Chapter 7 #3
The second Bella places a tiny cake in front of Madison and Sarah sets the other in front of Maddy, the crying cuts off almost instantly.
Just… stops. Like someone flipped a switch. Maddy blinks through her tears, staring down at the pink frosting. Madison hiccups once, eyes huge, completely distracted by the miniature cake now sitting on her tray.
The whole yard starts laughing again.
“See. Problem solved,” Bella mutters.
I wipe quickly under Madison’s eyes with my thumb and step back beside Mason, both of us watching.
For a moment, neither girl moves. They just stare at the cakes.
Suspicious.
Curious.
Trying to decide if they’re allowed to touch them. Then Maddy makes the first move. She reaches forward slowly, pressing her whole hand right into the top of the frosting. Pink icing squishes up between her fingers.
Her eyes widen. The yard goes quiet again, everyone watching like this is the most important event of the day. Maddy pulls her hand back and stares at the frosting coating her fingers.
Then—without hesitation—shoves the entire handful into her mouth. The reaction is immediate. Her eyes light up. A happy little squeal bursts out of her as she starts chewing frosting and cake with the kind of joy that only comes from discovering sugar for the first time.
“Oh, she likes it,” Sarah says, grinning.
Maddy grabs another fistful, this time faster, already committed to the destruction of the entire cake. Madison, meanwhile, is just staring at hers. Not eating. Not touching it. Just looking at it with a furrowed little brow like she’s trying to solve a very serious problem.
I crouch down in front of her.
“It’s okay, baby,” I say gently. “You can touch it.”
She glances at me. Then back at the cake. Still suspicious. Beside her, Maddy is now happily covered in frosting and cake crumbs, shoving more into her mouth with both hands.
Then Maddy notices her sister isn’t eating. She pauses. Looks at Madison. Looks at her own cake. And before anyone can stop her—she grabs a huge messy handful of cake and hurls it directly at her sister’s face.
It happens so fast I barely register it. One second Madison is staring at her cake. The next, she’s wearing Maddy’s. Pink frosting and crumbs splatter across her cheek, nose, hair, and the front of her dress.
The entire backyard explodes. Somebody chokes on laughter. One of the brothers actually slaps the table. Bella gasps, then bursts out laughing so hard she has to brace herself against Stryker.
Madison just sits there in stunned silence for one beat. Then she starts screaming.
“Oh my God,” I mutter, rushing forward.
Maddy, apparently thrilled with herself, claps her frosting-covered hands.
I grab a napkin from the table and crouch in front of Madison, trying to wipe pink frosting from her eyelashes before it gets in her eyes.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay—”
Madison is furious. Absolutely furious. She jerks away from the napkin, still crying, little fists clenched while cake smears farther across her cheek.
“Maddy, no ma’am,” I say automatically, though she’s too busy eating more frosting to care. I’m still trying to clean Madison up when she suddenly goes very still.
Her crying cuts off. Her watery eyes lock on her sister. Maddy is sitting there happy as can be, face and hands covered in frosting, humming softly to herself while she grabs another handful of cake.
Madison stares at her for one long second. Then reaches across with both hands. Before I can stop her, she grabs a fistful of Maddy’s hair and the back of her dress—and shoves Maddy face-first into her cake.
Hard. There’s a wet splat. Frosting goes everywhere. Maddy jerks back up with pink icing smashed across her entire face and immediately bursts into tears.
Madison lets go—and starts laughing. Not a little baby giggle. Full-on delighted laughter. The kind that says yes, that was exactly what I meant to do.
For one stunned second, the entire yard goes silent. Then the whole party loses it. Mason is laughing so hard behind me I can feel him shaking. Bella is bent over with tears in her eyes. Even Johnny is cackling loud enough to wake the dead.
“She got revenge!” he yells.
I’m torn between horror and laughter as I scoop Maddy up before the twins can start a full cake war.
“Oh my God,” I say, trying not to laugh while Maddy cries frosting into my shoulder.
Madison is still sitting in her chair still covered in cake, grinning like the world’s tiniest menace. Mason steps in beside me and lifts Madison out of her chair, holding her away from his shirt as she reaches for his beard with now sticky frosting-covered hands.
“You two are feral,” he says, sounding far too proud of it.
Madison squeals.
Maddy sniffles against my shoulder, frosting in her hair, frosting on my shirt, frosting somehow in my cleavage.
The party around us is still roaring with laughter.
And all I can think, as I look at my two cake-covered daughters, my husband grinning like an idiot, and a backyard full of people who love these girls almost as much as we do—is that this is exactly the kind of first birthday they were always meant to have.