Chapter 16
APRIL
It was probably the best idea April had ever had.
At least, that’s what she told herself as she dialed the phone and waited for Cal to answer.
The only thing that concerned her about her idea was that she hadn’t thought of it sooner.
When Cal answered, she immediately launched into an explanation.
“I want to give Owen a surprise birthday party to thank him for giving me one. I’d like to have it at my apartment.
I’ll invite my friends since Owen doesn’t have any his age yet, but it’ll be like a real party with presents and cake and everything. What do you think?”
There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line, during which April began to think she’d gone too far for some reason. Then Cal said, “I think that’s a wonderful idea. But are you sure you want to host it at your place?”
“Yeah, of course.” That was part of the point. “You’ve had me over so many times, but you haven’t ever been to my place. I’d like a chance to have you over, and this makes a pretty good excuse, don’t you think?”
Cal laughed, and April drank in the sound of it.
More and more, she found herself struggling to suppress her strong feelings for the man.
“I think that’s a great excuse,” he said.
“And I’m sure Owen would agree if I told him, which I won’t because it’s a surprise.
Right? When were you thinking of hosting this party? ”
“Saturday?” she said. “We all have the afternoon off that day.”
“Perfect,” Cal said. “We’ll see you then.”
As soon as April ended the call, she bounced around her room saying, “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” like she’d won a years-long tournament of some sort.
Next, she called her friends to tell them it was on, and then she started planning.
She was going to need streamers for sure, and a chocolate cake.
Good music was a must. April had never planned a child’s birthday party before, but the second she got started, she realized it was so much more fun than planning a party for an adult.
She was able to harness her younger self, think about what she would like, and make it all come true.
Shopping for the party was a more expensive endeavor than April had anticipated, which was her own fault in the end.
She was so excited, and she wanted everything to be the best. It had to be perfect.
She chose the fanciest metallic streamers over the plain white ones.
She chose a two-tiered cake, despite the fact that there were not going to be enough people present to eat it.
She wanted it to feel like a big deal. She wanted Owen to feel truly celebrated.
He was a great kid, she knew, and he deserved to be celebrated.
The day of the party, she got up early to decorate and pick up the cake from the bakery.
Her apartment looked exactly as celebratory as she felt it should when she was finished, and it was shortly after she finally stood back and surveyed it for the final time that Crystal showed up.
She was first, of course. April could usually predict the order her guests would arrive, Nathan almost always being last.
“Ooh,” Crystal said, her eyes traveling around April’s apartment. “This looks great. Why didn’t I have you plan my birthday party?”
April laughed. “You wanted a kid’s party?”
“A stellar kid’s party is better than a boring adult party anyway.”
“Your birthday party was boring?”
Crystal hung up her jacket and walked her gift to the dining table. “Stop trying to undermine my compliment, friend.” She set the gift on the table. “I hope he likes trains. I hardly know him, so it was all a bit of guesswork.”
“He’ll likely be pleased with whatever you got him,” April said.
Crystal eyed the gifts already on the table. “So, you got the kid two presents, did you? Trying to show up the rest of us?”
April shook her head with a smile. “One of them is for his father. I thought it would be a good occasion to present it—a little surprise from Owen and me.”
“Ah, that’s sweet.” Crystal helped herself to a drink from April’s fridge before plopping down on the couch.
She always made herself at home, which pleased April, who always wanted her guests to feel comfortable in her home.
She took so much pride in her own hospitality.
“So, how’s the relationship going?” Crystal asked.
“Decent,” April said. Then she added, “More than decent, actually. I’m sure I’m feeling a bit more optimistic than he is, but he has good reasons to be wary. All I have to do is prove to him that this isn’t going to end in his broken heart.”
“Or at least that you’re worth the risk of a broken heart,” Crystal said, and April nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. I hope that’s true.”
“It is,” Crystal said. “Trust me. I know you, and you’re more than worth it.”
