He was too precious.
When he stepped back, I thrust the card at him. “This was the best I could do on short notice, but happy birthday.”
He didn’t even really look at the card before taking it after glancing at Jackie. He opened it, his gaze moved across the inside of it, and his gray eyes flicked up to me. Then he surprised the shit out of me.
He smiled.
And I knew in that moment that the second he hit his next growth spurt, this kid was going to have the same effect his father did on humanity.
Someone was going to need to protect him from the sexual vultures.
Then again, if he developed his dad’s scowl, maybe not.
He was just a sweet kid for now.
And that smile stayed on his face as he pulled out the wad of fives and ones. Then he said, “Hold on,” went to his room and came back empty-handed. His lips were pinched, but his words were clear, “Thanks, Aurora.”
“You’re welcome.”
“What? I don’t get to see it?” his uncle asked.
“No,” Amos replied.
I snickered and another glance at Rhodes showed me his mouth was twisting.
“Why?” the uncle asked.
“Because it’s mine.”
“Can I see it?” Jackie asked, bouncing on her tiptoes.
“Later.”
Johnny snickered. “Rude.”
“Now that Ora’s here, can we eat?” the birthday boy asked.
Apparently, the answer was yes. There was a stack of plates on the counter waiting already. I took one and moved, going to stand next to Johnny who looked down at me and smiled.
“Hey,” he greeted.
“Hey,” I answered. “How are you?”
“Great, you?”
“Pretty great too. Did you go out with that waitress after all?”
He chuckled. “No. She never called me back.”
“Did you check out someone else’s butt on your date or…？”
He started laughing.
“If you two are done flirting, what kind of pizza do you want, Buddy?” Rhodes’s voice came sharp.
We were flirting? Was he serious? I was just joking. Johnny made his eyes go wide, and I lifted my shoulders, helplessly. Okay.
And it wouldn’t hit me until much later that no one else had reacted to the “Buddy.” Only me.
Grabbing two slices of supreme pizza, I sprinkled some parmesan on it before heading to the table where the kids were. I sat next to Jackie, and then Johnny sat on my other side with Rhodes taking a seat beside his son.
Where the extra chairs had come from, I didn’t know.
Jackie was in the middle of asking Amos if his grandpa was coming over this weekend or next, and the next thing I knew, the birthday boy focused on me and asked, “Are you doing any more hikes before it snows?”
I had just stuck a huge slice of pizza into my mouth and had to chew through it fast before I got out, “Yeah, but I need to start checking the weather.”
“What are your options?” that was Rhodes who asked.
I told them the names of the two easy trails that were less than two miles roundtrip. Honestly, I was still a little traumatized. I had scars on my palms and knees, damn it. “Why? You want to go again? I was probably going to go on Saturday. Clara’s closing the shop at noon to get the carpets cleaned.”
“I want to go,” Jackie piped up.
Three sets of heads turned to look at her.
She frowned. “What?”
“You get winded walking to the garage apartment,” Amos muttered.
“No, I don’t.”
“We went to do Piedra River, and you stopped half a mile in and refused to hike any more,” he kept going.
“Yeah, so?”
“One of the hikes is one mile round trip and the other is two,” Rhodes explained to her, carefully but firmly.
The girl grimaced, and I tried my best to bite back a smile. “I’ll let you know when I do a shorter one. If I do a shorter one. I guess if I’m still here next year.”
I was smiling when I made eye contact with Rhodes.
His jaw was tight. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amos was making a weird face. Why were they looking at me like that?
Before I could think about it too much, Jackie started talking about how unfair they were being because she used to hike all the time, and I focused on that for a while, at least until the urge to pee came at my bladder like a bomb.
“I’ll be right back, I need to use the bathroom,” I told them, pushing the chair back.
I headed straight for the half-bathroom I remembered seeing on my other visits over. I peed and started washing my hands, and it was when I reached for a towel that I happened to look down and saw something small and brown run across the floorboard. I froze.