Chapter Twenty-Two #2
The back door opened, and Brian leaned in to kiss Oliver’s forehead before going to work on the car seat buckles. “There’s my boy. Are you ready to have a fun party?”
“Happy birthday!” Oliver yelled.
When she saw the gift table, she stopped in her tracks, staring at the assortment of gift bags and wrapped boxes. “Are you serious, Brian?”
“It’s not as bad as it looks—nothing extravagant, I promise. But there’s a lot of us so there are a lot of gifts.”
“I’d make a joke about needing a bigger car, but I’m afraid I might need a bigger apartment.” Then she looked at him. “Oh, most of it will go to your house, I guess.”
He shrugged, and she noticed it wasn’t his easy shrug. His entire body looked tense. “Not necessarily. He lives with you and it wouldn’t be very nice to make him leave without his birthday presents.”
“Hi, I’m Robin.” Her friend stepped in before things could get more awkward. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“It’s good to meet you, too,” Brian said, shaking her hand. “Oliver talks about Auntie Robin a lot, so it’s great to have a face to go with the name.”
“Nora!” Oliver shouted his friend’s name and took off running toward her.
Cousin, Siobhan thought. Nora was his cousin. Regardless, the little girl met him like a long-lost friend, hugging him before leading him away to look at his birthday stuff.
It took almost half an hour to introduce Robin to everybody, and Siobhan wasn’t surprised that her friend felt instantly at home. Robin was a social person and the Kowalski family was warm and welcoming by nature.
Siobhan hadn’t been sure how much, if anything, Brian had told his family about the recent twists and turns in their relationship, but nobody was standoffish or reserved toward her.
Because Oliver was only two, the actual party segment of the day was kept short, leaving plenty of relaxed time for playing and visiting after. Knowing he wouldn’t want to be pulled away from his new toys, she and Lisa had decided to do the cake first.
It was nice not to have to worry about taking pictures or missing anything, either. Rob was always circling, snapping shots she knew would be better than any her outdated phone would capture.
Ellie and Nora had decorated a child-sized folding camping chair—his gift from them—with ribbons and balloons and Oliver sat in it, clapping the entire time they sang “Happy Birthday” to him.
Mary had baked his birthday cake after confirming it wasn’t something Siobhan wanted to do herself.
It was a large sheet cake made to look like an open book, and on one page it said Happy birthday, Oliver!
On the other page was a real blue pickup truck toy and two blue candles.
It was so beautiful and so perfect for her son that Siobhan actually had to wipe a tear from her cheek.
Brian caught her eye and gave her a wink, and she gave him a genuine smile, sliding back into the chemistry they shared.
“Beep beep!” Oliver yelled when he saw the cake, and when it was time to blow out the candles, Siobhan waved Brian in to help him.
“Let’s each do one,” he said, gesturing for her to join him.
They stood on either side of Oliver and after counting him down from three, they blew out the candles.
“Bobby, did you get that?” Lisa asked.
“Yes, Mom, I did,” he said, and Siobhan heard the low-key annoyance at the childhood nickname that still slipped in at family gatherings. Or maybe it was due to the implication the photographer at the party would have missed the birthday boy blowing out the candles.
Beth and Keri had volunteered to slice the cake and add ice cream, with Johnny and Gage passing the plates out, leaving Siobhan free to eat with Oliver and Brian.
Her son was thrilled to be the center of everybody’s attention, and he kept grinning with a mouth covered in blue frosting that really brought out his eyes.
The gift-opening portion of the party was chaos and required a lot of chasing down bits of wrapping paper that got picked up by the wind.
Siobhan was pleased to see that Brian had been right—there were a lot of gifts because it was a big family, but nothing extravagant.
There were trucks and books and puzzles.
She thought her favorite gift was from his uncles—a small blue sweatshirt that had the Birch Brook Campground logo on it, like the ones they wore.
But then Oliver opened his gift from his great-grandparents. It was a soft blue baby blanket, obviously knit by hand.
“I know he’s a little old for a baby blanket,” Mary said softly. “But all the kids have one.”
When Oliver would have dropped it, because trucks were more exciting than blankets for a two-year-old, Siobhan took it and folded it carefully. “It’s beautiful. And it’s a perfect size for him to use when he curls up with his books. It will be very well loved.”
Brian leaned in to see it, and Siobhan handed it to him.
He ran his hand over the folded blanket and his eyes were soft and maybe even a little misty.
While they didn’t have anything like that in her family, she could see that these blankets from Mary were special, and his son getting one affected him deeply.
He had to clear his throat twice before he could speak. “It’s beautiful. Thank you, Gram.”
Once Oliver had opened his gifts, Robin got him to blow kisses to everybody and say thank you before helping liberate a few of his toys from the packaging.
Siobhan was gathering the books and most of the other toys together, and Brian grabbed the empty boxes he’d saved from a delivery and stashed under a picnic table.
They ended up together, somehow, while everybody else was wandering around or talking or watching Oliver. The silence stretched between them as they figured out how to load the gifts into the boxes, until Siobhan couldn’t take it anymore.
“Thank you for this party,” she said quietly. “Robin and I threw a little party for his first, but there were really only the two of us.”
He smiled at her and her heart flip-flopped in her chest. “But he was with you and I bet he loved it.”
“He did. There was a lot of singing and clapping.” She found the box Gram’s blanket had come in and carefully repackaged it in the tissue paper. “Do you want to take this to your house?”
