Chapter 32 Summer
SUMMER
Winnie’s fourth birthday was shaping up to be the event of the summer.
Exactly the sort of thing I wanted to throw all my mental energy into right now to distract myself.
My niece was now old enough to have ideas about the appropriate level of extravaganza for celebrating her birth.
The usual lunch with one of my cakes was no longer going to cut it.
There was a theme, obviously—dinosaur princess—and our whole family had pulled out all the stops to fulfill every outlandish whim of hers.
Within reason. Dinosaur jumping castle, yes.
A flying throne carried on ribbons held by a thousand birds, no.
Bryan did the next best thing and whipped up the most charming little animation to play at the party.
Winnie in the sky, bringing dinosaur and human kingdoms together.
Stanley and his summer festival season were going to quake in their boots.
I arrived at my parents’ house early on Sunday morning to set up.
It was a beautiful day, the sky cloudless with a light breeze.
The whole town already knew our shops were closed for this.
Hell, most of them would pop in later when Ba got the grill fired up for skewers, the smell wafting down the street like he was a pied piper.
Lina and Bryan were already there with Ba and Alvin, the kitchen completely taken over by a production line for party food.
Mabel was starting to crawl, and making sure she didn’t eat or break something was an Olympic team sport.
I scooped my youngest niece up mid-tablecloth pull and ventured out to the backyard.
Winnie had been tasked with picking herbs from the garden, a job she was taking very seriously.
Má was yapping away on speakerphone with her sister, her steady stream of gossip continuing uninterrupted even as I handed Mabel to her.
“Summer!”
I grinned seeing Lucy and Ivy waving at me from the fence, here to help me get the backyard looking appropriately scaly and sparkly.
“Obsessed with this theme, by the way,” Lucy said as I opened the gate for them.
“Yes, there was so much good stuff at the store!” Green and pink items were flying out of Ivy’s bags.
Lucy made a big show of looking around, hands on her hips. “But where’s the birthday girl? I have a very special dress that needs wearing!”
Winnie abandoned her bucket immediately. “Me!” She ran at Lucy full speed, her hand raised in the air. “You have my dress?” My niece stared up at my friend in awe.
“Sure do!”
Two weeks ago, Lucy had given Winnie a design consultation at her store for her official birthday look. Now she was unveiling her masterpiece to the hyperventilating child—a puff-sleeved, princess ballgown in a metallic green material, complete with a glitter-spiked hood and clawed gloves.
“I love it!” Winnie hugged it fiercely. “I want to wear it every day.”
I exchanged a look with Lucy. “We’ll let Lina and Bryan deal with that,” I laughed, turning back to Winnie. “Say thank you,” I reminded her.
She stuffed her face into the shiny fabric. “Thank you,” she said, her small voice muffled.
“You’re welcome, Win-win. I had so much fun making it.” Lucy beamed.
Winnie ran off, already shedding her shoes and socks in her rush to get changed.
“Where’s Olive, by the way?” I asked my friends.
“She should be here with her guys soon.” Ivy chuckled at my raised brows. “You’ll see.”
Olive and her pack showed up about twenty minutes later while we were busy assembling the balloon arch. Lars and Finn were carrying a large wooden frame between them, and Easton had what looked like bags of dirt and sand.
“So I told them about the theme and they got really excited,” Olive grinned. “Suddenly they were hammering outside and making this.”
“Took us longer than we thought because we were shirtless, and Olive really likes that,” Finn added.
“All right, fast-forward through the next bit, I get the gist,” I said with a hurried flap of my hand. “What did you make?”
“It’s an excavation site!” Easton said enthusiastically. He showed me the inside of the frame, where fossils (dinosaur toys) were scattered all over the bottom. “Once we cover them up, you’ll have some busy kids for at least…ten minutes.”
Olive pulled out some tulle-wrapped digging tools. “They can use these to find them.”
“This is way too much.” I was so grateful to have friends who wanted to be a part of my life this way. “Winnie and her friends are going to love it. Thank you.”
Guests began showing up around noon. Alvin took over supervising the archaeological dig, wearing a Winnie-sized yellow hard hat from her costume box.
Felix had graced us with his presence, too, sniffing the sand suspiciously before heading toward the food table.
I caught the look on Lina’s face seeing Winnie surrounded by her friends, animatedly explaining how to uncover the dinosaurs.
“Lina, look how big your baby is.” I hugged my stoic, marble column of a sister. “You’re so old.”
