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She widened her eyes. “No way. She was being a huge b—” She stopped when I eyed her. “Bully, Mom. I was going to say bully.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
“Is Ian home, do you think?”
I shook my head. “No, he was helping his brother with something today. I think he said he’d be gone until after dinner.”
She deflated a little. “Okay.”
Yeah. It made me feel a little deflated too. But boy, was I not going to let her see that. We unloaded into the house, and while she pulled up the football game on TV, I told Sage I’d look for a box cake in the pantry.
Making my own birthday cake, I thought. Exactly the kind of thing that signaled boring and alone when I was younger. I wasn’t boring though, and even though I didn’t have a partner, I wasn’t alone. By no definition was I a failure.
Tucked in the top shelf of the pantry cabinet, I saw the red edge of a box and pulled it out. Yellow cake. It would do.
Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was my favorite, but so many things about this year were already different than I’d expected, so why would I think my cake would be exactly what I thought?
I set it on the counter and stared at it for a few seconds.
With the conversation at my parents looping around and around and around in my head, the cake mix staring back at me, a lump wedged itself firmly in my throat. My stomach knotted with unease, I tried to swallow it down, then opened the box, pulled the eggs out of the fridge and the oil out of the cupboard, and got to work.
And when Sage and I sat down with two giant pieces of that cake, smothered in the basic vanilla frosting, she took her first bite, closed her eyes, and made a happy humming noise.
With a full mouth, she said, “‘Sgood cake, Mom.”
Tears pricked at the back of my eyes, and I made sure to keep them there. She snuggled into my side while I took my own bite.
And you know what? That birthday cake I made myself was fucking delicious.
Chapter 24
Ian
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”
It was a good thing my sister couldn’t see me through the phone because even though Adaline was the gentler, nicer of my stepsisters, even she would hit her limit with the way I was glaring.
“You heard me.”
“Hmm, maybe there was a connection problem,” she said innocently.
Wasn’t deep breathing supposed to help calm you? I took one. Then another. The annoyance was still there, and I was still very full of regret that I’d made the call in the first place.
But humbling myself to one of my younger sisters was a worthwhile price to pay. “Adaline, if you could be so kind,” I said through a tight jaw, “I really need your help to get something set up quickly for Harlow’s birthday tonight.”
“That’s what I thought you said.” Her voice was so full of obnoxious glee that I lay my head back on the seat rest and closed my eyes. “Forgive me if I bask in this rarest of moments. Am I allowed to rub it in Greer’s face that you called me first?”
“No,” I barked. “You own a party planning company, for fuck’s sake. Of course I’m going to call you.”
She laughed in absolute delight. “Doesn’t take away this small moment of victory, and I’m still going to savor it.”
“Whatever floats your boat. But I am on a bit of a time crunch. She’s at a spa thing with Sage, and they’re shopping afterward.”
“A girls’ day,” she said. “That’s cute. And what are you trying to pull off by the time they’re done?”
Her perfect birthday, but I didn’t say that out loud.
The moment I’d walked in the door on Sunday night and saw that box-mix cake sitting on the kitchen counter, I knew. From the looks of the glass pan, she and Sage had enjoyed it thoroughly because a quarter of the cake was already gone, but it didn’t stop my chest from caving in a little when I realized what it meant.
