Page 47 of Grumpy Sunshine

Usually, we ate our ramen together and celebrated by eating whatever pastry was on super sale from the grocery store.You know the kind.The ones that they have to pull off the shelves and throw away if they get too much older.

They weren’t the best of the best, but they were still decent enough that we could say we’d had something special.

But today, Silver was out of town with her family for a week in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.

It sounded pretty sweet, and I was happy for Silver, but that left me all alone with no one to celebrate with.

Though, a hamburger and cake sounded like a win to me.

I smiled as I started to dig into the hamburger.

I didn’t glance up from my food once, too busy eating and enjoying to watch what was going on around me.

I’d just finished my last bite of cake when another piece was slid in front of me.

I blinked and looked up, finding Chevy with his niece in one hand and his fingers pushing the cake toward me.

“I don’t like chocolate cake,” he said when he saw my questioning look.“And this one’s not allowed to have it yet, according to her awful mother.”

“I heard that!”the ‘awful’ mother in question called from her spot at the table.

Chevy grinned and shrugged as if he couldn’t care less what she’d heard.

“I can’t feed her in front of Milena, so we’re going to pretend like she doesn’t get sweets anytime she’s with me.So you get my cake today.”He lowered his voice so that only I could hear.

Elation poured through me.

Another piece of cake!

Yes!

“Best birthday ever,” I said as I reached for the cake.

His eyebrows rose.“It’s your birthday?”

I knew that my face was flaming when I said, “Yep.”

“Why didn’t anyone know?”he asked, frowning.

I shrugged.“No one asked when it was, so why would I just give that information out?”

He didn’t like that answer, either.

“Hmm,” he said.

“All right, my darling child.”Milena walked up to the frowning man in front of me.“You ready to give her up?”

“I’ll walk her down to the car,” he said.“I have a little bit more time.”

I waited until they walked away before going up to the counter and asking Manuella for a box.

She gladly gave me one and gave me a conspiratorial smile before she went back to work.

Gosh, I loved her!

My day went about as good as could be expected for someone that was having to work on their birthday.

I never saw Chevy again that day, though, which sucked.

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