17
MAEVE
Four hours, eighteen minutes, and twenty-seven seconds. That’s how long it takes me to secure a venue, a caterer, dancers, an ice sculpture, a live dessert show, and a balloon artist to entertain any children for the engagement party. I’ve had to call in every favor I can think of, but it helps that Levi left his credit card, and the payment bonuses I offer on top of my favor requests help to sweeten the deal.
Take that, Mrs. Gallo. This will be an engagement party for the history books.
“Scott, are you proud of Mommy?”
“What?” Scott looks up from his blanket fort at my feet with some coloring ink on his face and a rather vibrant patchwork teddy bear coming to life on the pages below him.
“I have just planned the best party of the year, possibly of my entire life.”
His eyes light up like candles. “Is there cake?”
“Yes, my love, there will be cake.”
He scrambles to his feet but as his ankle catches on a corner of the blanket, I lean forward and scoop him up. Scott landsin my lap with a giggle, brandishing the colored marker. “Yay cake!”
“What else would you like?”
“Jello! And candy! And a bouncy castle!”
“You want a bouncy castle?”
“Yes!”
“Then I’ll see what I can do.” Messily kissing his cheek, I lick my thumb and try to clean off the marker from his cheek. “Scott?”
“Hmm?”
“I want to ask you an important question, okay? A big boy question.”
He looks at me with his wide, golden-brown eyes that are the mirror image of Levi’s.
“It’s about Uncle Cameron.”
Scott nods quickly. “Is he coming to the party?”
“No, sweetie, he’s still playing that huge hide and seek game.”
“Wow, he must wanna win real bad.”
“I think he does. But I want to ask if you remember anything else about the last time you saw him. Did he say anything to you? Or anything to his friends?”
Scott’s mouth twists briefly as he thinks, then he slowly shakes his head. “No, Mommy.”
“Nothing at all?”
“He just said goodbye and told me to be good.”
“Is that it?”
“Yes,” Scott whines, quickly growing bored of the conversation. He starts to wriggle in my lap, clearly eager to return to his coloring, so I let him slide from my lap. He lands on his knees and immediately belly flops down to continue coloring.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes!”
