Page 34 of Back To Our Beginning

She clapped her hands. “This is going to be so cool.”

Trenda came over and put her hand on her daughter’s head. “Are you bothering your Aunt Maddie before she’s even had a chance to put down her purse?”

Bella frowned. “Oh yeah. I’m supposed to welcome people and show them where they can put their things. It’s in the guest room. I can put your purse there if you want. But we have to be real quiet, because baby Drake’s room is right beside it. He’s asleep now. Mom said we don’t want him to wake up. Right, Mom?” Bella looked up at Trenda.

“Right,” Trenda agreed.

I wanted to pout. Getting to hold my nephew was one of my favorite things in the world.

“Hey, you can come over anytime and play with my son,” Trenda promised. “All you have to do is leave work at a reasonable hour.”

I heaved a big sigh. “Okay.”

“Give me your purse, Aunt Maddie. I’ll put it away,” Bella said with a grin.

“Am I going to owe you any money?”

Bella giggled.

God, I loved her giggle.

“No, don’t be silly. I only collect money for swears. So be careful, I’ll be listening,” she said as she skipped off with my purse.

“Your daughter is amazing,” Ruby Miller said as she came up behind Trenda.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Trenda said. “I would go with terrifying.”

“I think she’s going to run the world one day,” I chimed in.

“The kitchen is empty,” Ruby told Trenda. “Let’s take our little friend in there so we can figure out the lay of the land.”

“I think that’s an excellent idea.”

Ruby hooked one arm through my right elbow, and Trenda hooked my left elbow and they shoved their way through the crowd with me sandwiched in the middle.

“There better be food if this is an interrogation. And you better have little smokies wrapped in dough,” I warned my sister.

“It wouldn’t be a party without little smokies,” she said as we entered the kitchen.

I untangled myself and headed for the cookie sheet on top of the stove and grabbed a plate to fill it up with some of the little treats. Okay, a lot of the little treats, like a whole pile of them.

“You better be sharing,” Ruby grumped.

“It depends how mean you two are going to be.”

“Beau. I want to know if you invited Beau,” Ruby commanded.

“Okay, now I know,” I said as I dipped my smokie in hot mustard. “You don’t get any, Miss Miller.”

“Fine. I’ll fix my own plate.” And she proceeded to do so while I bit into my food.

“I can answer if she invited Beau,” Trenda interrupted. “Since I invited Kai and Marlowe, I told her to invite Beau. It took some arm-twisting…not,” my sister laughed. “So, he should show up anytime. He’s such a gentleman. He called to see if there was anything he could bring.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “Impressive.”

“That’s what I thought,” Trenda agreed.

“So, it didn’t take any arm twisting, huh?” Ruby said with interest.