“Shut up, Summer.” But a second later, I was being squeezed back. “She’s so big. How did this happen?” Lina sniffed.
“Time, mainly.”
“And all the cookies you sneak her.”
“Shh. I would never do that. You are having delusions.” I patted her head while she glared at me.
Bryan had a napping Mabel strapped to his chest. “At least this one will stay small forever.” He smoothed back his daughter’s wispy hair. “Right?”
“She must ,” I said. Mabel’s cheek was so plump and rosy I didn’t know how they stopped themselves from eating her up every day. “Lucky you gave Ba and Má such cute grandkids so I can dodge the ‘why aren’t you packed up with kids yet?’ conversation for several more years.”
“So about that…” Rookie move. I shouldn’t have brought it up. Lina latched on like a blood-hungry tick.
“Nope.”
“Are you kidding me? You know I have to ask how it’s been living with—”
I made a zipping motion on her lips. “I’ve just opened Suns Out. That’s my baby.”
Lina didn’t look convinced at all. Truthfully, I didn’t even know if I wanted kids. Maybe I was better off as the fun auntie forever. I loved Winnie and Mabel with my whole heart, but seeing the ups and downs of parenthood close-up only confirmed that I wanted time to be me first.
“Well, the someones I’m apparently not meant to ask about are here,” Lina said grouchily.
The appearance of Lucien and Jae very quickly created a dilemma for me.
How was I supposed to act around them? Jae was so cute in his casual button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
You can’t jump on him in front of everyone, Summer .
He had a ribbon-adorned box that looked too fancy for a four-year-old.
I prayed it wasn’t for me because I would never hear the end of it.
Lucien always looked like he was plucked off the streets of Milan so that really wasn’t fair on my hormones. His present for Winnie was in an alarmingly large gift bag, and I spotted a second, smaller one as he drew closer. What on earth?
“Hey, thanks for coming!” I said quickly, hoping they could read my be cool waves of telepathy. “Where’s Mercer?”
The same damn smile, like a pair of imps.
“What is it?” I said suspiciously.
Jae held up his hands. “I want to make it clear that this was his idea.”
“Yes, he planned this,” Lucien emphasized.
An inflatable T. rex lumbered into the backyard, complete with a plastic, bejeweled tiara and the elastic of a tutu biting its aerated waist.
“Oh…my…fucking…god.” I couldn’t even process what I was looking at. It was definitely Mercer because I could see his dumb adorable face through the sheer panel on the front.
“MerrrrSAH!” Okay, Winnie had definitely spotted him. She was a tiny, green missile blasting across the lawn, arms flailing. I guess all the free pastries every time she visited earned serious kid brownie points. This costume stunt was going to tip him over the edge to straight-out favoritism.
Winnie crashed into him with such force he deflated momentarily. “Holy shit,” he swore. “I mean, ships! Holy ships.”
“Ships? Like pirates?” Winnie asked curiously.
“Sure, kiddo.”
“I think they’re smelly.”
“They sure are,” Mercer agreed. I nearly expired seeing him attempt to pat her on the head with one of his tiny arms. “Hi,” he greeted me, his cheeks flushed inside the costume. Winnie started trying to drag him to show his friends. “Um, bye?”
I watched him be converged upon by a gaggle of screaming four-year-olds, still trying to come to terms with just how much effort he had put into something so silly and so perfect.
To distract myself from thinking too hard about the uncontrollable and sudden expansion of my heart, I decided to get to the bottom of what Jae and Lucien had brought.
The box Jae held had a clear lid and was filled to the brim with vibrant summer fruits.
“Are those for Winnie?” I asked Jae, playing dumb. “They look very delicious but might be lost on her. She’ll probably try to hand them out to squirrels and birds.”
Jae’s lips twitched. “They’re for your parents,” he said wryly. “Since it’s our first time here and to thank them for hosting.”
“Oh.” Gift-giving this way was common in both of our cultures, but it wasn’t really required.
It was definitely something the older generation appreciated, though.
Actually, it was exactly the sort of thing Ba and Má would remember and bring up fondly for months to come and goddammit, he was incredibly thoughtful.
Thoughtful and leaving, Summer. Leaving .
“We have a joint present for Winnie because Lucien, well…” Jae started laughing.
Lucien rubbed his forehead, shielding his eyes from me. “What did you do?” I asked.
“You didn’t tell me the key chain you were missing was the ultra-rare cat,” he burst out.
“What?”
“I thought you could just pick the one you wanted.”