MELISSA SLUMPED FOR A moment behind the wheel, giving her cheerful act a break. Thirty-five years old today, and what had she achieved in her life? She’d become a cliché—the divorced single mom, dumped for a younger woman. And on top of that, she was fighting to hang on to her home.
She was as much a loser as her mother.
No, worse. Even her mother had managed to hang on to her husband.
Melissa gave herself a mental shake. She had two beautiful children, and more work than she needed between the garden designing and the day care. She didn’t relish living on the financial edge, but she felt herself moving slowly toward safer ground.
As a birthday present to herself, she decided to take a night off from worrying. Putting the car in gear, she headed for Seth’s place. After she picked them up, she’d take the kids out for pizza. When was the last time they’d had a treat like that? And after they were in bed, instead of spending the lonely hours on work, she’d grab a good book and run herself a bubble bath.
Melissa pasted the smile back on her face as soon as she reached Seth’s house. It took a while before anyone answered the door. As she was about to ring a second time, it opened and there was Seth grinning down at her. Her phony smile was suddenly twenty-four-carat genuine as she beamed back at him.
“Hi,” he said. “Kids are waiting in the living room. Come on in.”
The living room? A stifled giggle and furious whispering came from somewhere behind his left shoulder. Surely they hadn’t remembered. Another quick glance at Seth’s face and she could see they had remembered. He was as keyed up as a little kid.
“Oh, Seth.”
“Don’t spoil it,” he whispered, and grabbing her arm, dragged her into the living room.
“Surprise!” Young bodies bounced out from behind the furniture, and they all threw themselves her way. Foggily she noted balloons, clumsily twisted crepe paper and long, looping strings of colored goop all over everything. Then she was being hugged and Happy Birthday’d by four kids at once. Blindly, she hugged them back.
Above their heads her eyes met Seth’s, and she thanked him silently. Something crazy happened when he gazed right back at her, something soft and sweet and very, very new. Melissa experienced a sudden surge of elation; she felt her heart pick up the pace, her mouth dry and her breathing ragged.
He took a step toward her, his eyes dark and serious, and then, as though he’d just noticed they weren’t alone, he stopped.
Everything that had receded in that moment came crashing back.
Especially the noise.
All four kids were talking at once, shouting, really, as they tried to claim her attention. They were telling her how many times they’d almost blown the surprise, whose idea it was to get the potato chips, how many cans of spray streamer they’d emptied.
“How about we let the birthday girl take off her coat,” Seth suggested. He stepped forward to help her out of it and managed to turn the simple courtesy into a caress that left a wake of gooseflesh down her arms.
A woman with a big smile who looked to be in her early forties emerged from the kitchen. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Janice. Happy Birthday.”
“Thank you. I think.” She shook Seth’s sister’s hand and decided she could see a faint resemblance, though Janice seemed a lot more content, at peace.
“This is your chair, Mom.” Matthew pointed to one of the Queen Anne chairs decorated with balloons, bows and ribbons.
“I feel like a queen,” she assured him after he arranged a footstool under her feet and thrust a bowl of potato chips at her.
“Do you want some swamp water?” Jessie asked. “We bought four kinds of soda, then decided to mix them all together.”
Melissa swallowed and hoped her smile didn’t waver. “Why thank you, Jessie.”
“Tell you what, Jess, you get the kids’ drinks. I have something special for the adults.” He turned to Melissa. “I got champagne, but if you prefer something else, name it.”
“I love champagne. I haven’t had it in ages.”
“Three glasses, coming right up.”
“Not for me, bro,” Janice said. She turned to Melissa. “Tyson, my oldest, is playing basketball tonight. I have to go watch.” She glanced from Melissa to Seth and back again. “Have a great evening, you two,” and then she was gone.
He looked as though he was going to say something, then changed his mind. He disappeared into the kitchen just as Alice walked in, proudly holding a lumpy red-wrapped package.
“It’s a present,” she confided in a whisper and placed it at Melissa’s feet.