He stared at the box for a few seconds before shrugging one shoulder. “It should stay with him, probably. Maybe it can travel with him. Gram makes them from washable yarn because she likes them being used and loved rather than tucked away in cedar hope chests.”
“Mommy, look at my truck,” she heard Oliver call, and she turned to see him holding up a firetruck.
“Go ahead,” Brian said. “I’ve got this.”
Siobhan started to walk away, her hand going to her back pocket for her phone so she could take a picture of Oliver and his firetruck. It wasn’t there and she realized she’d set it down next to one of the boxes.
She spun to grab it and, in that second, caught sight of Brian watching her.
The raw, naked yearning grabbed her by the throat and she swallowed hard.
In the blink of an eye, it was mostly gone and the relaxed, friendly Brian she’d seen all day was back.
But a shadow of his emotions remained, echoing the same feelings she’d been trying to shove down for weeks.
How could she have doubted what this man felt for her, even for a second?
“Mommy!”
“I’m coming, sweetie.”
She played with him for a few minutes before Nora remembered the horseshoe pits had sand in them, which was extra fun for playing trucks. Then she moved through the family, thanking people and making small talk, but a part of her focus never left Brian.
Though she told herself she could wait until the party was over and his family was gone, and Robin was with Oliver in the camper, everything she wanted to say to Brian was welling up inside of her.
When the fear she might actually grab him and blurt out her feelings in front of everybody threatened to overwhelm her, she surrendered to the inevitable.
At least the birthday party itself was finished, more or less, so she couldn’t ruin that.
If the rest of them were witness to coldness or tears for the rest of her visit, she couldn’t help that.
“Could we go up to the store for a minute?” she asked Brian quietly, realizing she’d asked before coming up with a solid reason to go up there. Unfortunately, the Kowalski family was so good at this stuff, they’d forgotten nothing.
But he didn’t ask. “Sure.”
Siobhan looked over her shoulder to make sure Robin was still keeping an eye on Oliver. Her friend was watching her and Brian together, of course, and she gave her a quick thumbs-up before jerking her hand down in case anybody else was watching.
After he’d unlocked the door and stepped back to allow her in first, he locked it behind them. “What’s up?”
“I know I should wait until everybody leaves, but I can’t.” Tears were welling up in her eyes already and she wasn’t sure she would get through what she wanted to say. “I miss you.”
She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it wasn’t his entire body relaxing as though he’d been holding himself rigid by force of will and finally let go. “I miss you, too.”
“When you talked about us moving in with you and being a family, I wanted it so badly, but I was so afraid that we’d gotten caught up in being Oliver’s parents and it was a way for you to have your family with you all the time.
” When he opened his mouth, undoubtedly to object, she held up her hand.
“I know you would never do that on a deliberate level. We had been on this roller coaster for weeks and I needed to get off the ride and have my feet on solid ground.”
“I went too fast,” he said. “And I skipped some steps. Like the really big step of telling you I had fallen completely in love with you and the reason I wanted you to move in so quickly was that the sooner you lived with me, the fewer days I’d have to spend without you.”
Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks. “I’m completely in love with you, too. And I think having time and space where we made co-parenting work and Oliver was happy made me see that neither of us needed to be in a relationship for his sake. That it was really about you and me.”
“You and me?” He cupped her face in his hands, looking intently into her eyes. “What we have is unmatched, Siobhan.”
“Like popcorn chicken and fries?”
“Yes. We belong together like popcorn chicken and fries.”
She was still laughing when he kissed her, his hands sliding into her hair. Her arms slid around him, holding him close as joy coursed through her body.
“I love you,” he whispered against her mouth before pulling back. “You, Siobhan. And I know if we’d met under any other circumstances, I still would have fallen in love with you.”
“I love you, too.”
Nothing made her happier than seeing the love she felt reflecting back at her from those pretty blue eyes. “Will you move in with me? I know the house isn’t a lot, but there’s the yard and land. I think we could be happy there. And here, sometimes, because I have to do my part at the campground.”
She touched a finger to his lips to stop him.
“Yes, I’ll give my notice and Oliver and I will come live with you because the house is wonderful and he’ll love the yard.
And we’ll be together. Maybe we won’t be able to come up here with you all the time, but we’ll be there waiting for you when you can get away. ”
He kissed her again before pulling her hard against his body and just hugging her. With his cheek resting on her hair and his heart beating under her palm, Siobhan was sure her life couldn’t be any more perfect.
“Okay,” she finally said, pulling away and scrubbing her hands over her face in what was probably a futile effort to hide that she’d been crying. “We should go out there and celebrate our son’s birthday.”
He grinned, holding out his hand. “Together?”
“Always.”
They were halfway across the grass when somebody spotted them holding hands and everybody cheered. Even Robin and Oliver were clapping, even though the little guy probably didn’t know why.
“I won,” Keri yelled, running over to snatch some green bills out of Danny’s hand.
“You bet on our relationship?” Siobhan asked as Keri fanned the money and shook her hips.
“The relationship?” Danny said. “No. You guys together was always a sure thing. Brian had some blue frosting smeared on the edge of his hand and we bet on which part of your body would have blue frosting on it when you came back.”
When she immediately looked down at her chest, everybody laughed. But when she jerked her head around, trying to see the seat of her jeans, Brian chuckled and tugged at her hair.
“You’ve got a little frosting there,” he said at the same time that Keri said, “I told you it would be in her hair.”
He tucked the sticky strands behind her ear and then tracked his thumb down her jaw. “You sure you want to be part of this bunch?”
She’d never been so sure of anything in her life. “Always.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from His Small-Town Catch by Kaylie Newell