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“Go sit down,” she instructed. “I’ll see if I can find any jalapeños.”
I chuckled. “Thanks, but you don’t have to dote on me. I’m only pregnant.”
Chloe blocked my way to the fridge. “Enjoy the special treatment while it lasts. You only have a few more months of it.”
Chloe insisted on cooking for me, so I had nothing else to do but sit around. The house was quiet, and I wondered where everyone else was, until I walked into the sunroom and was met with a collective, “Surprise!”
I jumped a little and quickly surveyed the room. Everyone was here, seated around a long table filled with snacks and baby decorations. On a buffet table along the wall sat a watermelon cut into the shape of a baby carriage with fruit inside, along with a cake that had a teddy bear on top. A table filled with presents sat in the corner.
“You guys!” I cried. “You didn’t have to throw us a baby shower.”
Chloe came up behind me. “Yes, we did. Here’s your jalapeños.”
Chloe handed me a jar from the fridge, and I teared up a little. Damn hormones.
Lucas immediately shot out of his chair. He’d obviously lied about going to lie down. He knew this was happening and had probably portaled the others to Hok’evale to gather supplies and buy gifts. “Sit down, Nad.”
“Thank you, guys. This was really sweet of you.” I sat down, and Lucas pulled up another chair beside me. I narrowed my eyes. “You didn’t leave the library to lie down. You were setting up for the party, and you made Chloe stick behind to distract me.”
Lucas smirked. “To be fair, the party was set up before I got here, and Chloe’s been watching you all afternoon. You can’t blame me. If it were up to me, I’d never have thrown you a surprise party. I know you don’t like them.”
Miles went around the table handing out small rectangular boxes. I didn’t know what they were for. “Why don’t you like surprises? I think surprise parties are great.”
“I guess I like having answers and clarity,” I said as I took one of the boxes from him.
“That’s not true, Nadine,” Talia pointed out. “You do like surprises, because you like mysteries, and that’s just another way of figuring out a surprise.”
“I enjoy mystery novels and puzzles because by the end of it you’ve solved something,” I clarified. “Surprises are different, because you don’t even know you’re looking for answers.”
I shook the box Miles had given me, and it made a rattling sound. “What are these anyway?”
Miles wore a goofy grin. “Open it and find out!”
I glanced around, but everyone was waiting for me to open my box first. I pulled the top off and found the box filled with over a hundred small puzzle pieces. Everyone else did the same. I saw that they too had puzzles, but their pieces were different from mine.
My heart warmed. “A puzzle party?”
“It was Talia’s idea,” Verla said. “When we’re done, we can frame them all up and hang them wherever you want them.”
“This is really cool!” I dumped my puzzle out in front of me. “How do I know what I’m building?”
“That’s the mystery, isn’t it?” Grant teased with a wink.
I smirked. “You know that’s only going to motivate me.”
“Good,” Talia said proudly. “We have prizes for those who solve their puzzles first. And the timer starts… now!”
I rushed to start organizing my pieces, and my friends did the same. I found the four corner pieces and set them aside. I realized this was going to be harder than I thought, since I didn’t know which corners they went in. As I was separating some of the middle pieces, I noticed a familiar smile.
I held up the pieces. “Lucas, is this you?”
He studied the piece for a few moments. “It does look like me, doesn’t it?”
I spread the pieces out. I noticed Talia’s eyes staring up at me from one piece, then the jeweled bodice of my wedding dress.
I gasped. “This is the photo from our wedding!”
“Oh, no!” Onyx joked, fitting two of her pieces together. “She’s on to us.”