“Come here, you,” Melissa exclaimed and hauled her giggling daughter onto her lap for a giant hug.
Soon she had a stack of presents at her feet and a full glass in her hand.
“Open mine first,” Alice begged.
“I’ll open them from the youngest to the oldest. Is that all right with everyone?”
After a chorus of “yes” she picked up the lumpy red parcel carefully and slowly unwrapped it. Inside was a terra-cotta plant pot painted with bright craft paints. “Oh, Alice, It’s beautiful. Why, look at that big, happy yellow sun, and an apple tree, and so many different colored flowers, and there’s even a rainbow.”
“And that’s you.” Alice jumped up and ran over to point at the stick figure with a huge smile. “You’re in your garden.”
“This is the most wonderful present, Alice. Thank you.”
“Jessie helped me,” Alice told her, pointing at the blushing girl.
“I knew you liked plants and stuff,” Jessie mumbled.
“Thanks. It’s perfect.”
With a big smacking kiss, she set Alice aside as Matthew stepped forward to present his gift, a grocery-sized box wrapped in newspaper. He opened it for Melissa and pulled out a mobile on a bent coat hanger.
“This is me in outer space. See, here are all the planets and that’s my spaceship. Seth lent me a book about space so I could get the planets in the right order.” Somehow, Mr. O’Reilly had become Seth to the kids, ignoring that one awful moment when Alice had called him Daddy. She wasn’t sure when the Seth thing had happened or whether she approved.
But the twins called her by her first name, so what could she do about it? When she thanked him for helping her son, Seth looked as embarrassed as his daughter had.
“We can hang this in the kitchen so I can enjoy it every day.”
“And when I go into space, you can look at it and remember where I am.”
The laughter helped ease the lump in Melissa’s throat.
“You next, kid sister. You’re five minutes younger than me,” Laura said.
After rolling her eyes, Jessie said, “Mine’s the yellow one. I bought them with my allowance,” she informed Melissa, who was exclaiming over the package of spring bulbs.
Laura presented her with a pastel drawing of a girl who strongly resembled Laura, holding a hank of her red hair and frowning. Carrots was scribbled underneath.
“Why that’s Anne of Green Gables. Laura you are a very talented artist.”
“I know you like that book.”
“I love it. It’s something we have in common. Thank you.” She rose and crossed the room to hug first Jessie, then Laura.
When she returned to her seat, there were two neatly wrapped packages still at her feet. “But what are these?”
“The green one’s from Auntie Janice,” Laura piped up. “The huge one’s from Dad.”
“Janice? But—she shouldn’t have bought me a present.” She opened it. “What a pretty vase. I’ll be able to put the flowers that grow from your bulbs in here, Jessie.”
The last package was the biggest of all. When she tore off the paper she found a hardware store box. Inside was wall plaster and a metal applicator, tile grout, some assorted tools and a hinge exactly like the one on her kitchen cupboards.
She glanced up. “Thank you, I think.”
“It comes with a handyman,” he explained. “I’ll come over and fix the cracks in the plaster and the other things you mentioned. I noticed your upstairs tub needs grouting. Make a list. You’ve got yourself a weekend handyman.”
“A handyman,” she breathed in rapture. Maybe it was sexist, but she didn’t care. She’d tried to figure out the basics of home repair, but she couldn’t even hammer in a nail straight.
“Everybody else got a hug, doesn’t my dad?” Laura asked loudly.
Melissa laughed shakily. “Yes, I guess he does.” She rose, and slowly crossed the room.
He stood to meet her, the expression in his eyes intense, hungry. He put out his arms and pulled her flush against his solid body, where she clung for a moment, letting her head rest against his shoulder. She heard the beat of his heart—a little fast perhaps for a man who played squash four times a week, but still slower than her own frenetic pulse.
“I can’t thank you—”
He interrupted her words with a quick, hard kiss on the lips. “Happy birthday, Melissa.”