Page 91 of Pumped

I grab his wrist before he can dart off to do god knows what else. “Hey, babe, chill.” I pull him into my arms and lock my hands together behind his back to trap him.

He glowers at me and tries to wiggle his way out. “I’ve got stuff to do.”

I squeeze him tighter to me until we’re chest-to-chest. “No, you really don’t. You’ve already done all the stuff.” I look pointedly at his checklist with a column full of bright green checkmarks. “There’s only one thing left to do.”

His glower deepens. “Let me guess. Chill?”

“Yup!” I lean in to rub my nose against his and despite himself, the tension slowly drains from his body. “This is a party. It’s supposed to be fun. It shouldn’t give you gray hairs.”

“I don’t have gray hairs,” he mumbles.

“And let’s keep it that way.” I kiss him on the nose and rock him back and forth as if I can physically shake the anxiety out of him.

“I just want everything to be perfect,” Owen confesses quietly.

My love for him expands in my chest. It grows so big it feels like it’s going to burst out of me. “Everythingisperfect. And even if it isn’t, Ivy won’t care. Her friends will be here. Her family is here. That’s all she really needs.”

Owen makes a little choked sound. “Not her whole family,” he objects.

I breathe through a bittersweet pang. “You’re wrong. They are here. Eden and Jeremy are in these walls. They’re all around us. They’re with us every day. Especially today.”

Owen squeezes his eyes shut and I take the opportunity to steal a kiss. The sneak attack slices through the heaviness shrouding him and he cracks a smile.

“There it is,” I say in a lilting, teasing voice.

“There what is?” he asks, skeptically.

“The smile I love.”

Owen groans in disgust, rolling his eyes and pushing me away. “Go make yourself useful,” he says as he walks away, but the grin on his face is impossible to miss.

Things get about a thousand times more chaotic when the guests start to arrive. Kids scream above the live music, running around the backyard like they’re possessed, while parents rush the open bar. Ivy is the center of attention in her fluffy pink dress and sparkly tiara. Her megawatt smile shines brighter than the sun and her bubbly laughter like is magic pixie dust sprinkled over the whole party.

Owen makes me do the rounds with him, welcoming each and every adult, most of whom I’ve never laid eyes on before. But Owen knows every single person’s name and also which kid they belong to.

“Everest!”

I turn to find the most unusual group of people I’d ever expect at a little girl’s birthday party—my friends from Mars. Beau and Gavin lead the posse, followed by Sawyer and Logan, then Donnie and Christian.

“What you guys doing here?” I’m stunned as they each give me dude-bro hugs and slaps on the back.

“We wouldn’t miss Ivy’s birthday!” Logan holds up what must be a giant teddy bear that’s probably bigger than Ivy herself. It looks like a mummy that got shat on by a unicorn, all wrapped up in rainbow wrapping paper.

“Owen called the gym and invited us,” Gavin explains.

He did? When did he do that? And why didn’t he tell me?

“Where’s the birthday girl?” Sawyer’s bouncing on his feet, already dancing to the live kids’ music.

“I’m here!”

I turn just in time to see her running up in a flurry of pink, with Owen right behind her.

“You invited them?” I ask him.

“Is that okay? I wanted it to be a surprise.” He looks a little apprehensive.

“Of course it’s okay!” I lower my voice. “I thought you didn’t like them.” He barely acknowledged them when they attended the memorial service for Eden and Jeremy.

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