Chapter 24
Chapter twenty-four
Emma
Catch me, Johnny!
~ Three Days Later / March ~
It’s my birthday! The best day of the year has finally arrived. Okay, maybe not the best day, but you get what I mean.
Who doesn’t like celebrating their birthday when you have an amazing man in your life, an adorable little girl who lightens up your day, and the best group of friends anyone could ask for? What is there not to be excited about?
So I won’t be having a family dinner with a whole bunch of my mother’s rich snob friends like every other year.
Boohoo, what a tragedy. But at least I still get to see my dad next weekend.
He couldn’t be here today to celebrate with us, but he promised me dinner, just us two. And that I’m really excited about.
My dad has made such an effort to be more involved in my life since the whole fiasco, and I couldn’t be happier. The little girl in me screams with joy every time she gets to spend time with her dad.
My exhilaration for this day was so potent, it woke me up at the ass crack of dawn.
So instead of waking everyone up at a ridiculous hour.
I snuck out of bed and made a mountain load for breakfast. Then I had fun blowing up balloons and hanging streamers, even though we aren’t celebrating my birthday here.
Greyson is having the front yard fenced in so that it can be ready for the summertime, meaning the place is a little chaotic at the moment.
It sucks that it’s happening on my birthday week, but I also can’t wait for it to be done; like that, Gracie and I will be able to go outside when the weather permits it.
It’s not that we don’t have a backyard, we do, but it’s relatively small and has no lawn, only stone slates, a fireplace, and chairs.
It’s beautiful, but not child-friendly at all.
Then there’s the front yard that’s actually really large and perfect for kids to play in.
But since it’s all open, Greyson didn’t feel secure having Gracie play there.
So instead, we will be doing the birthday celebrations with our friends at Morgan’s place. Cecilia had offered her home at first, but it seems Dante is in his ‘touch everything’ phase, which meant putting up decorations was impossible.
We are quickly learning what she meant by that with our little one. Just yesterday, we constantly had to move things out of reach because Gracie now touches EVERYTHING in her vicinity.
It’s now a quarter to 7:00, and I know Gracie will be up any minute, so I sneak my way back up the stairs and into the room I share with Greyson.
I also had time to curl my hair and put on my most extravagant forest green boudoir robe made of satin, with fluffy feathers on the end that touch the floor.
It’s kind of silly that I got all made up since I’ll have to change everything for my themed outfit later on, but I always start my birthday looking fabulous.
I creep up to the bed and climb on top as silently as possible, then jump onto Greyson’s sleeping form, waking him with a start. “Wake up, baby! Guess what day it is! Guess what day it is! It’s my birthday!!” I say in a sing-song voice.
“Emma,” he growls and tries to pull the cover over his head.
“Oh, don’t be a grouchy wolf. It’s my birthday! It’s time to celebrate! Wake up. Come on, wake up!” I climb on top of him, pulling the cover away.
He reaches up quickly and wraps his arms around my shoulders, then rolls us over and puts me beneath him. “I’m dating a crazy chick,” he says with his face buried against my neck, voice coming out muffled.
“But you adore your crazy girlfriend, don’t you? Certainly on her special day.” I grin from ear to ear when he pulls his head back and looks at me.
“Hmm, maybe. But I adore her more when she’s not waking me up by jumping on me.” He bites the tip of my nose, causing me to scrunch it up.
“I bet if I were naked, you’d think differently.” I arch a brow with a sly smirk.
“Oh, I definitely would. We can test it out if you want,” he whispers against my ear, then kisses down my jaw and neck.
“Buh, buh, buh. Doo, doo, bah, bah. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. Ahhhhh, arrrrr, raaarrrrr.”
“Now you have no choice but to get up,” I giggle.
“I’ll never get tired of hearing that,” he says chuckling, followed by a content sigh.
I push against Greyson’s chest, forcing him off. “Let’s go! Up, up! There’s a dinosaur princess waiting.” He finally gets off, and I jump off the bed, skipping out of the room. “I’m coming, Little Tulip! Today is a special day.”
Fifteen minutes later, Greyson finally emerges downstairs and looks around the kitchen at all the food, then the decorations. He rubs the back of his neck as a tiny hint of pink crosses his cheekbones. “You make me look like a shitty boyfriend. I should have been the one to do all of this for you.”
“It’s okay, you know I like doing this kind of stuff.”
