Page 69 of Cinnamon Roll Set Up

Dad scowls as if Sam is the one who’s out of line. “I’m going to check on Ava.”

He leaves us, pushing through the crowded back yard.

Sam tracks Dad’s progress into the house. “He’ll never get it, will he?”

“I expect he won’t,” Grandpa says. “It’s probably easier to keep his head in the sand and pretend he’s in the right than to accept how much he’s hurt you kids.”

Harper runs a hand over Sam’s back, and Miles moves his on mine. Soothing in a way I can appreciate but really don’t want to sink into right now.

“Okay, but is nobody going to talk about the fact that they at least considered hiring mermaids?” I say.

“I chose the wrong profession,” Harper says. “I could have swam around in other people’s pools wearing a bikini and a tail.”

Sam nuzzles closer to her. “We can still make it happen.”

“I take back everything I said about you and Ava being similar,” Miles says to me.

“Thank you.” I nod like a queen accepting a formal apology. “I’m over the top, but even I have limits.”

He grins. “To be fair, your limits are pretty high up there.”

I nudge him with my hip. “That’s what makes me fun.”

“I never argued that.”

It takes me at least thirty seconds to realize we’re staring at each other with goofy smiles on our faces. I snap out of it, but from the way the rest of my family is watching us, the damage has already been done.

Grandpa takes my hand and shakes it back and forth. “Are you keeping your promises?”

The air squeezes from my lungs. He narrows his eyes on me as if willing me to remember exactly what he’s talking about. Of course I know.

Is Miles the right man? Maybe the harder question: am I trying?

“I think I am.” It’s about as honest as I can be. I don’t know how to do this with Miles. I don’t know how to move past these fears that still sit right below the surface.

But I want to try.

“Good to hear it. Now,” he says, clapping his hands, “does anybody know if there’s any cake around here?”

Chapter 23

Georgia

The party is a rousing success, as they always are. Willa and her friends get transformed into fairies, they play a few games in the yard, and make friendship bracelets at a craft station. As promised, Willa lets me try to smash the heck out of the piñatas, but I catch nothing but air.

That doesn’t stop me from stuffing candies into my pockets for later.

I am uncomfortably full from eating two generous slices of rainbow cake. Most of the guests have left, leaving the house especially cavernous without all the tipsy parents wandering around. Sam and Harper left to take Grandpa back to Fiesta Village a few minutes ago, and now I’m lounging in the family room while Miles lets Finn show him his demolition game upstairs.

It’s almost peaceful. Until Dad joins me. He sits down on a couch across from me.

“Ava always throws a good party.”

I nod. “Kids had fun.” Understatement of the year, but we all witnessed their berserk reactions.

“How are things going with your design work?”

Two sentences of conversation before he circled around to my job. Is that a record?

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