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He shoots me a wary look. “Maybe you should. It’s a hell of a lot easier than carrying that burden on your own.”
Zoe and Aspen begin the cleanup, but the party planners mostly take care of that, too, and as the last guests say their goodbyes, I pour myself a stiff scotch and call out to Lily.
“Did you have a good time, lovey?” I ask. She holds up her new super soaker and grins wickedly, but I can see her eyelids dropping with the afternoon sunshine.
“Yes, Papa Flint.”
“Why don’t we go have a bath and put your jammies on?” Aspen suggests. On cue to her words, Lily yawns widely and then giggles.
“Where’s Papa Pike?”
“I’m right here, honeybee.” Disheveled and gaunt, Pike ambles toward us around the side of the house, his clothes wrinkled and his face etched in shame.
“Why don’t I take Miss Lily for a bath?” Zoe suggests, sensing the tension mounting amongst us.
“I can do it, Zoe.”
“No, I think that’s a great idea, Zoe,” Caden agrees, stepping up. He scoops up the party girl and rains his famous batch of kisses over her face, causing her to giggle. “But you’ll come down and say goodnight, won’t you?”
“Will you put me to bed, Papa Caden?” Lily asks sweetly, and my heart twinges.
“Why don’t we all put you to bed tonight, Lilbug?” Caden offers. “It’s a special night, after all.”
“Really?!” Lily can hardly believe the notion. It’s a rare occasion when that could happen, but we all bob our heads in unison, not bothering to confirm the thought.
“Of course,” I concede as Pike bobs his head.
“Go with Zoe now, and we’ll come up to tuck you in,” Aspen concludes.
“I love you, Papa Caden, Papa Flint, and Papa Pike.”
“We love you, honeybee,” Pike tells her, the emotion in his voice raw.
“To the moon and beyond,” Caden adds.
“Too much,” I say.
She turns to Aspen. “And I love you, Mama Aspen.”
A heavy silence falls over the yard as we all stare at Aspen, a haze befalling her gentle, brown eyes, so akin to Lily’s.
“I love you more than you know, Lily,” Aspen breathes, extending her arms toward the child. “I hope you had a wonderful birthday.”
A single tear slips down her cheek, and she turns away before Lily can see it. Zoe takes the child’s hand, and they disappear into the house, leaving the four of us in the dying twilight as the party staff works around us.
“Let’s go inside,” I suggest, rising from my spot, and no one argues.
Silently, we pile into the house and sit in the rec room, adjacent to the kitchen. For a long moment, no one speaks.
“You wanted this meeting,” I finally bark at Caden, irked by the quiet. “What do you have to say?”
“Actually, I’m the one who wanted this meeting,” Aspen interjects. “And it’s long overdue. For all of us.”
I soften and exhale. “I know things have been tense around here with the adoption issue?—”
“Things have been tense around here because we’re not working together,” Aspen cuts me off quietly. “When you guys moved in here, you did it with a sole purpose in mind—Lily. But your lives are so much more than that. You have separate issues you keep one another out of.”
I gnaw on the insides of my cheeks.
