpkins the children were picking through.
After a time, he determined it was safe to leave them for a moment and wandered over to the apple cider stand. There was a nip in the air and he wanted something warm.
The line moved fast. Just as he was about to order, an altogether too familiar piercing shriek traveled across the pumpkin field. Sidney tossed an apologetic word to the cashier and dashed over, expecting to find Alicia, Jenny and George in some state of bloody battle. Instead, he found them lugging the largest gourd he’d ever seen.
“Why the screaming?” he asked, kneeling down to ensure no visible marks of a tussle were apparent.
“Because we found the perfect pumpkin,” said Jenny, matter-of-fact. Alicia and George nodded enthusiastically.
He sighed. “Uncle Sidney can’t differentiate between happy screams and scary screams, remember?”
“We were very excited,” Alicia explained.
“Excuse me, sir?” The sound of boots on loam and a feminine voice joined the huddle.
Sidney half-turned to see the most gorgeous woman he’d ever laid eyes on approaching them. There was a little dimple in her chin, and locks of brunette hair tumbled over her shoulders. A halo of sun crowned her, and if she declared herself the princess of the pumpkins, he would believe her. He pointed at himself. “Me?”
She smiled. “Yes-- um-- you left your wallet at the cider stand when you ran off,” she said, and waved Sidney’s leather wallet in the air.
He stood, and stupidly patted his pockets. Empty, as she said. “Wow, right,” he said, “thank you so much.”
The name tag on her coat read ‘Charlotte’. She handed him the wallet. “Looks like your kids found a really spectacular pumpkin.”
Jenny looked between Sidney and Charlotte, a growing smile on her face. “ Uncle Sidney loves carving pumpkins,” she said. “He told us we could get two more, for each one of us.”
Charlotte’s eyebrows ticked up. “Did he now?”
Sidney gritted his teeth. The current pumpkin at their feet would barely fit in his car as it was. Two more, and they’d quickly become a road hazard. “Two more much smaller pumpkins,” he amended, “since you three decided to take Cinderella’s carriage home with us.”
“Of course, Uncle Sidney ,” said Jenny. She tugged on Alicia and George’s coats and led them away on another hunt.
He didn’t know how Tom and Mary did it. Quickly amending the thought, he supposed a part of maintaining their sanity and well-being involved lobbing their children at Sidney, Diana and Arthur at regular intervals. He rubbed at the back of his neck, realizing Charlotte still stood there. “She’s usually much more subtle,” he said.
“About the ‘uncle’ thing, or the blackmail?”
He laughed. “Both. I’m Sidney.”
“Charlotte,” she said, pointing to the name tag on her coat. She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “I need to get back to the stand. D’you still want a cup?”
He followed Charlotte the short way back to the stand, where she poured him a steaming mug and waved off the few dollars he tried to give her. Instead, he stuffed the bills into the tip jar -- which, as it happened, was a ceramic pumpkin. “Have you worked here long?”
“All my life,” she said. She leaned against the tabletop. “My family owns the Heywood farms.”
“Ah,” he hummed, “so you know where all the top-tier pumpkins are…”
“Yes, but it didn’t seem like your nieces and nephew needed any help. The first one they found was lovely.”
“They’re closer to the ground so they have an advantage.”
She laughed. “So -- do you babysit them often?”
“Often enough,” he said. “My brother and sister-in-law both work, and…”
“And you offer to take them to pumpkin patches on the weekend,” she finished. Her eyes sparkled. “That’s very sweet of you.”
“It was less an ‘offer’ and more of an act of self-preservation,” he admitted, “but I do love spending time with them. When they’re not screaming their heads off over pumpkins, they’re well-behaved. Generally.”
“Like I said: sweet.” She bit her lip. “Looks like they’re back.”
Sidney looked over his shoulder. Indeed, the three Parker children were carrying two more pumpkins, beaming all the way to the edge of the patch. Although he would have liked to flirt with Charlotte a bit more, it was time to put his responsible hat back on.
“Sadly, that’s my cue to leave,” he said. He took one last sip of the cider, and placed the mug in the receptacle. He hesitated for a moment, and then turned to Charlotte. “I hope this isn’t too forward, but… Can I have your number?”
She ducked her head before looking up. “Not forward at all.”
He typed in the number she gave him, and named her ‘Charlotte’ with a pumpkin emoji in his phone. With a promise to text her soon, he went back to the children.
The rest of the day passed in a blur. He safely drove the children and their pumpkins home, and absolutely demolished his kitchen floor carving them. He was pretty sure he was going to find seeds and gourd guts for years afterward -- and all the while, his mind was stuck on Charlotte. Although their encounter had been brief, there was no denying the spark that jumped between them.
As soon as Mary picked up the kids and drove away, smiling and waving at the pumpkins displayed on his steps, he went into his phone.
Hi Charlotte, it’s Sidney from the pumpkin patch
Hi Sidney! I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon
Bad thing?
Good thing 🙂 I hope the pumpkins are treating you well
You really should be asking me if I’m treating them well 😬 We just spent the better part of the afternoon carving them up
Send pictures?
Don’t judge me…
No, those look great! 😂
🤐 If you say so…
I’m pretty much a pumpkin carving expert. I have credentials and everything
Do you really?
Yes! We teach group classes at the farm
Group classes? I’m intrigued
Yup! “How to take your pumpkins to the next level” 🎉 We do sugar cookie classes too
Is there anything that you can’t do?
I can’t curl my tongue 😂
Taking a breath, he asked the question he’d been waiting for since he first saw her: Do you want to get a coffee sometime?
I’d love to
Sidney realized he was smiling down like a crazy person at his phone -- and he was still outside on his porch. He had a good feeling. Maybe it was the change in the season or the chill hanging in the air, but something was shifting -- and he was hopeful Charlotte would somehow be involved. And to think that he didn't want to go to the pumpkin patch today.