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“This looks incredible, Jas,” Jackie says, and I grin, seeing her headed towards me sans kids. “Serena’s with them, didn’t want to spoil the surprise if you wanted Cleo to see it first.”
“So what are you doing with the rest of your day?” Julie asks her wiggling her brows at Jackie making her blush slightly. “I heard that Andra and Abby are watching the others and Ethan might have asked for the keys to the apartment he stayed in before you all got married, so?”
“So, we might be having an afternoon just the two of us. It’s been a while but with Aiden older now, it’ll be nice to spend some one-on-one time together again and I may have teased him about us never getting to do it while he was there,” Jackie admits, and I give her a hug, before ushering her on her way. I’m sure if places were reversed, she’d be doing the same for me and Adam.
By the time we get the kids inside to show it off, it’s nearly time for guests to start arriving. I smile seeing Cleo’s face beaming with joy when the first few girls come in with books rather than gifts.
After the first few people sent in their RSVPs, I got questions for gift ideas from a couple of the girls’ moms. That lead me to asking Cleo if there was anything she really wanted, but she said she got everything with just the party already. She had Serenity as a friend, along with Amelia and Alex, and she just wanted to hopefully make some more with the others coming.
I knew most parents didn’t want to send their kids to a birthday party empty handed, so I asked if she wanted to have them donate to a charity for her or collect some money to donate to something. Her little face lit up when she asked if she could donate books to their school library, because she couldn’t ever find some of her favorites in it.
I said of course and we posted on the RSVP site that in lieu of gifts for Cleo, she’d like to share her love of reading with the school. That she preferred for anyone that wanted to bring a gift, to bring books to donate, or a few dollars to give to the library to buy new ones instead.
Adam is greeting people with Cleo as they put their books or donations in the boxes, and I see a woman with a little boy that’s scuffing his feet outside looking shy. I catch Julie’s attention and let her know I’ll be right back, before heading out to meet them.
“Hi there, are you here for Cleo’s party?” I ask as the woman looks my way.
“We are, Eric isn’t sure about coming in though,” the woman says, and I give him a smile when his head pops up.
“Everyone’s having a great time inside, you don’t want to join us?” I ask as the woman rubs his shoulder gently.
“I don’t have a present to give,” he says quietly, his eyes downcast, and I kneel down letting him see me.
“That’s okay. You know why?” I state getting a headshake of a no. “What Cleo really wants more than anything from the party is to make some new friends. She just started school at Rickman this year and she was a little shy about it. We all thought a party for your whole grade would be the best way for her to let everyone see that she’s not always shy and what makes her happy. So we came up with this really cool adventure story for everyone to join in on. No present necessary to come. In fact, she asked for people to only bring books or some money to donate to the school’s library if they did want to bring a present, she won’t be opening any at the party.”
“Really?” he asks, glancing from me to his mom.
“Really, so, want to come join in on the fun?” I ask, offering him my hand.
“I…” He stops, looking back to his mom and she nods.
“Why don’t you add this to the donation as well,” the woman tells him, handing over a worn five-dollar bill that makes his eyes widen in shock.
“Really?” he says, his smile huge when she nods, and we move inside together, letting him put in the donation before saying hi to Cleo.
“This is Eric,” I tell her smiling when Serenity, Amelia, and Alex hurry over to join us. “This is my nephew Alex and my nieces Amelia and Serenity. She’s in your grade as well.”
“You were in Miss Dorfman’s class last year with me,” Serenity says, and he nods, still a bit shy until Amelia peeps up.
“Want to come play? Aunt Jas says we can go through as many times as we want,” Amelia tells him and his eyes light up as he settles his hand into hers before the group moves over to the doorway for the first room. Jillian is entertaining the kids there, giving them the little maps to help them through the maze, while limiting how many go on through the magical portal so they’re not all on top of one another.
“Thank you,” the woman says, giving me a smile. “He’s been a bit lonely since we moved here last year. My husband’s mother and father were in a car accident last year. We lost my father-in-law and my mother-in-law ended up paralyzed from the waist down, so we moved here to help out. It’s been rough, physically, and mentally, but also financially. I mostly have been taking care of her and my husband’s only been working part-time jobs as a mechanic and janitor, so going to or having parties isn’t something we’ve been able to do. Since the invitation said the entire grade was invited, I hoped it wouldn’t matter but Eric was still worried about it.”
“I understand and believe me, I know how kids react when someone doesn’t bring them a gift or doesn’t bring them something they deem good enough,” I tell her. Her brows scrunch a bit and I add, “I run Celebrations by Jas, we do party and event planning. It’s how I met Cleo and her uncle.”
“Oh, I thought you were family at least. You don’t look quite old enough for a ten-year-old,” she adds, and I nod.
“Adam and I hit it off and we’re almost engaged,” I admit. “So I’ll hopefully be her aunt soon. Her mom passed away two years ago, and Adam became her guardian. She was in a private school but there were some issues with the mother of another student that scared her, which is why Adam switched her this year. With that, it left her a little shy around others. She’s started to come out of her shell though, and it’s been amazing to see.”
“I’m hoping that will be Eric soon. We haven’t been able to afford for him to play baseball, which is something he loved doing back home, so he’s been quiet. I keep hoping his dad will find a job like he had with Bowman’s Manufacturing, because he really liked it and it paid well, but so far he hasn’t had any luck,” she says, and I can’t stop the smile that hits.
“What did he do?” I ask.
“He was a machinist there. He could run and fix any of them and was a shift lead. If we could have moved his mother up with us it would have been easier, but her insurance wouldn’t cover it, since it’s across the state line, so we came down here. I’ve been picking up shifts at the diner now that his mom’s a bit more mobile, but there’s not much extra for fun things, so I’m really grateful for this. I’m Renee by the way, I don’t think I said that,” she adds with a little laugh, and I shake her hand.
“Jasmine, and there’s someone I want you to meet,” I tell her, leading us over to Adam who is extracting himself from two moms that Julie’s rolling her eyes toward.
“Hi baby,” he says, giving me a kiss and I love that it’s not solely to show the women he’s taken. No, I see the reason in his eyes and it’s the same as mine. He can’t last long without needing my taste on his lips, even if it’s just through a kiss.
