126: Bonus Chapter: Sixteen….No Twenty–Three Candles Part 1
Luci
“Mommy! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Daddy, is she awake? Can she hear
me singing?” I try not to laugh at the urgency in his voice.
Easton’s voice is amused when he answers. “There’s a secret to waking Mommy. Do you want
to know what it is?” He whispers loudly.
I hear nothing sparking my curiosity more.
“You steal her blankets.” He tells Cole conspiratorially as my blanket flies off. Not even my
feet are covered. I can’t hold back my laugh even though I glare at him.
Skittles had been buried under the blanket too and she grumbles a little before raising her
head. Seeing Cole, she hops up happily to come lick my face before trotting off to greet Cole
and Easton.
“It worked Daddy!” Cole hops on the bed happily. “Happy Birthday to you Mommy! Happy
Birthday to you!” I sit up as he barrels into me for a hug while he sings.
“Thank you, Coco.” I kiss the top of his head.
“We brung breakfast, Mommy.” He slides back against the pillows and Easton places a tray on
my lap before handing Coco his plate.
“Blueberry pancakes and your favorite chai tea latte.” Easton declares before sitting to face us with his own plate.
“Forgot the flower, Daddy. See the flower Mommy. It’s a rose for how much we love you.
Birthday romance.” Cole adds before stuffing blueberry pancakes in his mouth.
I silently laugh and turn towards Easton as he mutters. “Can’t forget the birthday romance.”
Cole suddenly sets his plate down and scrambles off the bed. “I forgot it.” He takes off
running.
“Teaching my son to steal my covers to wake me up. Evil flurry.” I narrow my eyes at my
fiancée.
He’s unfazed letting that slow mischievous grin spread. “Can’t exactly tell him my favorite
ways to wake you up. I’ll remind you why tomorrow morning.” He runs his tongue slowly along
the back of his teeth as he stares me up and down. “My style for birthday romance. It wasn’t
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126: Bonus Chapter: Sixteen….N…
easy to leave you in bed this morning asleep.”
“Shameless…”
“I never claimed I had any shame. Especially where you are concerned.” He’s about to say
more when Cole returns. He has a purple folded paper in his hands. He climbs next to me.
“Forgot your card, Mommy.” He announces with that sweet little smile.
The front of the purple construction paper has a drawing of some flowers in a vase. Mommy’s birthday is written in his kid scrawl. Inside is a cake with lots of candles. Easton can’t contain a quick bark of laughter seeing the inferno cake. There’s a drawing of the three of us with party hats on with Skittles having one too. A big heart underneath with his name.
“It’s beautiful Coco. Thank you for my birthday breakfast and my card.” I kiss his forehead, and
he grabs my hand.
“We have more Mommy, but after school, Daddy says.” He looks a little disappointed and
Easton ruffles his hair.
“Mommy will have all day to be excited for her next surprises.” He winks at me.
“I’m not supposed to have surprises.” I remind him as Cole runs off to brush his teeth for
school.
“They might not be big things. Go get ready and I’ll take Skittles out after dropping off the
dishes.”
At lunchtime, Sydney and Stormi meet me outside my last class and loop their arms through
mine. “Girls‘ birthday lunch.”
They take me to Josephine’s and we sit outside in the sunshine. As we’re laughing over Barrett’s latest prank on Banning, Stormi pulls out a box. “I have the pictures from the hockey ceremony.” She hands them to us. The Ice Kings senior walk out ceremony at the last home game with the whole team lining the ice to send them off was a week before the Frozen Four. Matt, their interim coach, had a few little additions to the normal routine. At the end hiding behind the players, the families waited for them too. Cole, Jason, Baker, Barrett and I had been there when they all made their way through, along with a few others interspersed for certain brothers. The way Easton’s face lit up captured in the photo in my hands. “Todd’s going to make more copies but had these ready, so I stole them.” Stormi reveals.