April felt herself blush at that. The compliment was more than she would have expected from her most honest and pragmatic friend. She was searching for words of gratitude that would accurately express the depth of what she felt, but then there was a knock on the door.
“There they are,” Crystal said. “No chance in hell that’s Nathan. He’s got another twenty minutes, at least.”
“No lies there.” April headed for the door.
When she opened it, she wasn’t at all surprised to see Cal and Owen waiting on the other side.
It still felt strange to see them in her space, though.
She was so used to visiting them in theirs.
Surely, her home wasn’t nearly as interesting, but she hoped it was comfortable all the same.
“Welcome!” she said, and she invited them in.
Then she and Crystal said, “Happy Birthday, Owen!” in unison.
“But it isn’t my birthday,” Owen said, confused but hopeful as he stepped into the apartment.
“I know,” April told him. “You gave your birthday to me, so I decided to throw you a party. Do you like it?”
Owen took one look at the decorations and cried out, “Wow! This is amazing!” He was a blur of color, darting around the place to see all of it in record time.
“We walk indoors, chief,” Cal reminded him. Owen slowed down but took deliberately giant steps to cover as much ground as possible with each step.
“Look at this cake!” Owen shouted when he found the dining table. “Dad, look! Is this really for me?” He looked to April for an answer.
“We’re all going to share the cake, but it’s absolutely for you. It’s your birthday, your cake, and your presents.”
The boy’s eyes lit up, and his father couldn’t help but beam from the doorway. “I have a present hidden in the truck. I’ll be right back.” He left to go collect his gift.
As soon as Cal was gone, April pulled Owen aside. “Just between you and me,” she said, “one of those presents is for your dad, but I don’t want him to know just yet. It’s our portrait we took at the playground. Remember? I was thinking you might want to give it to him.”
“Yeah, I do!” Owen was bouncing on his toes. A kid who was as excited to give a gift as he was to receive one was a kid April was proud to know.
“Perfect,” she said. “The code word is going to be stupendous. Can you remember that?”
He nodded.
“OK. When I say stupendous, you go get the present and hand it to him. It’s the one with the red ribbon. Got it?”
Again, Owen nodded. He was clearly taking this very seriously. April thought it was too adorable for words. They shook on it, and then Owen took off to tell Crystal all about everything he had already done that morning.
Before long, the door opened, and Nathan sauntered into the apartment with Cal following close behind him.
“Look who I found trying to escape,” Nathan said, laughing.
“Don’t worry, though, I dragged him back.
” He had a gift wrapped in green paper that he set on the table with the others. “Happy birthday, kid!” he said to Owen.
Cal also added a gift to the table before joining the rest of them in the living room. “This is a nice place,” he said.
“Do you want the tour?” April asked.
“Sure.”
“It’ll be quick,” she said with a chuckle.
“It’s not very big.” She showed him the kitchen, the bathroom, and finally, her bedroom.
She’d cleaned it the day before, so it was definitely looking its best. When they were in her bedroom, she took the opportunity to kiss him.
It felt good, kissing him on her home turf.
“Maybe you can spend the night here sometime,” she said.
Cal shrugged. “Or maybe we can get a place.”
The comment was so out of left field that she didn’t really register it at first. When she finally realized what she was hearing, she froze on the spot.
She had no idea how to respond. It was so totally unexpected.
She’d known better than to hope for things to move that quickly so early on. “Really?” she asked, incredulous.
“Owen convinced me to be brave,” Cal said, and he wrapped his arms around her one more time. “Maybe not right away, you know. But I’m ready to consider the possibility in the near future. I seem to be falling pretty hard for you, Nurse April.”
Now she was sure her whole face was bright red. “Same,” she said, dizzy from the effects of his gaze and his kiss. After several blissful minutes in his arms, she finally remembered why they were there. “We should go sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to your son,” she said.
“I suppose,” he said, sighing a bit. But April knew he loved all of it.
