Page 93 of The Scars I Bare
“Ice cream,” he said, pulling the lid off with his teeth.
I let out a laugh as he walked back over and handed it to me. He dug his finger in, using it as a giant makeshift scoop, and then looked down at me with challenge in his eyes.
“Is it a finger food or not?” He held his finger out to me, vanilla already melting down his single digit as he waited for me to decide.
What could a good girl do?
I gave him a mischievous grin, stood on my tiptoes, and showed him just how good I could suck—ice cream, that was.
“Seriously,” I said, taking a wide look around the room, the inn so full of people, I could barely take a full step in either direction, “who are all these people?”
Dean chuckled, taking a sip of his beer, as tiny children dodged and weaved between us, streamers flying, balloons hitting us in the faces.
It was extreme chaos.
“Well, when you have a party around here, everyone assumes they’re invited. Kid party or not.” He motioned toward the patio where it was currently raining cats and dogs, the patio where I’d planned to have one kick ass bounce house with amazing grilled food and plenty of space for all these wild children to run. “It’s too bad it’s raining. Although we do need the rain.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “You’re telling me. But at least the company in charge of sending the bounce house came through.”
“Oh?” he asked.
“Yeah, they said they were going to send someone over instead. An entertainer. Free of charge.”
Dean nodded. “That’s nice of them. Do you know what kind?”
I shrugged, trying to casually play it off. “I think something to do with science experiments.”
I watched as he nearly spit out his beer, laughing.
“Oh God, Lizzie’s going to crucify him. Did you warn them?”
I tried to keep a straight face. “No. Why?”
“Have you met your daughter? The one who, just last week, taught me all about kinetic energy, complete with a science experiment.”
I bit my lip. “Okay, I see your point. I might want to warn him.”
“No, don’t.” He smirked. “It will be hilarious.”
Smacking him on the shoulder, I shook my head. “You’re horrible. Let’s go find her and see when she wants to cut the cake.”
It took a while to locate her with Dean at my side. We were stopped by pretty much every person in the town, and if I hadn’t met them yet, I did now. Everyone thanked me for the party while I agonized over whether there was enough food to feed an entire town.
Thankfully, we managed to run into Molly and Jake, coming through the kitchen, armed with food for just that—an entire town.
“You guys, I could just kiss you!” I exclaimed, immediately jumping forward to help them.
“Well, not that I would mind,” Jake said, giving Dean a quick wink, “but this is all Molly. I’m just the muscle, carrying it in.”
“It’s true,” she said. “I didn’t let him near any of it,” she explained, pulling out several platters of sandwiches. “But I thought you might need a hand. No one probably explained to you the party situation here in town.”
I looked around, feeling a little less overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in the inn. “No,” I said, “I had no idea. Thank goodness the inn is empty this weekend. What a fiasco it would have been if her birthday were next weekend!”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. A birthday and a wedding? That sounds like a ton of fun.”
“That sounds like a ton of stress,” Jake interjected, laughing.
“Oh, please, like you’ve done anything besides picking out your suit. But, I do have one guest arriving today. But it shouldn’t be any trouble.”
