Page 118 of Tickled Pink

“No, no.” I mime a key against my lips. “It’s a surprise.”

Max smiles. “Can’t wait.”

“Pheebs, your turn,” Thad says down below.

I take a breath, curbing my adrenaline before easing out the window.

Fuck this house, indeed.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Phoebe

Back to Phoebe’s 30th Birthday

“I ate so much sushi that night, I thought I was going to die,” I say.

Max and Thad laugh, the memory a happy one for all of us.

“Death by sushi wouldn’t be a bad way to go,” Thad says. “It was nice hanging with Yoko again, too.”

Max chuckles. “It was.”

“Where does that woman store her sake?” I ask. “Because she drank you both under the table and then went back to work.”

“That’s Yoko for you,” Max says.

We chuckle.

“But,” he continues, “while my birthday night was incredible, I’d still argue my birthday overall was worse than Thad’s.”

“Bullshit,” Thad says.

“I flew across the country, only to be ambushed by my dad.”

“I, too, was ambushed by my father. Locally, but still.”

“But then my mother ambushed Phoebe.”

“Well, I’m sure if my mother were still alive, she would have ambushed her, too.”

Max scoffs. “No, she wouldn’t have.”

“He’s right.” Thad looks at me. “My mother was a saint. She would have adored you.”

I swoon. “I am adorable.”

“Still think you should have taken that check, though,” he jokes. “We could have come home and bought one of those Botsford beds.”

“Missed opportunity,” I say with a shrug.

“All that business with the ring wouldn’t have happened if you had told me about it earlier,” Max says, “so I still maintain that—“

“Don’t say birthday curse,” Thad says, annoyed.

“The birthday curse lives on!”

Thad sighs. “Once again, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the ring, but your shitty birthday was not my fault, Max.”

---