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Geoffrey shut his eyes. Genny could almost feel the poor sweetheart counting to ten.
“Geoffrey, come on now!”
He sucked in a big breath.
And someone threw an apple. Apparently, it was Dexter, because Fiona shouted, “Dex, no!”
Too late. The apple flew straight at the throne of honor. It didn’t hit Geoffrey, but it did plow through the cake, mowing down the candles and decapitating the three Skylanders action figures.
* * *
They’d yet to get to the huge pile of presents and were serving the half exploded cake when the parents started arriving to pick up their children.
Brooke ended up just handing out the loot bags and letting them all go. Fiona went home with her sons. Brooke hardly bothered to wave her goodbye.
Nobody realized that Geoffrey had gone off somewhere until all the guests and their parents had left. About then, Brooke decided the family could watch while he opened his gifts.
She shouted for him, “Geoffrey, where are you? Time to open your gifts!” He failed to appear. “Where’s he gone now?” she muttered crossly. “Geoffrey, come here this instant! Geoffrey!”
Eloise said, “He’s probably up in his room....” She went to get him. But when she came back down, she was shaking her head. “He’s not there.”
Brooke started pacing. Never a good sign. “Dear sweet God, what a balls-up. Geoffrey, Geoffrey!” She fled toward the lake, frantically yelling his name.
Rafe said resignedly, “We’d better find him.”
Eloise assigned each of them a different area to search. Genny got the stables and stable yard.
She found him in the second stall, which was empty except for him and the gray kitten he cradled in his thin arms. He was crying softly to himself.
He looked up and saw her peeking over the stall door. “I’m not going back out there.” He sniffed and swiped the tears from his flushed cheeks with the back of his hand.
She opened the door, went in and dropped down beside him onto the bed of hay scattered across the floor. He stared straight ahead and petted the kitten, which purred out its contentment with every stroke of Geoffrey’s paint-spotted hand.
“May I pet him, too?”
“I don’t care.”
Genny scratched the sweet little creature behind its overly large ear. “It’s not such a bad thing, that your mum would put in a lot of time and effort to give a big party for you.”
“I never wanted it.” He stuck out his lower lip. “It was awfuler even than I thought it would be. The slide and the pool weren’t so bad. But the rest of it was crap. And Dennis and Dexter...” He gave a little shudder of disgust. “Some boys are just bad.”
“Let’s hope they grow out of it,” she said. Geoffrey made a doubtful sound. “And look at it this way. Some of it was fun, you said so yourself.”
He seemed to think about that for a bit. And then he asked, “Aunt Genny?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m glad you’re my aunt now. You’re really in our family. I like that very much.”
Suddenly she felt like crying. It wasn’t an easy family she’d married into. But they were hers now—all of them: Geoffrey and Eloise, Rafe most of all. And yes, even her impossible, beautiful bitch of a sister-in-law.
She wrapped her arm around Geoffrey’s narrow shoulders. “I’m glad to be your aunt.”
He put the kitten down in the hay. It meowed cheerfully and then bounded off through the stall’s open door. “All right, Aunt Genny. Let’s go back now.”
* * *
Genny and Geoffrey returned to the terrace. Eloise and the dogs joined them shortly after and then Rafe came, too. Frances and her helpers were picking up trash and cleaning off the tables.
Brooke appeared last, striding swiftly across the wide swath of lawn leading up to the terrace. At the sight of all them waiting there, Geoffrey among them, she walked even faster.
A hot flush stained her cheeks and her mouth was a thin line. She marched right up to Geoffrey. “What is the matter with you? You’ll be the death of me. Where have you been?”
“Mum, I...went to the stables, that’s all. For a minute.”
“The stables!” She threw up her arms. “Oh, you are the most ungrateful little... Oh, I just...” She glanced hotly up from her son—and locked gazes with Genny, who had made a big mistake and stood directly behind him. She braced her fists on her hips. “And I’ll just bet that you were the one who found him.”
Genny stood tall. “Well, yes. Yes, I was.”
“What did I tell you last time he ran off? If you know where he is, you’re to come and tell me.”
