Page 147 of Whisper Sweet Nothings
“This is my kind of party,” Wren said, leaning over and giving me a hug. “I love this theme.”
“Damn. There’s a lot of kids here,” Axel said.
“All right, I’m coming over to hide out. Our fathers are both in the jumpy house.” Clark shook his head with disbelief, referring to my father and Uncle Keaton.
“Well, they went in there to help Melody, but then I think they started jumping and they liked it.”
“Beefcake is monitoring the door, so no kids will be going in while the grown men jump around for a little while.” Clark took a sip of his water.
“Why is it so loud?” Bridger said, sighing.
“I don’t know, because there are like thirty children here?” I said with a laugh.
“Winnie!” Melody called from the yard as she stood next to Justine and Tommy. “Justine doesn’t believe that the cake is real. She thinks we don’t have a cake.”
“I guess we just figured out which one is the bully,” Bridger said under his breath.
“Takes one to know one.” Easton smirked as I walked toward Melody.
“Hi, sweet pea.” I bent down in front of her. “The cake is real, I promise. And we have ice cream and whipped cream and sprinkles, too.”
“My mommy lets me have all the sprinkles I want. Sometimes she gives me the whole bottle.” Justine popped a hip and pursed her lips all at the same time.
“My Winnie wouldn’t want me to do that because it would give me a tummy ache.” Melody’s hand found mine, and a little part of me wanted to call Bridger over to glare at the little heathen who was giving me attitude.
“That’s right. We don’t want to get a tummy ache.”
“That’s because Melody is a baby.” Justine laughed, and I glanced over at her mom, who was on her phone.
“Oh, Justine, your mom is calling you. You better go see what she needs.”
Justine cinched her brows together. “I didn’t hear her call me.”
“I did,” Tommy said. “She called for you twice.”
Justine stomped away, and Tommy wagged his eyebrows at me and Melody giggled. I covered my mouth to keep from laughing.
I went to get my camera and spent the next hour snapping photos of the kids doing potato sack races, and I got several photos of Melody getting her face painted like a butterfly. We’d set up a little photo station with the Polaroid camera, because that was Melody’s favorite, and Lulu was working that booth and passing out photos to the kids.
“All right, I know we aren’t allowed to act on it, but that little Justine is playing with fire by picking a fight with me.” Lulu crossed her arms over her chest and glanced over at the little girl who was now yelling into the bounce house and demanding everyone get out so she could jump alone.
“What did she do?”
“She just asked me if I was a real blonde or a bottle blonde.” Lulu gaped at me as she adjusted her silk headscarf.
“What did you say?”
“I asked her if she was a real redhead or if she used a package of Kool-Aid to get that color.” She smirked. “You go low, I’ll go lower.”
I snorted. “Don’t tell Bridger. He’s ready to lose it on her.”
“Trust me, I won’t say a word. But she best not come at me again or I’ll dish it right back at her.”
“I would expect nothing less,” I chuckled as Melody came running over to ask if it was time for cake.
“Let me go get things ready, and I’ll bring it out here and we can sing and eat cake.” I kissed her cheek and jogged into the house.
I’d just entered the walk-in pantry to grab the party plates when an arm snaked around my waist. “Hey, beautiful. Are you having fun?”