She went to the kitchen to light the candles on the cake, and then they all gathered around the dining table to sing to Owen. It felt so nearly like having a family that April came close to tears. She managed to hold them back, though, saying, “Now make a wish before you blow them out.”
Owen closed his eyes really tight and seemed to concentrate hard on his birthday wish. When he’d made his wish, he opened his eyes again. “OK, I’m ready.”
“Now you have to blow them all out.” April helped him to stand on one of the chairs and then she stood behind him, holding his shoulders to keep him from falling.
She counted to three, and while Owen blew his birthday candles, April leaned over him and gave him a little behind-the-scenes help.
When all the candles were out, everyone at the table applauded, Owen included.
Then Crystal grabbed a knife to cut them each a slice.
“Cake, then presents,” April said, and she winked at Owen, who did his best to wink back.
They all sat around the table, chatted, and ate cake while April moved the gifts onto the coffee table in the living room. Her apartment was full of people, and she loved it that way.
When the living room was ready, she called everyone in, and they watched Owen open his birthday presents.
Crystal had gotten him a toy train set, which he loved, and Nathan had gotten him a board game, which they planned to play later.
Finally, he opened his father’s present, which turned out to be a new set of warm, dinosaur-print pajamas.
He immediately begged to put them on, and Cal allowed it.
“It’s your day, chief,” he said. “You can wear pajamas all day if you want to.”
Owen ran to the bathroom to change. “I love birthdays!” he said before closing the door behind him. April’s friends grinned at her, clearly loving this as much as she was. When Owen emerged again, he stood in the middle of the room and spun in place.
“They look super cool,” Nathan said, handing the kid the compliment he was clearly anticipating.
“Thanks,” Owen said.
“I agree,” April added. “I’d even go so far as to say they look stupendous.” She winked hard at the kid, who required several winks in succession to figure out what she was getting at.
“Oh!” Owen ran to the coffee table to get the package meant for his father. He picked it up with far more caution than a typical five-year-old has and carried it to Cal. When he handed it over, he quietly said, “We made this for you.”
Cal took the package and turned to April, questioning her with his eyes.
She nodded to him. “It’s for you. Owen and I put it together for you, and we thought today would be the perfect time to give it to you.”
Carefully, Cal opened the package. He seemed like one of those people who reused wrapping paper whenever he could.
But there were deep feelings there, too.
This was something made for him by his son, and he was going to handle it with the utmost care.
When he pulled the lid off the box, April could have sworn she saw his eyes well up.
But the tears were gone as soon as she noticed them.
“This is…” He knit his brow as he stared down at the portrait in his lap. “I don’t know what to say.”
The picture was of Owen standing on one of the swings, holding on tight, and looking up as though he were seeing something amazing.
There was a sense of awe about him, a sense of the wonder of childhood.
He hadn’t known April was photographing him at the time, though she’d asked his permission ahead of time.
He was watching the storm roll in. April had developed the picture in black and white, hand-tinted a few details, and framed it in a rustic, wooden frame she felt would look right at home in Cal’s cabin in the woods.
“You made this for me?” he asked as though he couldn’t really believe it.
“Yeah,” April said. “That day I took Owen around town. We got lots more pictures, but that one was the standout shot. I can give the others to you later.”
“It’s perfect,” he said, still staring down at the portrait. “He looks so happy.”
“That’s because he is happy,” she assured him. “I see a lot of kids at my job. Owen has been one of the most well-adjusted, confident, happy kids I’ve met. You’re a fantastic father, you know. Anyway, I think so.”
Cal stood and crossed the room. He didn’t even have to say anything.
He spread his arms, and April automatically stood up into them and accepted his hug.
He was warm and comfortable, and she felt right at home in his arms. “Thank you,” he said.
Then he turned to Owen and offered him a big, warm hug, too.
“And thank you. It’s the best gift I’ve ever received. ”