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I struggled to catch my breath. “Yes. Very surprised.”
I looked at the crowd and saw Dr. Castigan and a few of my friends from the hospital. Elias and his roommate Sarah argued by the bar. I also recognized Carter’s other brothers, Max and Luke, and Luke’s wife Cindy, as well as Kieran, who I’d gotten to know pretty well over the past year.
I started to calm down and found myself smiling as everyone came over to hug me. “Wow, Carter, I didn’t expect this.”
“I wanted today to be special,” he said.
“Well, this was certainly memorable,” I told him.
He smirked, giving me the impression that this party wasn’t the only thing he had up his sleeve today.
“It certainly will be. Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you a birthday drink.”
“Okay. But with that birthday drink I’m going to need some birthday cheeseburgers or something.”
“I can make that happen.”
Carter
I wason pins and needles the entire party. I was sure Zoe knew something was up as I hugged her, but she didn’t say anything. She had a sixth sense about that sometimes.
It was nice to see Zoe relax and enjoy the party. She’d been promoted at work and now was in charge of several nurses in her wing and was working seamlessly with Dr. Castigan. The woman intimidated the hell out of me, but she was good to Zoe. It made me proud to see Zoe thrive at a job she loved.
Rex was now in the second grade at Blue Creek Elementary and was still on the town’s baseball team. Yes, he had graduated to baseball. Not tee ball. He was very proud of that. And he was taking classes several evenings a week for talented and gifted children. He was already smarter than anyone I knew, but still came to Zoe and me for advice on finding friends and socializing in school.
I looked over at Zoe enjoying the sliders and drinks with Sasha and Dr. Castigan, laughing and celebrating. I swallowed hard, hoping that her birthday wasn’t the only thing we’d be celebrating tonight.
Rex came over to me and winked obviously. He was my partner in crime for this plan and he was about as good at keeping secrets as he was at baseball. As in, getting better, but still… not great.
“Are we doing it now?” he asked, wide-eyed.
“Not quite yet, buddy.”
“When then?”
“I was thinking after we singhappy birthday.”
“Hm…”
While he mused, I wondered if I should wait to do this until we got home, but Rex was already excited about the plan and clapped his hands together.
“After the cake. Perfect,” he agreed.
“Rex, just…” I stammered. “Whatever happens, don’t do anything until I say so.”
As though planned, one of the servers chose to bring out the black forest cake that Rex and I special ordered right at that moment. The crowd of people started singingHappy Birthday.Zoe flushed a deep shade of red as she cheerfully suffered her way through the song.
“Thank you all,” she gushed. “So much. This is… wow, this is more than I could have ever asked for.”
Sasha was right next to Zoe and got the first hug, but Rex rushed up to his mother, interrupting them, and took her hand. He all but dragged her over to me. I tried to stop him.
“Rex, no,” I started.Abort. Abort plan. “We’ll do it later. I’m not ready.”
I wasn’t. Fuck, my heart was pounding out of my chest and my forehead was damp. Because proposing to a woman is ridiculously scary, even when you’re ninety-nine percent sure she’s going to say yes.
But Rex didn’t take the hint. “Mom, Carter has something for you.”
“I’ll give it to you later,” I said.
