Page 106 of Skate the Line

Ellie turns to Marco as Sunny is trimming the sunflower stems. “Can I have SpaghettiOs tonight?”

“Only if I can have some too.” He smiles.

“Tonight?” Sunny blows a strand of hair out of her face, glancing up at Marco. “Are you staying for dinner?”

He looks at me.

And suddenly, she’s looking at me too.

“Well…” I start.

“You’re going out to celebrate your birthday!”

I’ve never been more thankful for Ellie's interruption.

There.

The burden is off my shoulders.

“Whoa, wait.” Sunny steps away from the flowers. “With who?”

Never mind.

My hands disappear into the pockets of my jeans. “Me.”

Sunny whips her attention over to me so quickly I lose my footing.

“And others,” I add. “It wasn’t my idea.”

It technically wasn’t my idea, though I did invite myself, and I convinced Emory to come too.

“The wives of some of my teammates, the ones you sit with in the box, asked me if they could take you out for your birthday.”

Sunny’s shoulders fall, and a half-crescent smile appears. “That’s sweet of them. Totally unnecessary, though. I’d be fine just hanging out here and having SpaghettiOs.”

Marco gestures for Ellie to follow him out onto the back porch. They busy themselves with the birdfeeder he gifted her.

I take it as an opportunity to speak without Ellie interjecting.

“You’re in your twenties,” I state.

Sunny turns her nose in the air. “Twenty-six, thank you very much.”

My mouth twitches.

I walk closer to her, crossing the invisible line I drew yet again. I place my palm onto the counter near the cut stems from the sunflowers. “Twenty-six-year-olds don’t sit at home on their birthday with a five-year-old.”

She rolls her eyes. “Some of them do.”

“But not you, unless you’re nannying.”

Her faint growl makes me want to smile in the worst way.

“Most twenty-six-year-olds get lucky on their birthday, actually.”

Her breath hitches.

I see the wheels turning in her head as she tries to spew some comeback. But she comes up empty-handed, and I take full advantage.

---