Page 41 of The Billionaire's Instant Triplets

It broke Ria’s heart to let go of her daydreams. But practical, cool, sweet Tristan would never show up with a bouquet of red roses and an apology. He would never show up at all. If Ria decided to see him again, it would be as nothing more than a family friend, and she just wasn’t sure she could handle that.

Yet she also wasn’t sure she could handle never seeing Tristan or the kids again.

Ria tried in vain to distract herself, first with a book, then with a TV show, and finally with a deep clean of the kitchen. Nothing worked. Eventually, it was time to pick Callum up, so Ria walked the half mile to his school, pulling the wagon the little boy liked to ride in. Callum came flying out of the school, all smiles and stories.

“Hi, Ria!” He jumped into the wagon. “School was so funny today.”

“What happened?”

Callum launched into a story about his teacher doing a dance to teach them phonics. Ria listened attentively, laughing in all the right places. For the first time since she’d gotten the birthday invitation, she was able to drag her thoughts away from Tristan West and his kids.

At home, Ria and Callum spent the afternoon painting with watercolors, playing hide-and-seek, and working on Callum’s “homework” of finding sticks, rocks, and leaves in particular colors outside.

“Look, Ria.” Callum pointed into a tree. “The squirrel is brown, too!” He was looking for something brown now and wasn’t entirely satisfied with the stick he’d found.

Ria’s heart skipped a beat as she remembered other young voices calling out about squirrels. Were the triplets still as excited about squirrels? She remembered how their faces lit up when they saw squirrels and how she would do anything to see them so happy. Perhaps Tristan had invited her to the party to make the kids happy, not because he wanted to see her. Ria wasn’t even sure what to hope for.

“Are you okay?” Callum asked.

“Of course.” Ria bent down to his level. “The squirrel is very nice and brown, but remember, we can’t take any living creatures into school.”

“Right.” Callum stuck out his lip. Then his face brightened. “What about dirt?”

Ria chuckled. “Let’s see what we can do about dirt.”

After the afternoon with Callum, Ria ate dinner with his parents and had an early night. It should have been a beautiful day, but it was hard to enjoy it fully with thoughts of the birthday invitation constantly drifting back into her mind. She was almost ready to curse Tristan’s name. When she’d finally been able to get him out of her head, he’d popped back in with this invitation.

Maybe the best thing to do was delete his number and forget all about the man who’d stolen her heart. In fact, the more Ria thought about it, the more certain she was.Thiswas her life now — sunny picnics with Callum, trips to the beach, and being included in a new family. She had to enjoy it. She couldn’t let herself live in the past with Tristan.

Ria wouldn’t go to the party. It was better that she stayed here and embraced the life that was now hers — a life she would havedreamedof just a year or two ago.

Ria grabbed her phone from the bedside table. She was ready to delete Tristan’s number and the invitation. She was ready to put that chapter of her life behind her. She pulled up the message, tapped it, and reached for the delete button. Yet, instead of pressing it, she hesitated, her finger poised above the screen. Then she locked her phone and set it back on the bedside table.

For all her bravado, she wasn’t quite ready to let go yet.

Maybe she never would be.

CHAPTER20

TRISTAN

“Happy biwfday to me, happy biwfday to me!” Jamie sang. Tristan had just come into the triplets’ room to wake them, only to find that they were already awake and singing. Their faces were alight with the childhood joy of a party. For the last few days, Tristan had been answering hundreds of questions about their birthday party. Now, as he perched on the edge of Jacob’s bed and watched the kids wiggle and jump with enthusiasm, he prepared himself for another round.

Sure enough, there were things Jasmine wanted to know (or be reminded of). “We have cake?”

“Yes, we’ll have cake,” Tristan assured her. “Actually, we’ll have three: one vanilla cake with strawberry filling and pink frosting for Jasmine, one chocolate cake with green frosting for Jamie, and one vanilla-ice-cream cake with blue frosting for Jacob.”

The kids cheered.

Then Jasmine was ready with the next question. “How many kids?”

“There will be fifteen kids. Most of them are from your preschool class, and a few are from daycare or are kids of my colleagues.”

More cheers.

“And presents?” Jasmine’s eyes lit up. Both her brothers wiggled with enthusiasm.

Tristan leaned forward and raised his eyebrows. “Wait, do you want presents?”

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