Page 68 of Betting on Lizzie

His mother approached them. She wore a beautiful pink gown and natural, boring gray hair. Much to his relief, she’d given up the bright colors a couple of years ago.

“You look gorgeous, Audrey,” Sophie said to her mother-in-law.

“Thank you, dear. The reception looks wonderful, as always. You and Kate do an amazing job.”

“Actually, Bella helped a lot. In fact, she’s talking about starting her own party-planning business. I think she’d be great at it.”

“Plus, then you can hang up your hat, Mom.” Lucy came up behind them.

“Yes. There’s that too,” Sophie said. “We should take our seats. They’ll be serving dinner soon.”

The Parker ménage had grown so much that they occupied three tables at the reception. Each of his daughters had multiple kids, and he and Sophie did their best to help wrangle them and get everyone settled.

Edward missed the regular family gatherings. Sunday dinners had been reduced to once a month. And now that there were in-laws to compete with, it was rare to have the whole lot under one roof. Even the holidays were hit or miss as to who would show up.

To compensate, Edward had started a tradition of lunch dates with his girls. Once a quarter, he’d pin them down and take them out. It had been a while, and he planned to carve out some one-on-one time with each of them tonight.

The salad had just been cleared when he saw his first chance. Three-year-old Olivia—Kate’s third—had escaped her parents and was running toward the door.

“Gotcha,” Edward said, swooping up the little girl and tickling her. Kate wasn’t far behind and smiled as she caught up.

“Nice save, Dad,” Kate said. “She’s become a runner lately, and it’s hard to keep up sometimes.”

“How’s it going, Katie?” he asked, still holding the squirmy bundle. “We haven’t talked for a while.”

“I know. Things are so busy. I’m working from home. Adam just purchased a new project—a twelve-unit apartment complex—but doesn’t start it for another week, so he’s around to help a lot. Ruby is taking a few steps here and there, almost ready to walk. And we just started Olivia on potty training.”

“Is Abby excited about starting kindergarten next month?”

“Oh, yes,” Kate said. “And your namesake, Little Eddie, starts preschool then too.”

“Well, you know what they say? Don’t blink. Seems like just yesterday I was wrestling you like this.” Kate laughed.

“Put me down, camp pa,” Olivia said. “I go baffroom.”

“Only if you promise not to run away from your momma,” he said.

Olivia promised, and he set her down. “I go potty, camp pa. Bye.”

Kate hugged him quickly, took her daughter by the hand, and waved goodbye. Edward returned to his seat just as the entrée was served. Daisy, Noah, and their three little ones—ranging from one to four years old—sat at his table. Edward placed himself between Daisy and Sophie and used dinner as an opportunity to catch up with his youngest.

“How are the rugrats?” he asked. “Keeping you busy, I assume?”

“For sure,” Daisy said, holding one-year-old Henry in her lap. “But it’s wonderful. And since I pivoted from travel info to a parenting theme on my vlog, the content comes effortlessly. Baby stuff, toddler stuff, mom stuff—there’s always a new and interesting topic to talk about. It’s been really fulfilling to get feedback from stressed-out moms who have learned something useful from the channel.”

“That’s wonderful, honey,” Edward said. “We missed you guys at last month’s Sunday dinner. I know it’s only been two months, but it seems like forever since we’ve seen you.”

“Oh, yeah. We drove up to West Virginia for Noah’s niece’s graduation. You remember Kayla? The one with Down syndrome. They had a big celebration afterward, and we wanted to be there for her.”

“Of course. I’m glad they live close enough that you can see them fairly often.”

Just as he was about to ask how the kids were doing, Henry spit up.

“Oh no,” Daisy said. “Noah, burp rag me?”

Noah held two-and-a-half-year-old Rose on his lap but dug into the diaper bag at his feet and quickly found a soft towel, which he tossed to Daisy. They worked well together.

“Can you hold him for a sec, Dad?” Daisy asked. “I’ve had to pee for an hour, and now I have to scrub baby barf off my dress.”

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