He comes up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder as I pour us each a coffee. “Yeah, but it’s your birthday. I’m sorry I didn’t think about it. I’m still new to this whole girlfriend thing, but I’ll try harder next time.”
I turn to face him, placing both my palms on his cheeks and kissing his lips. “It’s really okay, Greyson. I promise.”
He smiles, then presses his lips to mine once more. “To answer your question, yes, I adore my crazy girlfriend. My beautiful, amazing, crazy girlfriend.”
I giggle against his lips. This is already the best birthday ever.
I push the door to Morgan and Clay’s house open and am attacked by a shower of glittering confetti. My friends all shout ‘ happy birthday!’ and blow party horns as I laugh and twirl in circles.
“Aw! You guys, this looks amazing!”
The house is decorated from top to bottom. Huge helium balloons float at the top of the high ceiling where the staircase is located in the grand foyer. Foil frills, banners, balloons, streamers, and decorations cover anywhere the eye can see.
The whole thing is themed in vintage Hollywood with black, white, and gold, making it look like a scene straight out of The Great Gatsby. Not the right era, but I love how my friends incorporated my love for vintage with my birthday. They truly are the best.
I thank them all as they come in to hug me and wish me a happy birthday once more.
Greyson, Gracie, and I are then pulled to the entertainment room, where the bar is lined up with drinks and a long high table is placed with all sorts of entrées.
There’s a corner of the room that has been gated off with toys for Dante and Gracie.
“I love your character choice. I wish I had thought of them!” Cecilia tells me as she examines my dress.
Morgan comes over while passing me a drink and touches my hair. “Seriously. But how did you get your hair to look like this? It’s amazing!”
I pat my hair slightly and giggle. “Let’s just say there was a lot of hairspray involved. Greyson even helped me out with all the curling and everything.”
Greyson and I dressed up as Baby and Johnny from Dirty Dancing.
My idea, of course. He’s dressed all in black, and I’m wearing a knee-length light-pink dress that looks identical to the one Jennifer Grey wore when they performed their dance.
My hair has been frizzed up with crazy volume.
It’s longer and not the right color, but you easily get who I’m meant to be.
Morgan and Clay dressed up as Sandy and Danny from Grease. Cecilia and Silas are dressed as Lois Lane and Clark Kent, wearing an open dress shirt with a Superman T-shirt underneath. Of course Silas would dress as a superhero. But it suits him perfectly.
Aubrey comes over with Veronica at her side. She chose to come as Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, and Ronnie is a very sexy Lara Croft with a skin-tight gray wetsuit-type outfit and black gun holsters around her legs. Her now black hair is long and pulled back into a long braid.
“You guys are gushing over my hair, but I have more questions about Ronnie’s.”
She sighs loudly. “Ugh, don’t even mention it. I started this new job in some posh restaurant as a hostess. They didn’t think my hair color was appropriate, so I changed it to this for the time being. The length is extensions.”
“Well, you still look sexy as hell, Vixen.” Gabe comes up to her side, putting his hand on her waist. He’s dressed as Han Solo… I think. I’m not big on Star Wars.
“You need to learn some boundaries, pretty boy.” She tosses his hand off and rolls her eyes. “And stop calling me that.”
“Thank God you changed your mind on your original character choice,” Aubrey says while giggling.
“What was it?” Cece asks.
“Princess Leia,” Ronnie says with wide eyes.
All of us laugh. “Oh, that would have been funny,” I say with amusement.
She points to me with an angry look. “No, it wouldn’t.”
“Okay, but who chose these adorable characters for the kids?” Morgan asks as she watches the two kids play together.
Gracie is dressed as Gertie with black overalls and a striped turtleneck shirt underneath. Her hair is in two pigtails with rope-like bows. Dante is supposed to be Elliot with his red hoodie and blue pants. Both from the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
“Em and I came up with it together. We couldn’t decide on what to dress them up as but wanted them to go along together,” Cecilia informs her.
“Well, they’re absolutely adorable.” Aubrey looks at them with hearts in her eyes.
An hour later, Noah finally shows up to the party dressed as Tony Stark. A crisp black suit opens in the front to reveal a black shirt with the triangle-shaped arc reactor in the center of his chest. He even has those rectangular glasses on.
Not going to lie, he looks hot. And now that I think about it, he actually does kind of look like Tony, with the same type of beard and mustache. Although his hair is a bit shorter.
“Where were you?” Clay asks him, sounding a bit irritated. I’m guessing they tried to reach him, and he wasn’t giving any sign of life.