“No more disappearing on me,” I told them all. “Not for birthdays. Not on regular old Tuesdays. Not just when it fits your schedule.”
Every single one of them nodded.
Dean put his hand right over mine.
“You got a deal,” Mason said.
“Deal,” Brooke chimed in.
“Deal,” Tessa whispered.
“Deal,” Julian added.
Carter jumped in, looking dead serious. “Deal.”
Dean squeezed my hand. “Deal,” he said real softly. “And I’m gonna prove it.”
I squeezed his fingers right back.
The candles burning on this cake weren’t the ones I had lit back at the house. Those ones had melted all the way down while I was waiting. These were brand new. And when my kids started singing—loud, totally off-key, and just goofy—the sound filled up the whole room exactly like it used to.
A loud, chaotic family. A dining table that wasn’t empty anymore. It wasn’t completely perfect. It wasn’t exactly like the old days. But for tonight, at least, I finally wasn’t sitting alone.
