Secret Desires (Roughshod Rollers MC 4)

“Yeah, it smells good!” Lily cheers. “I’m hungry.” She turns to me. “But we’re still doing presents before dinner, right?”

“Yeah,” I laugh. “We are. I know you’re excited.”

Lily has four gifts. One is a very large box that she keeps trying to shake, wondering what is in it. Two of the others are small gifts that Georgia and I got her, wanting to get her something that was specifically hers considering the conditions on the large gift. The last one is from Polly, which she brought over yesterday. Despite my condition that Polly not come to my home anymore, I was willing to let this one go due to it being Lily’s birthday.

I glance at Lily. I’d expected her to want Polly here today, or even at her party, but she didn’t invite Polly to either. I know she’s going to her mom’s on Sunday for a birthday dinner, but I suspect that Lily has noticed that Polly doesn’t come to this house anymore. She hasn’t asked why, but I’m expecting her to soon, and I’m still trying to figure out how to answer her.

“Yes!” Lily cheers, throwing a balloon up in the air. It brushes against the light and pops with a loud bang. “Oops.”

“Too much air, Lils,” I sigh. “And keep them away from the lights. I don’t have an infinite supply, you know.”

“Sorry,” Lily says guiltily. She picks up the packet. “There are two hundred in here, though.”

“Which isn’t infinite,” I remind her. “So stop popping them, or we won’t have any left.”

Lily nods quickly and puts down the pack. I glance at Georgia, who winks at me, amused. I feel a bubble of contentment; it’s hard to believe how happy I am these days, especially with how stressful those two weeks were a few months ago.

Yet Georgia and I are going strong, Lily is as happy as always, and I’ve been considering making some big decisions of my own. Life is carrying on and it couldn’t be better.

“There,” I say, satisfied. “That’s the last streamer. Can I have some balloons, Lily?”

Lily handed me some balloons tied to the white string we’d found in the cupboard. I looped them together and pinned them to the ceiling, pleased.

“It looks good!” Lily says, grinning. “We even have some extra balloons to play with!”

“You’re blowing them up,” I tell her. I get down off the chair. “Now, if the stir fry is okay…presents?”

“Sounds good,” Georgia agrees, laughing at the pleading look Lily sent her. “Let me just put the lid on.”

Lily bounds ahead of us into the living room, and she’s already sitting eagerly on the couch when we follow.

“Which present first?” I muse aloud, grinning as I see the way Lily’s eyes are fixed on the large wrapped box. “Georgia?”

“Hmm…this one,” Georgia says with a wink, picking up Polly’s present.

Polly got Lily a beautiful series of classic books in hard cover, and several pretty hair clips in the shapes of butterflies and flowers. Lily looks over them, impressed, but it’s clear that her attention is still on the present she’s really curious about. So Georgia grins and gives Lily her own gift, which is, to both my surprise and Lily’s excited amazement, the new handheld console that I haven’t been able to afford.

“There’s a few games loaded on it,” Georgia says with a smile. “And I set up an account for you.”

She leans toward me.

“I set up an email address that we can give her in a year or two,” she murmurs.

“Thanks,” I say. “I think you’ve just made her day. But, Georgia, I know how much those things cost, and with what you loaned me…”

“Not to pull this card, but my promotion is paying me really well,” Georgia interrupts. “Let me do this for her.”

I chuckle. “Thank you.”

After, we give her my little gift. It isn’t much, because I couldn’t really afford it, but watching the way Lily’s eyes light up at the beautiful, white fluffy teddy bear she reveals, a purple ribbon sitting snugly around its neck, makes me smile.

“Alright,” Georgia announces. “Last one. Have at it, Lily!”

Lily darts off the couch like she’s been electrocuted and tears at the paper. The box, however, is plain, and she looks at us, confused.

“Open it,” I encourage, grinning.

She opens the box, and gasps. Inside are several more boxes, for a large computer tower and a wide screen. With the money I loaned from all my friends, all of whom were happy to put in for the gift, I was able to get a very nice computer.