Page 87 of Love In The Spotlight

“I did,” Penelope said. “Janelle picked it up this morning.”

“Janelle is in the kitchen getting snacks out,” Jamie said. He’d taken the gifts out of Laken’s hand. “I’ll bring these in the back.”

The doorbell rang though and he didn’t get a chance. “We’ll go in the back while you let my brothers in,” Laken said.

He opened the door and West and Braylon were there together with Abby and Lily.

“Come in,” he said. “Thanks for coming. I know you’re all busy.”

“Nonsense,” Braylon said. “Our mother is in town. She was going to make us all get together anyway. This is better as she’ll be more occupied with your daughter than us.”

“Anything I can do to help you out,” Jamie said.

Laken’s brothers followed him to the back of the house after he had all the jackets hung up. He was glad there was no snow and nothing to stop the party from happening today. Not when Penelope was so excited over it all.

He made the introductions to Janelle and Penelope. His daughter jumped around in excitement.

“Can the party start now?” Penelope asked. “You said you had a surprise.”

“It can start now,” he said.

“I want to see what’s under that,” Penelope said, pointing to the ceiling.

He had a pinata hanging but put a sheet over it, as it was a surprise.

“I think there might be candy in there,” Janelle said.

“Yay,” Penelope said, jumping up and down. Figures his daughter would be excited over that. A treat she didn’t get a lot of.

“I hope it’s not that much candy,” he said, squinting one eye at Janelle. “Or she only eats it when she’s with you.”

“She only eats that when she’s with me anyway,” Janelle said. “But I know enough to mix it in with other things.”

He pulled a chair over and lowered the pinata down so that it’d be Penelope’s height and then took the sheet off.

“It’s a pig!” Penelope yelled. “It’s pink like my skirt.”

His daughter loved farm animals. Any animal.

He was glad she liked them more than cartoon characters. It made it easier for him to find things.

He’d even put a little pair of paper glasses on the pig to make Penelope giggle.

It was one thing he’d always done so she’d see her glasses weren’t a big deal.

“It is,” Laken said. “And you get to hit it with a stick to break it up.”

“No,” Penelope said, frowning. “That’s mean.”

Jamie turned when there was laughter in the room. He hadn’t planned that well.

“That’s what you do with a pinata,” he said.

“No,” Penelope said. “You can’t hurt it.”

“That just put a wrinkle in my plans.” He looked at his daughter. “But there is something inside for you and you can only get it by breaking it open.”

“I’ll get it when it poops,” Penelope said. “Like when I get things out of me.”

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