Page 45 of Serious Cowboy
It would be fine. It would all be fine. He was sure of it.
Mostly.
“Okay, that’s them,” Lindsey shouted over the hubbub as Tim’s car pulled into Zeke’s drive. “Everyone hide.”
They all did, including Zeke. He was astonished at how the situation had gone from noisy insanity to an almost dead quiet. Even the kids were silent, with Brian’s eyes wide in anticipation as he crouched beneath the kitchen table, and Sallie holding one hand over her own mouth while her other had been pressed against her baby sister’s as the two girls concealed themselves behind his recliner.
There was a knock, but Zeke didn’t open it. Just like they’d planned, he heard Tim yell for Callie to get out of the car.
“He’s not answering, but his door’s unlocked,” his best buddy continued his deception. He was really good at it. Tim had allowed an edge of worry to enter his tone. “Hope he hasn’t reinjured himself or anything.”
“You think he might have?” Callie asked, then all at once, an alarmed expression on her face, she shoved past her brother to enter.
And boom…
“Surprise!” Everyone bellowed as they sprang from their various different hidey holes, then began to sing the Happy Birthday song to her.
Zeke couldn’t conceal the snort trying to escape him as Callie’s face shifted from one emotion to another so fast they could’ve been a traffic light. Her worry flipped to shock then to consternation mixed with chagrin once she realized what they’d done.
What he’d done.
When she found him in the crowd, slowly pacing over to her, she pointed an accusatory finger at him. He just smiled at her, grabbing that finger and kissing the tip of it.
“You, mister, are in big trouble,” she mouthed at him through all the singing, but he had no trouble deciphering her message. What he had trouble doing was not doubling over with laughter. It struck him that in all the years between losing his young family and meeting Callie, he’d never laughed like that.
Not once.
Yet Callie with her cheerfulness and tenacity had enabled him to feel like this again. To feel human again. He owed her, and he would spend the rest of their combined existence figuring out how to repay the constant love and patience she’d shown to him. And this party that he’d arranged would, hopefully, count as one of those ways.
Once he regained control of himself, he dared to ask her, “Am I now?”
She pursed her lips at him, and he snorted. She was just so cute. With the song over, he could actually hear it when she said, “Yes.”
“So, I take it this was a surprise.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You scared me. I thought something awful might have happened to you.”
He tugged on her arms and boldly looped them around his neck, knowing she might be tempted to deck him. Luckily, she didn’t.
“Had to make sure you came in here when we needed you to,” he explained, pecking the tip of her nose with his lips.
Brian hollered, “Ewww.”
A ring of chuckles and giggles soon followed, and maybe because of this, the sternness dropped from Callie’s features. Even as she released Zeke and tossed him another look. “Still. In the future, I’d rather you not give me a coronary.”
He made his face more sincere. “Heard and understood.”
For the next hour, Callie became monopolized by the other VIPs in her circle. Zeke observed from across the room as she hugged those she cared about or worked with, as she blew raspberries on Kimmie’s belly and shared conversations within a group of women that included Erika, Amanda, and Lindsey. He hadn’t even realized that she knew Lindsey.
But it was his close focus on the owner of Sensational Shindigs that signaled him that it was time for the next stage of this party, one that could be monumental to him. At least, he hoped so.
Dismissing herself, Lindsey waved over one of her crew—Zeke thought her name was Beth—and began to insert birthday candles into Callie’s birthday cupcake cake. She then lit the candles. No one but Zeke was paying her much attention. He traversed his living room to stand there beside the table.
“Time to blow out your candles, Callie,” Lindsey spoke loudly over the commotion.
People encouraged her to travel to the table, and a couple of people who strode over before her immediately went wide-eyed over the message. But Zeke made a quick slash over his throat motion at them, so they’d keep that information to themselves.
Callie stood there for a second, not picking up on things yet.