Chapter Twenty-Two
· Brooks ·
“How much longer?” Skye tugged on my sleeve.
“Maybe five minutes,” I said as I pushed a chair into position.
“Da-ad.” She crossed her arms. “You said that three minutes ago.”
“That’s what the maybe is for. Addie might show up ten minutes before her shift starts or she might show up on the dot. Sorry.”
Skye groaned, letting her head fall back.
The whole concept of a surprise party was already overstimulating, the people, the social scripts, the noise.
Unspecific time frames didn’t make it any more comfortable.
Still, Skye left her headphones and tablet in her bag, too invested to go find a quiet corner for herself.
“Skye, honey, do you want to help me put these on the cake?” Addie’s mother swooped in with a big smile and held up a pack of colorful candles.
“Is it trick candles?” Skye perked up.
“No,” Maureen chuckled, “but I want to arrange them in a fun shape. What do you think? A heart or a star?”
“A guitar!” Skye shot out.
“That’s a bit difficult. I’m not sure my candle skills will be good enough for that.”
“I can do it.” Skye held her hands out and breezed off the second Maureen placed the candles in her palms.
“Once they turn into teenagers, you just gotta give them responsibilities.” Maureen leaned in conspiratorially. “Gets you through the I’m bo-ored phase.”
“She’s not a teenager yet.”
Maureen raised her brows at me. “Are you telling me or bargaining with the universe?”
“A little bit of both.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not all hormones and tantrums. You’ll get to watch her become more and more herself every day.
It’s so special when they figure out who they’re meant to be.
And then you just have to accept and support their choices.
” She smiled and patted my arm before turning and joining Skye in decorating the cake.
She may not have intended to, but she had spelled out why my daughter loved spending time with her, and why Addie cared so deeply. Being raised on acceptance and support was rarer than it should be.
“Listen up.” Renee clapped her hands and got everyone’s attention immediately. The boss was speaking. “Adriana’s just pulled into the parking lot. Party hats on. Big smiles. Let’s do this.”
Addie and I almost shared a birthday. Four years ago, we had just become friends, and I turned my party into our party, sparking the rumors that had led us all the way here.
This year, she had teamed up with her mom and Skye to bake me a cake, and we’d quietly celebrated in her living room yesterday.
They’d decorated the cake with those trick candles that wouldn’t blow out, which resulted in a fifteen-minute giggle fit from my daughter, and I couldn’t have asked for a better present.
I, on the other hand, had been planning a party for Addie.
Not because I didn’t enjoy the quiet, or because I thought Addie craved a big birthday bash, but because I wanted her to see that people would show up for her.
She had this narrative stuck in her head that she was only worthy of positive attention if she could offer something in return, and I wanted her to see how many people were happy to celebrate with her.
Without payoff. I’d even requested everyone to bring food and drink, potluck-style, so Adriana wouldn’t try to spin it and tell herself people only showed up for free snacks.
And people had shown up. The counter Addie usually worked behind was covered in salad bowls, cakes, cookies, and all kinds of bottles.
Tables had been grouped together to allow everyone to fit.
A separate table was covered in a small mountain of gifts.
Sure, half of them were from me, but the other half would have still been impressive on their own.
Esra even got everyone to wear silly paper hats.
I got in position somewhere behind the cake, where I had a good view of the door behind the bar, just in time for it to swing open and a yawning blonde to step through.
“Surprise!” a choir of voices yelled. An upbeat version of “Happy Birthday” started streaming from the saloon’s speakers. And Addie froze mid-yawn. Her eyes were the only thing moving, scanning the scene on the balcony back and forth. “What?” she eventually mouthed, barely audible.
“Happy birthday!” Maureen was the first to break off from the crowd and pull her daughter into a hug.
Skye raced up to be second. They only exchanged a few quiet words before Addie’s attention was handed off to the next person.
Esra and Noah congratulated her, Lucas and Renee queued up next.
A girl with blue hair called Vivi, Renee’s daughter, who I’d briefly been introduced to.
Austin, the resident sound tech, who had helped me time the birthday song.
I recognized some other faces from my time spent in the saloon too, and some from around the park.
I hung back and watched as Addie let herself be hugged, as she laughed and smiled and talked to everyone about the foods they brought. When it was finally my turn, her cheeks were already flushed and her smile a little tired.
“Hug?” I asked.
“Mm-hmm.” She nodded and folded into me. Despite the many people around us, she curled her fingers into my shirt and let me take some of her weight, trusting me to hold her. It was a completely different hug from the ones everyone else had gotten.
“Happy birthday.” I wrapped my arms around her, keeping her tight against my chest. “You didn’t think I’d let you spend today working behind the bar, did you?”
“I…I don’t…This is…” A heavy breath rattled her words. She blinked up at me, her eyes covered by a glassy sheen. “Thank you.”
“Too much?”
She quietly shook her head and turned away from the room to push her face into my shoulder. I carefully turned us and walked her two steps backward, giving her the hint of privacy behind a wooden pillar.
“I brought a dress for you whenever you want to get out of the uniform,” I said.
“You bought me a dress?”
“No, sorry, I just stole it from your closet the other day. I figured you might want to change into something you’re comfortable in.”
She looked up again, and the corners of her mouth quivered in a small smile. “Kiss,” she whispered and tapped her forehead.
I happily obliged the request, and Addie hummed at the little bit of affection.
“Okay.” She squared her shoulders and stepped out of the hug. “Let me change and then I’m going to eat my weight in cake.”
“Here.” I grabbed the tote bag with her clothes from the chair I’d left it on. “Want some help getting changed?” I asked, mainly to lighten the mood, not because I expected her to accept the offer.
