Winnie caught the rack before it tipped over.
I shut the front door, trying not to laugh while Billie dramatically collapsed face-first onto the foyer rug. “I can’t walk anymore.”
“You sprinted after a squirrel fifteen minutes ago,” I pointed out.
“That was before my tragic decline.”
Winnie stepped carefully around Billie’s body and removed her sunhat with a soft sigh.
The evening air had finally cooled enough that she looked more comfortable than she had all day. Her hair had loosened from its neat arrangement hours ago, strands curling around her face from the wind and humidity.
She looked beautiful.
“All right,” I announced. “Nobody go upstairs yet.”
Three suspicious faces turned toward me.
CJ narrowed his eyes dramatically. “He and Winnie have been communicating telepathically all day.”
“We absolutely have not,” I said.
Winnie avoided looking directly at me. It didn’t help my case.
Bianca crossed her arms. “There’s clearly another surprise.”
“There may be.”
“Conrad,” Winnie murmured under her breath.
She was smiling. Soft enough that my brain short-circuited momentarily.
God help me.
“You guys are correct. There’s one final surprise in the backyard,” I told the kids.
The second I opened the back door, Billie’s breath stuttered out of her in a mixture of a gasp and a squeal.
Lanterns hung beneath the pavilion in golden clusters, swaying gently in the early evening breeze. Strings of tiny lights curved through the garden beds while fireflies blinked lazily beyond the fence line. The projector screen I’d spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to hang correctly stretched across one side of the pavilion, and blankets covered nearly every available surface beneath it.
The kids exploded past us.
“Oh my god!”
“Is this a movie night?”
“Pillows! Dad, this is awesome!”
“I helped,” Winnie said softly.
Three heads whipped around toward her immediately.
“You did?” Billie yelled.
Winnie nodded once. That was all the confirmation needed before Billie launched herself directly at her. Winnie caught her automatically with a startled laugh.
CJ spun in a slow circle beneath the lanterns. “This is magical.”
Bianca walked toward the projector setup with visible awe. “You rented equipment?”
