Don't Forget Me Tomorrow(29)

“Me, too.”

“Auntie Paisey.” Kayden climbed to his feet, and he bounced over in all his roly-poly adorableness.

“My K-Bear.” She sang it as she swept him into her arms. She spun him in a circle, making him squeal, before she hooked him on her hip.

“Evie?” he asked, smacking his chest in a clear demand for Paisley to bring her little girl to him.

Paisley laughed her deep, throaty laugh. “Not today, K-Bear. She went on a special ride with her daddy, just the two of them.”

“Aw, that is really sweet,” I said.

“I know.” I swore she swooned. “They’re so precious together, I can hardly stand it.”

“That makes me so happy.”

Joy radiated from her. The genuine, real kind that you could almost reach out and touch.

“I’m so thankful for it,” she admitted.

Emotion crested before she seemed to shake herself out of it and set Kayden back on his feet, then she lifted the strap of the bag she had draped over her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re up for working on the menu?”

“Do you think I’d let anyone else cater Caleb’s special day?” And honestly, I was glad for the distraction.

She giggled. “True. Besides, no one could compare, and I’d have to spend the next two weeks weeping in bed before I could heal enough to even begin to look for someone else.”

I touched my chest. “The atrocity. I would never let that happen to my bestie.”

“You better not.”

I let go of a soft laugh. “Why don’t we get set up at the kitchen table?”

I picked up Kayden and carried him into the kitchen where I put him in his playpen with a bunch of his toys to keep him occupied.

Every part of me tightened when I thought about why it was down here rather than upstairs. The way Ryder had insisted on buying that crib, then had spent two hours putting it together.

I bit my lip, taken back to how hot it’d been in that room. The way his skin had become damp as he worked, the way his black tee had clung to the sweat.

Watching him put that crib together was like watching my own personal porn.

Paisley pulled her laptop from the bag and opened it, and she also took out a notebook and a bunch of different colored pens.

“Do you want something to drink?” I asked her.

“Iced tea?”

“Coming up.” I went to the refrigerator so I could pour each of us a glass from the pitcher, ignoring the way I could feel the curiosity in her eyes as she followed me with her gaze.

“So, where is Ryder, anyway?”

I cleared my throat. “Upstairs.”

“Hmm…” was all that came out of her.

I set the teas on the table then took the seat next to her and turned the focus on why she’d come here. “So, do you have any ideas about what you’d like to serve?”

She tapped into her computer, and she brought up a Pinterest board with about a thousand different of those ideas.

I laughed. “Uh-oh, we are serious about this.”

She cast me a side-eye, only the hint of a tease remaining there. “We are definitely serious about this, Dakota. Really serious. I want him to know how much he means to me.”

“I promise he already knows that, but I also promise we’re going to make this incredibly special. A night he will never forget.”

“You can bet it’s going to be a night he’ll never forget,” she said out of the side of her mouth, letting go of the innuendo.

I faked disgust. “You can keep those plans to yourself, thank you very much. I’ll just focus on the food.”

“That’s an entirely different board you probably don’t want to see.” She wagged her brows.

Giggles flooded out. “Um, yeah. You’d better have that set to private. I don’t think I need that visual in my head.”

“You need something—”

“Shut it,” I said, letting go of the razzing warning before I sat forward so I could study some of the ideas she’d pinned.

There were a bunch of appetizers done in elaborate ways, and a few hearty entrees that had been set in pretty dishes, plus she’d pinned a ton of different ideas on decorating the trays and displays.

“It looks to me like you’re thinking mostly heavy appetizers.”

“Yeah, I’d like to set up a big buffet table with an array of yummy things that we can pop into our mouths. I don’t want to do the whole sit-down thing. I think Caleb will like it better if he can just hang out with his family and friends.”

I snagged her pink pen so I could jot some notes in my own notebook.

“Hey, that’s mine.” She feigned a whine.

“I like it, and I want it, so it’s mine,” I told her with a sly grin. “And am I not volunteering my time, energy, and resources to make this happen? You’d think you wouldn’t mind sharing your pen with me.”

“What I think is you’re a dirty thief and I’m never going to see my favorite pen again. I bet you’re actually the one responsible for these break-ins and you set the whole thing up at your house as a decoy.”

I gaped at her. “You caught me.”

She didn’t even fight her grin, knocking her shoulder into mine. “You know anything that’s mine is also yours, Doodle-Boo. I mean, except for my man.”