Page 108 of Crashing into Love

“For however long you can stay, not just for her party. I want you here. I know Gia does, too. It’ll be a surprise for her. And I want to sneak into that room and have you hold me all night.”

“Happily,” Drew replied.

CHAPTER 32

She wanted to pick Drew up at the airport, but there just wasn’t enough time; she had six preteens coming to her hotel-suite-turned-apartment in a few hours. Drew had also had training every day leading up to the party and was taking time away from work to be there, so she’d needed to put in as much time on a board as possible before she arrived. That meant she hadn’t flown in the night before the party, which would’ve been ideal, but the day of instead.

Selma was running around the lodge, trying to make sure all the food was ready to go and that she had enough time to get it upstairs since she didn’t want to make the employees do that just for her kid’s birthday party. She’d made the cake herself, and it was plain on top, but she’d done her best to write out, ‘Happy Birthday, Gia!’ in blue icing, with blue being Gia’s favorite color.

Now, Selma was on her way back downstairs to grab it since she’d made it in the lodge’s kitchen, because if she’d made it in her own, Gia would not have been able to leave it alone until the actual party. That was when she saw her: Drew Oakes, her beautiful and amazing girlfriend, walking through the doors, carrying what looked like a gift bag in one hand, pulling a roller bag in her other, and she also had something under her arm, along with her backpack over her shoulders.

“Hey, babe,” Drew greeted.

Selma breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her and hurried over to Drew, pulling her in for a hug and not at all paying attention to what Drew had in her hands.

“I missed you,” Selma said.

“I missed you, too. But I need to put this stuff down somewhere if I’m going to hug you back.”

“What do you even have?” She pulled out of the hug.

“Gia’s gift.” Drew set the gift bag on the floor.

“And what exactly is that?”

“Mouse Trap.” The woman held a board game out in front of her.

“You got her a gift and a board game?”

“No, I got her a gift, and this is for her cake.”

“I’m so confused…”

“You said she wanted a physics-themed cake, right?” Drew asked, looking confused herself.

“Yeah. But I couldn’t figure out what to do, so it just says, ‘Happy Birthday,’ on it.”

“Mouse Trap is physics. You have to put all of this together, and then you trap the mouse in the end or something like that. Anyway, I thought we could put part of it on the cake, and if I’m lucky, it’ll actually work, and she can use it for real. I thought it could be fun. But if not, that’s okay, too. She can just have the game, and we can maybe play it later.”

Selma melted and said, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Understand exactly what I need and just do it. She’ll love this.”

“Cool. I just need to clean all the pieces and figure out how to get it on the cake. Do we have time?”

“Yeah, they get here in an hour.” Selma took the game from Drew and set it on the floor. “But first…” She leaned in and kissed her slowly and deeply. “I am so happy you’re here; not because it’s my daughter’s birthday but because I missed you. I want as much time as I can have with you while you’re here.”

Drew smiled and said, “I want that, too. Let me get this going. I hope it works. Do you have extra icing in case I need to cover up some messes?”

“Yeah, it’s in the kitchen. Anyone in there can show you where. Can you do it down here so that it’s a surprise for her?”

“Sure.”

“Come on. Let me take you to your room. Then, you can get to work on that. I put you in the room next to ours so that I can sneak in.”

“Yeah? Did you make yourself a key, too?”

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