Easton had been the last in line and he lifted Cole onto his shoulders to skate with him on his last mini lap around the ice. The joy on that little boy’s face would make anyone, well almost
anyone, smile.
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126: Bonus Chapter: Sixteen….N…
Easton texts me as I’m leaving the school. Already got the Coconut. Meet us at home.
I drive home wondering what they are up to. Easton is waiting for me by the front door when I drive up.
“Cole’s waiting for you outside with your first surprise.” Easton tugs me behind him. When I step out, I see the long table filled with food. Balloons and party decorations on the other tables. My whole family’s here, including Janet and Joel, who we’ve adopted too. The guys have convinced him to go to Kenton and try out for the hockey team. Matt’s replacement that he recommended to coach, watched some of his current games and said he’s got potential to make the team easily. Marco and Emily are here talking to Vince, Catalina and their girls. Catalina is wearing their youngest, Nico. I can see the thick black hair like his daddy poking
out of the carrier’s side.
“Everyone’s here again.” I observe quietly.
“Family birthday party. Thought you’d like this more than something at a restaurant.” He
answers quietly as I blink the happy tears away.
“Mommy, you need your party hat!” Cole yells from the table closest to the food. He and
Barrett stand there with some very sparkly crown in their hand. It’s covered in purple crystals
and I laugh seeing the rhinestone cake sticking up in the middle of it.
“Cole and I picked it.” Barrett says proudly.
“Not from Alexa.” Sydney laughs hard. “Instead, Easton thought it was smart to turn them
loose on Etsy and they picked that one.”
“You like it Mommy? It’s purple.” Cole concentrates as I crouch down for him to place it on my
head.
“I love it. You two picked it for me and that makes it extra special.” I hug them both.
“We made the cupcakes too. But we had lots of help.” Barrett whispers.
“Who helped?” I ask quietly.
“Uncle Easton, Baker and Uncle Jackson. It was yesterday.” He says with a grin. “I got to eat
three cupcakes and lick the bowl.”
“I see why you helped.” I hug him one more time. He’s also had too much to deal with for his age. He runs back over to Banning and hops in his lap to fix his dad’s birthday hat.
Cole sits in my lap as they sing to me, then helps me blow out the candle on my cupcake. He and Barrett naturally help open my presents. I had told Easton I really didn’t want anything for
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126: Bonus Chapter: Sixteen….N…
my birthday which was ignored. Syd and Stormi bought me a purse. The guys bought me
hockey shirts with funny sayings on them. Cole’s gift is a jersey for the new team with
Easton’s signature number 11 which he’ll keep.
Easton waits until last to hand me one large box and one flat rectangular one. “Big one first.”
He orders and the boys rip the paper off. Inside are photo books with all the pictures I had
stored of Cole and Easton along with Barrett and everyone else. There’s a paper inside about a
digital memory book site. “I had them all printed for you. You can upload any future pictures
to that website which has digital books. They can be printed up when you are ready. You have a lifetime subscription.”
I resist the urge to flip through all of them when Cole starts opening the flat box. Inside is a
dark blue folder. Cole hands it to me and I open it to find a set of family trees. “This….this is
my parents.”
“Yes, so you can see where they came from.” He moves closer and points to their names and
mine. “Your maternal grandmother was a twin. But her twin never got married or had children.
I thought you might like seeing all the names.”
Sydney comes over to look at it and grins. “That means you could have twins too. Keep that in
mind.”
Stormi laughs at my face. “At least you are forewarned.”
The party starts winding down as the littles need to go to bed for early mornings with school. Jason lifts Cole up. “Tell Mommy and Daddy goodnight. Grandpappy is on bedtime detail tonight.”
“Night Coco, let’s see. What if you dream about a birthday cake war between cupcakes and cake slices. They have candle armies and one group has those sparkler candles.”
He laughs and is already adding onto my idea as they walk away. I turn to Easton. “I suppose that means we have plans.”
“We do. Birthday date night. You can go just like that unless you want to change.”
וויו“.
go wash my
hands and meet you in the garage.”
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