Episode 951: Don't Talk To Strangers

He took out his phone and put it right back in his pocket, shaking his head. “I have to stop doing that. Business can wait, especially for family time, you’d think I would have learned that lesson when you nearly ran into traffic because I was too busy staring at my phone. Do you remember that? It practically gave me a heart attack. It would kill me if anything bad happened to you.”

“I know.” Hope dipped a finger into the whipped cream atop her hot cocoa, taking a taste.

Curran had kept a close eye on his little girl the last few days, searching for a sign that something was up. But Hope seemed like her normal self, voraciously reading and dancing, and drinking and eating a disproportionate amount of sweet things. There wasn’t a hint that seeing Lucy on Halloween night had meant anything to Hope.

“I know nothing happened then, but I still feel guilty over what could have happened,” Curran said. “Just like I feel guilty over what could have happened on Halloween when I let myself get distracted by my phone. I’m really sorry, I know it must feel like I’m disinterested, but that’s far from the case, you’re one of my two favorite people.”

“I know, you tell me and show me all the time and you already said sorry right after we walked away from that lady’s house, you said you were sorry for how rude you were by kind of pulling me away. But you said you only did that because you were freaked over me talking to strangers, right?”

“Right. You were with people we don’t know, that’s a scary thing.”

“The lady seemed nice.”

“You talked to her?” Curran asked, fighting to keep the alarm from his voice.

Hope shook her head. “Not really. It’s just some people look nice and she looked nice.”

“You can’t tell by looking, no more knocking on that door,” he quickly added, “or any other door. It’s not like you have a reason to now that Halloween’s over, right?”

“Right.”

If the child knew anything, she didn’t show it. He probably had nothing to be concerned over, and since he’d worn a Spiderman costume, he likely hadn’t been recognized either, the whole thing had been a coincidence. There was just one more matter to clear up.

“We both made mistakes on Halloween night, me with my phone, you wandering off. Fortunately, it worked out, but maybe it’s best we keep it to ourselves, don’t worry your mom out of taking any more business trips. Agreed?”

Episode 952: What You Don't Know