Lib Novel Page 191
“That’s an adult dinner party.”
“It would be. Grammie would love to keep Bray, if that’s okay with you.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“You should know the answer to that by now.”
He glanced over at Lucy.
“She would. An adult dinner party where I don’t have to cut up anybody’s food, or wash off their face and hands after?”
“Rem can get pretty messy.”
“He’s on his own. I’m in. When?”
“I’ll need to check with Maddy, and the rest.”
“When you say Lucy would keep him, are you talking overnight?”
“I was, if that works for you.”
“I’m definitely in.”
Bray raced over. “When will my friends get here? When?”
“Any minute now.” Thea hauled him up. “Happy birthday.”
He hugged her neck. “I’m five years old! That’s a whole hand old.”
When she laughed, hugged his son, Ty wrapped his arms around both of them.
No, he wasn’t going anywhere.
Chapter Twenty-five
He survived his first horde-of-kids birthday party.
As he cleaned up the—as predicted, considerable—debris scattered by two and a half hours of noise, small bodies in constant motion, and crazed excitement, he put the entire interlude in the success column.
And one he wouldn’t have to deal with for another year.
He filled a trash bag while Thea and Rem broke down the game area and Lucy boxed up the remains of the Spider-Man cake.
The birthday boy, in a cake, ice cream, overload of fun coma, lay sprawled on the grass with the dog, like a drunk on a barroom floor.
While Ty stuffed paper plates smeared with red icing and melted ice cream in the trash bag, Lucy came out.
“How’re you holding up?” she asked him.
“Better than him.” He nodded toward Bray. “My ears are still ringing, and that may be a permanent condition, but like Elton, I’m still standing.”
“You did good.”
“No blood spilled, no broken bones. I couldn’t have pulled it off without you, Rem, Thea pitching in the way you did.”
“I think you’d have done just fine, but we’d’ve missed out on the fun.”
He turned to her and, unable to resist, ran a hand down her braid. “It really was fun for you.”