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Time was slipping past too quickly. I was getting older; the proof of that was in how much my grandchildren had grown over the years. I didn’t even want to look in the mirror to see the new lines on my face or the gray in my hair. How Nik still found me sexy when I was an old woman, I had no clue, but for some reason, he couldn’t keep his hands off me.
Shaking away the weird feeling that with each birthday, I grew closer to the end, I sat up in bed with a happy laugh. Reaching out, I grasped Grier around the waist and pulled her down onto my lap. With Jagger and Shaw spending more and more time at their home in Tennessee, I didn’t get to see Grier as much as I did Emerson and Hendrix. I didn’t even know they were visiting, so seeing the blond hair floating in the air as she’d bounced with her cousins had been a truly welcome surprise.
Tiny arms wrapped around my neck. “Happy Birthday, MiMi!” she cried, giving me a tight squeeze. “Did I surprise you? I told Daddy I wanted to give you the best gift ever, and he said the only gift you would appreciate was seeing me and my cousins.”
I kissed the crown of her sweet-smelling head. “It’s the best surprise ever,” I assured her. “I love every minute I get to spend with you and Emerson and Hendrix.”
She turned on my lap, and I waved Mia’s two children over. Emerson smacked a kiss on my cheek before sitting cross-legged on the bed in front of me, while her younger brother sat down in my lap once Grier made extra room for him. My arms were full, but my heart was overflowing with happiness and love.
“We brought you cake and presents,” Hendrix informed me. “Momma said I wasn’t supposed to tell you that, MiMi, but I can’t keep secrets from you. That’s not right.”
Fighting a laugh, I stroked a hand over his hair. “I’m glad you get it, Hendrix. No one else understands the way you do.”
“Surprises are fun!” Emerson said with a huff. “We were supposed to distract you while Momma and Uncle Jags set up all the decorations with Papa. Now Hendrix snitched.”
“Yeah, Hendrix, you ruined MiMi’s party!” Grier glared at him.
I felt her muscles tensing and knew I had only a matter of seconds before she had him pinned to the bed. And because Hendrix would just roll over and take it like he always did for fear of hurting her, I tightened my arm around my youngest grandchild. “Nothing’s been ruined,” I promised. “In fact, I appreciate that Hendrix warned me. I don’t really like surprises.”
Which everyone in my family knew, but apparently my husband and grown children had forgotten that little detail. If I didn’t love them so much, I would have strangled them, but at least Hendrix had given me a warning.
“But Daddy and Auntie Mia worked so hard on planning the party with Papa,” Grier grumbled, her hands balled into fists as fire sparked out of her blue eyes at my sweet little grandson.
“I swear to you all that I will act very surprised so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings,” I vowed. “As long as none of you tells your parents Hendrix forewarned me, then no one but the four of us will know.”
Grier rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at Hendrix, but Emerson gave a firm nod. “Okay. No more snitching on anyone. But you have to pretend to be really, really surprised, MiMi. Otherwise, Papa is going to be sad, and I can’t have that.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning again. Emerson was more like me than she realized. Her unwavering loyalty and concern for her grandfather’s feelings were too adorable at times. The bond between the two of them was more than I could have ever asked for with any of our grandchildren. I tried to spread my attention between all three of my grandbabies, but Grier spent more time with Dallas and Axton than me, which was understandable since they had more time to travel to West Bridge, Tennessee, than I did. Hendrix and I were the closest of the three, and not just because he was the only boy.
There was just something about my grandson that made me pause every time I looked into his green eyes. From the first time I held him, a part of my heart I didn’t even realize was unused opened up, and he’d filled the space. Grier and Emerson had their own places within my soul, but this boy was magical.
A firm tap on the bedroom door had our heads turning, and I called out for whoever it was to come in. Seeing Jagger, I nearly jumped off the bed, the only thing stopping me Grier and Hendrix. I hadn’t seen my son in months. Although he’d been dividing his time between the two states for several years at this point and I should have been used to not seeing him for long periods of time, I wasn’t.
Seeing all of us on my bed, he walked over and lifted his daughter into his arms before bending to kiss my cheek. “Happy birthday, Ma.”
“Thanks, baby boy. Getting to see you and the grandbabies has already made today perfect.”
His blue eyes, the same shade as his father’s, lit up. “That’s all I wanted.”
“Get up, MiMi,” Emerson urged. “Once you’re dressed, we can have breakfast. Papa made pancakes and bacon.”
“Bacon!” Hendrix cheered.
“But…” Grier’s voice wobbled. “Bacon is pigs. Daddy, they’re going to eat Wilbur!”
Jagger tried to fight a sigh but couldn’t quite contain it as I looked up at him in confusion, unsure why she was so upset. “Grier and Love Bug watched Charlotte’s Web a few weeks ago. Since then, neither one of them will eat bacon.”
“Not eat bacon?” Emerson whispered with stark horror on her face. “But… But… Why?” she sputtered. “It’s the most delicious thing in the world, Uncle Jags. Not eating bacon should be a crime.”
“Yeah!” Hendrix shouted, jumping to his feet on my mattress. “Grier, you should be arrested for not eating bacon.”
“No,” she argued. “You two should be arrested for killing a poor little piggy and eating him! Murderer. Murderer. Murderer!”
“Am not!” Hendrix cried. “I never hurted anything in my whole life. I didn’t kill the pig, I just eat him.”
“Daddy, put Hendrix in time-out for eating the poor piggy!” Grier commanded her father, who was already squeezing the bridge of his nose.
“What the hell’s going on in here?” Nik demanded as he came into the room.