She grinned and shook her head. “Play your cards right, Brooksy, and you can help me change out of the dress tonight. Babysitter logistics TBD.”
Addie came back from the bathroom in a short chocolate-brown dress with long sleeves and buttons down the front.
It was tight down her chest and then flared out from her waist down, swinging with every step she took.
Her hair had come free from its clip, surrounding her in a wild golden mane. She looked like a seventies dream.
“God, you’re breathtaking. You’re going to give me a heart attack someday.”
“Corny man.” She rolled her eyes at me, but her cheeks took on a perfect pink tinge. I’d compliment her every day for the rest of our lives if I got to make her blush like that.
“Dad, I have to tell you something,” Skye interrupted and ducked between us.
“What’s up, kiddo?”
“I invited Grandma and Grandpa.”
“Huh?”
Before I even had to ask for further clarification, both Addie and I turned instinctively toward the top of the stairwell, where Theresa and Lewis Green looked a little lost with their jackets in their hands and nowhere to put them. The Rattlesnake wasn’t a coatroom kind of establishment.
I glanced down at the bottle of beer in my hand, a dozen ways to defend myself for drinking in front of my kid flashing through my thoughts.
That was nonsense. It was completely normal to have a drink at a birthday party.
And yet every minor thing I did in front of the Greens felt like opening myself up to another route of attack.
Even Skye keeping this invitation a secret from me.
Was there a reason for her not telling me?
Something I had to be worried about? We usually communicated openly.
“That’s awesome,” Addie chirped when I didn’t collect myself fast enough. “The more the merrier, right? Let’s go say hi. Brooks, could you please go grab me a drink? I suddenly feel parched.”
She gave my hand a quick, reassuring double squeeze as she walked off with Skye. I’d been given an excuse. A minute to get into the right mindset for a situation I hadn’t been prepared for.
I got Addie’s drink, and by the time I joined them, I had painted on a perfectly friendly smile. If Skye wanted her grandparents here, I would support that.
“They brought a joint birthday present for us.” Addie held up a small satin box with a big bow on it.
“We thought it could double as an engagement present,” Theresa said.
“Can I see? Can we open it, please?” Skye bobbed up and down on the heels of her feet.
To their credit, neither of her grandparents berated her for her excited stimming.
“Go ahead.” Addie held the box out to Skye, who had the bow undone and the lid off in nanoseconds.
“Huh.” Skye grimaced at the contents.
Addie took the box to take a look herself, just for her face to scrunch up a little, too. The inside held a thick creamy envelope, and tied to it with another bow were a Polaroid picture of a beach house and a set of keys.
“You bought us a house?” I asked.
“Not quite,” Theresa said.
“I need a drink. Would you excuse me?” Lewis cleared his throat and shuffled past his wife, straight to the bar.
Theresa sighed but carried on undeterred, a polite smile on her lips.
“We have a vacation home on the beach in this lovely little town in North Carolina. A few years ago, a house down the street went on the market and we bought it to…” Her voice died and her perfect mask quivered.
“For Candace. To spend family summers together. It was always going to be Skye’s one day, and, well, I was hoping we could still spend family summers together. ”
“Is that the one where we went, and we got to go to the potato shop every day?”
“Yes, that’s the one.” Theresa smiled at her granddaughter and tilted her head. “And the blue ice cream. Remember that?”
“Oh, yes, Dad, you have to try the blue ice cream when we go.”
“I don’t know,” I said, my attention swinging back to the man at the bar, who was highly concentrated on not looking our way.
“No, I promise, it looks like Play-Doh but it tastes so good.” Skye was still raving about the ice cream, having misinterpreted my hesitation.
“I’ll handle my husband,” Theresa said. “We made countless memories there when Candace was little. It would be nice to keep that alive, no matter the circumstances.”
I glanced down at the little blond girl, who already had fond memories of potatoes and blue ice cream at that house, and who had also ingrained herself in Bravetown so quickly and deeply.
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stomach even looking at this park if I ever lost my daughter.
Fuck, I didn’t even want to consider the possibility.
And I understood both why it was hard for Lewis to see it passed on, and why Theresa wanted to make sure it remained a place filled with happy memories for her granddaughter.
“We’ll take good care of the house,” I said and tried to offer her a smile. “And I promise it’ll be Skye’s when she’s old enough.”
“It’s incredibly sweet. Thank you so much,” Addie said and closed the lid on the box. “Would you like some cake? Coffee? You can tell us about the place.”
“Grandma, I put the candles on the cake. They’re shaped like a guitar. Come on, I’ll show you.”
Skye ran off toward Maureen, who was setting out a big knife to cut into the cake.
I stood aside for a moment, just watching my girls make introductions, and Maureen pulling Theresa into a hug without preamble.
Addie swiped her finger through the frosting and play-threatened to swipe it across Skye’s face; she shrieked and ducked.
When they started lighting the candles, I shot another look at Lewis Green at the bar, his back turned to the rest of the room.
I couldn’t fathom what it took to willfully miss the kind of joy unfolding around the cake.
I wasn’t going to become that. No matter the legal circumstances. I wanted to be part of the group that got to have cake.
The second I stepped up behind her, Addie smiled up at me and took my hands.
She pulled them around her middle and held them there, leaning into me.
I wasn’t sure whether she was doing that for me or to demonstrate our relationship to Theresa, but in the moment, I couldn’t have cared less.
The feeling of her body molding against mine was enough to slow my thoughts and ground me in the moment.
“Happy birthday,” I whispered in her ear.
“The happiest,” she whispered back.