Page 33 of Hera

“Good. You’ll find the other out in due time,” Demi reassured Hera. “Now get to scooping!”

“Right.”

* * *

“This cake isgenius, Demi!”one of Chloe’s friends gushed. “However did you come up with the idea?”

“That would be Heidi’s idea, actually,” Hera put in. “When we were discussing themes, I mentioned the children’s book theme, and she said, ‘What, like make the toilet from the cover ofLove You Foreverinto a cake?’” Hera chuckled. “She probably didn’t mean it literally, but I think it looks amazing, thanks to Demi’s artistry.”

“You helped,” Demi said, not looking up from arranging the cupcakes into caterpillars.

“I held the pieces,” Hera said in a stage whisper. “Why don’t you each take a letter page and color it in? Chloe will turn all the pages into an alphabet book for the baby.”

“What a great idea!” the woman cooed. “I want the first letter of my name!”

“I want a W, for wolf!” another said.

“D for demon,” yet another said enthusiastically.

Hera watched the twenty-four women around the silent room as they focused on their work, sometimes adding their own embellishments on the paper around the letter. “Don’t forget to sign it!”

“I love this idea,” Chloe said, sneaking up behind Hera and startling her. “It gives the girls something to do when they arrive and keeps them quiet for a little bit.”

“You’re talking as if they’re a kindergarten class,” Hera replied, amused.

Chloe shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”

“I can hear you,” Heidi said from across the room. “And I’m more like a toddler.”

The others in the room laughed.

“Please finish up your letters. In five minutes, we’ll be starting the games,” Hera announced to the room.

“Ooh, what games are we playing?” Chloe asked excitedly.

“You’ll find out with the rest,” Hera said mysteriously. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some things to get ready.”

She left the mother-to-be with her friends and dug through one of the boxes behind the dessert table in the large conference room where the baby shower was being held. She pulled out a package of straws and a brand new baby pacifier.

Chloe was collecting the alphabet pages from her friends, exclaiming happily over each one. Hera smiled to herself, glad that the little coloring activity had been such a hit, and started passing out the straws to the women with empty hands.

“This game is simple,” Hera said, drawing everyone’s attention. She held up the pacifier by the ring. “You pass this from one person to the nextwithoutusing your hands, only the straw in your mouths. If it falls to the ground, it restarts, without the two women who dropped it.”

While the guests were busy passing the pacifier around the room, amid many giggles and shouts of encouragement, Hera returned to Demi and collected the blank papers for the next game.

Once the pacifier had made the round of the room, a cheer rose up from all the women, even the ones who had to drop out. They had discovered the trick of pressing cheek to cheek and slipping the straw through the same side fairly quickly, Hera was impressed to see.

“Now that all that adrenaline is coursing through you, it’s time to put those brains to work,” Hera greeted them, handing half the stack of papers to the women on either side of her and gesturing that they should hand them out. “Hang onto these papers, as you’ll be using them throughout the party for different games. Everyone have one? Good. Please write the alphabet down one side of the page.” Hera paused while everyone bent over their papers. After they were done, she continued, “You have two minutes to write down one children’s book title for each letter of the alphabet. Your time starts... Now!”

Silence reigned again as the women all hurried to complete the task and Hera smirked at Demi, who brought her the gift bag with the prize for the person with the most correct guesses.

“They seem to be appreciating the games,” Demi whispered.

“Thankfully,” Hera murmured back.

“What’s next?”

“Open a dozen or so presents,” Hera replied. “And then the memory game.”

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