I didn’t even know if Logan would want me there. This was already hard enough.
Perilous.
My stomach clutched.
I’d die before I’d put these babies in danger. This family.
I had to believe Jarek wouldn’t be so foolish to go against my father’s direct orders, though. He had to stand down. Give me this time. It was the only reason I felt comfortable staying here while I figured out what I was going to do.
Eden’s smile shifted, as if she held the power to read every reservation that’d flash-fired through my mind. “Us Lawsons, we stick together. Through the good times and the really, really terrible times. And believe me, we’ve had some really terrible times.”
She reached out and touched my hand like in doing so, she was tying me to them.
A connection.
Binding me to the promise that those who loved you fought for you.
A reassurance that I didn’t need to be afraid.
“God knows them boys find themselves in plenty of trouble,” Gretchen tsked.
Juni grabbed my other hand. “You got to come because we’re gonna finds out if I get a baby brother or baby sister. My mimi said it’s a double trouble party. Do you know my mimi? She’s the best Mimi in the whole worlds.”
“No. I don’t.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll introduce you. You don’t got to be shy.” Juni nodded emphatically.
“Well…now that we’ve properly scared the poor girl away.” Eden lifted her brow in apology.
“Nonsense. This one’s tough as grit.” Gretchen gestured toward me with the infant in her arms.
“Hardly.” I feigned a giant smile.
“I’m pretty sure you’re tougher than you think.” Gretchen eyed me differently that time. Intuitively. As if she knew more than she should. “Hard in all the right places…soft where it counts.”
Unease lifted in a show of red, and then Eden cleared her throat. “We’d better get to this or we won’t have it ready before Logan gets back. Trent is making sure he’s occupied until five.”
She started taking bags from the stroller and piling them onto the island. They were full of craft and party materials.
“I get to do the balloons!” Juni shouted as she scrambled onto a stool so she could reach.
Gage hauled me that direction. “Do you want to help me make the invitation? It is going to be the coolest in ever and ever! Right, Mommy, right?”
He looked to the woman who gazed at him in absolute adoration. So thick I felt as if we were wading through it.
“That’s right, my sweet boy.”
“Let’s do it!” He fist pumped the air.
Eden put out the materials.
Balloons and streamers and a giant poster board.
And we set to work.
To work on this special treasure. A mark in time. Logan Lawson’s birthday.
The memory something I’d cherished, held like a dream and stored like a shrine.