Dad closed the door behind him and leaned against it. My dad was in his late sixties but you’d never believe it. He still had a full head of hair, was distinguished and handsome with those exotic golden eyes he’d gifted to me, and he was a big guy. His work as a painter and decorator kept him busy, as did running around after his granddaughters.
“They sent me to bring you back down.”
“I guessed as much.” I stood up. “I didn’t mean to stay up here so long.”
“Why are you up here?” Dad studied me carefully. “What’s going on, sweetheart? You know I can always tell. And things have been off with you for a while.”
Of course my dad had noticed. We didn’t get much alone time anymore, but my dad was observant. He worried about me all the time, and as a parent, I now realized that was just something that came with the territory. I worried about my kids all the time, and I knew that I’d still worry even on the day they were turning forty years old.
“I’m okay, Dad. Just having a tough time with the whole fortieth-birthday thing. But I’m getting over it.”
“You and Nate okay? You don’t seem . . . Well, I mean, you two haven’t seemed quite as close lately.”
My reassuring smile was not so reassuring since it trembled. “We’ll be fine. We . . . um . . . we’re just going through a rough patch, but we hashed a lot of it out and I think we’re going to be fine.”
“You will be,” Dad said with so much certainty I almost believed he knew it to be true. “He loves you. He knows I’d kick his arse if he ever stopped treating you the way you deserve.”
I grinned and hurried across the room to hug him. A girl never stopped needing a hug from her dad, no matter what age. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Hey.” He kissed my head and held me close. “Always, sweetheart.”
Finally, I let him loose and reached around him for the door handle. “Did you struggle with forty?”
“A little,” he said as we walked out onto the landing. “I think that’s just natural.”
“So I’m not being a giant baby?”
“No.” He chuckled. “And I can promise you, what you’re feeling will pass.”
Reassured, I followed him downstairs, trepidation building inside of me when I realized there was no noise coming from the sitting room. What was going on? I looked at my dad but he just gave me this mysterious little smile.
Bracing myself, I stepped off the last stair and peered into the sitting room to see everyone was huddled around, waiting on me. Standing in the middle of them all was Nate and two shiny new suitcases. The girls were standing with Sylvie, Nathan, and Dee, bouncing excitedly and giggling, with presents in their hands. The rest of the guests were gathered at their backs.
“What?” I searched everyone’s faces for some answers, finding nothing but mischief, and finally returned my focus to my husband. “What is going on?”
Nudged forward by their grandparents, my girls hurried over to me. “Happy birthday, Mum!”
“Thank you, babies.” I took the gift Lily offered first. “I have to open it now?”
She nodded. I looked to Nate. He nodded.
Seriously. What was going on?
I tore open the present, my cheeks hot from being the center of attention. My confusion only grew when the present Lily gave me turned out to be a glasses box. Inside it was a pair of black-lensed sunglasses with chunky nineteen-sixties-style round white frames. They were so me. “I love them, baby, thank you.” But we lived in Scotland. I only needed sunglasses for driving, so I didn’t exactly need them to be this cute. It was a very random gift.
“Now mine.” Jan held out two gifts.
One was very flat and bendy, like there was paper inside, and the other small and circular. I opened it first to find a bracelet made of small seashells. Again. Random. “It’s adorable, baby.”
“I know.” She grinned. “Now the other.”
The other, to my ever-mounting confusion, was a map of a town called Hartwell, Delaware, in the United States. “Okay. Thank you?”
She giggled and Lily grabbed her hand to lead her back to their grandparents. I looked at Nate. “What is going on?”
His dark eyes danced with amusement as he strolled over to me and held out an envelope. “Happy birthday, Liv. Oh . . . and belated happy tenth anniversary, too.”
I smiled, my excitement mounting now as I started to realize the girls’ gifts were hints at whatever was in this card. I ripped it open, not even pretending to be nonchalant, and my heart started to bang in my chest when I opened a birthday card and an e-ticket fell out of it. It was a flight schedule first from Edinburgh to London, then London to Philadelphia. I studied Nate. “Where are we going?”
“Hartwell. A beautiful boardwalk town on the Delaware coast. We’re finally going to celebrate that anniversary.” He pulled me into his arms, kissing my nose.
“You remembered?” I said, deeply touched. Years ago, I’d told Nate about my fondest memory when my dad came back into mine and my mom’s lives. We vacationed together on the Delaware coast and it lived up to and surpassed all my expectations of what a family vacation should be like. We’d vacationed there a few times over the years before Mom got sick, and I’d loved it every time.
“Your family vacations to Rehoboth.” Nate nodded. “I remember everything you tell me.”
“When do we leave?” I rested my hands against his chest, feeling relief flow through me at this romantic gesture.
Nate grinned. “Now, actually.”
“What?” I glanced down at the schedule. Did that say . . . “It says our flight to London leaves this evening.”
“Aye, that would be right. Which means we need to go.”
“Go? What?”
“Don’t worry.” Jo hurried to my side. “Nate got your summer clothes to us behind your back, plus we packed some new clothes, your birthday present from us.” She gestured to my best friends standing behind her. “And we picked well, I promise. Those clothes do not reflect this party.”
“Hey,” Ellie whined.
“We love you, really.” Joss hugged her.
“I hate you all,” Ellie mumbled and then she smiled at me. “Not you, Liv. Have a great time.”
“Wait. What?” I was still freaking confused. “We can’t just go. I have children.” I pointed desperately to my girls. “And work. And I don’t have my passport or travel insurance or currency.”
My partygoers laughed while Nate glowered at me. “Give me some credit, Jesus Christ. I told your work and Ronan has arranged cover for you.”
I looked at Ronan and he nodded, smirking. How he’d kept this to himself, I had no idea.
“I have your passport, travel insurance, and currency for us both. M
um and Dad are taking the girls for the first five days and Mick and Dee are watching them for the next five. They’ve agreed to stay at the house so as not to disrupt the girls from school.”
“That’s a big ask.”
“We’re happy to,” Sylvie said.
My dad nodded in agreement. “Go, sweetheart.”
Realizing this was actually happening, I turned to Nate. “Is this for real? You really organized all of this? For me?”
Nate gave me a tender, loving look as he slid his arms around my waist and drew me against him. “When are you going to realize I’d do anything for you, babe?”
I melted. “I love you.”
“Aye, and me you.” And after that sweet declaration he pushed me none-too-gently toward my suitcase. “Now, move. The taxi’s been waiting for fucking ages.”
Bray gasped. “Uncle Nate said—
“Ducking ages.” Nate cut him off as he kneeled to hug Lily. “Ducking ages.”
“Oh.” Bray frowned, looking confused as we said good-bye to our girls. I murmured I love you’s to them, kissing their faces all over, and already dreading not seeing them for ten days, despite my excitement. All the while I heard in the background:
“Oh?” Joss said. “You believe Uncle Nate but not me?”
“No, you definitely said the bad word,” Braden said.
Bray solemnly replied. “I heard it.”
Joss crossed her arms over her chest and jutted her chin out at her husband. “I guess we know who’ll be ducking himself this evening.”
“Okay!” Nate shoved past them. “Youngsters in the room, and oldsters trying to get out.”
Residual irritation niggled at me as I quickly said good-bye to my friends. “I’m not going anywhere if you intend to crack ‘old’ jokes the entire time, Mr. Forty-Two.”
“Last one, I promise. Now let’s move.”
“Let me say good-bye to everyone!” I cried out, flustered.