Page 65 of Falling Again
“And you need my help?”
“Hell no. I wanted you to know so you could join us.” Alice stared at him speechless, so Anthony continued. “It’d be nice to have you at the party. We usually don’t get to celebrate with the whole Snyder clan.”
Alice’s eyes turned glassy. “Really? That’d be great.” She coughed into her fist and recovered quickly.
“Of course. You know you were always invited to our family parties before. You were just too far away to attend.”
Alice didn’t correct Anthony, instead nodding a few times before putting the car in gear. “Text me the details,” she ordered, adjusting her mirror for a third time without turning around.
“You okay?” he asked, picking up on Alice’s tension.
Finally she turned and made eye contact, her default smug expression fixed in place. “I’m peachy keen, Tony. Thanks for letting me crash here this week. Your kids aren’t completely awful.” Coming from Alice, that was high praise.
Anthony knocked on the hood of her car and watched her back out, his gaze staying on the car until she pulled out of sight. Walking back into the house, Anthony found the kids perched on their stools at the kitchen counter. Maddie was talking Natalie’s ear off about her week of adventures, and Otis sat with his fist in his mouth. Anthony envied his son’s ability to enjoy the simple pleasures in life.
Going up to the kids and kissing them again on their temples, he joined Natalie and did the same. “What can I help with?” he asked, already eager to keep good on his promise.
Natalie turned to face him and smiled. While a tired smile, it was genuine. “Mind taking our bags upstairs? I’ll get the kids settled with dinner and then we can double-duty bath time?”
“Perfect,” he said, kissing Natalie firmly before going upstairs. As soon as he was in their bedroom, his cell phone buzzed with a text from Max.
Call me when you have a minute. There are a few things I wanted to confirm for the party.
Ensuring the coast was clear, Anthony quietly closed the bedroom door and called Max. “Hey man, what’s up?”
“Thanks for the quick call. I’ll email you the menu options, but Ginny wanted to know the theme. She’s chomping at the bit to do decorations, and I didn’t know what you were thinking.”
Anthony ran a hand down his face and sighed. “Crap. I have no idea.”
Max picked up on his tension and chuckled. “No worries. I don’t need to know that now. Just text Ginny or me your thoughts.”
“Will do. Thanks man.” Anthony disconnected the call and turned back to the bedroom door, only to find Natalie standing there, a quizzical expression marring her face.
“What’s going on?” she asked, stepping into the bedroom.
Anthony didn’t want to lie, but he also didn’t want to give away the surprise. “Nothing. A last-minute call from Alice.” He hated the lie as soon as he said it, and judging from hurt look on Natalie’s face she didn’t buy it one bit.
“Uh huh,” she huffed and left the bedroom, the door closing with a damning click.
Anthony wasn’t certain, but he thought he might have ruined their newfound peace before they had a chance to enjoy it. He only hoped Natalie would trust him, because he wanted to make their tenth anniversary the best one yet.
