Page 31 of Steadfast

“That’s what I want.”

“You gotta do something better than that,” Richie called as he brought me a maple bar.

“My favorite,” I said, grinning as he handed it over.

“I know.” He smiled back.

“You two are a little disgustin’, you know that?” Cian asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Birthday,” I reminded him firmly.

“Fine. Penny arcade,” Cian replied.

“Yeah!” Ronan bellowed.

“No,” I argued, pointing my doughnut at Cian. “Pick something foryou.”

“Tattoo,” he said flatly.

“Try again.”

He stared at the ceiling, like he was searching there for his patience, then looked at me, snapping his fingers. “River,” he said. “All day.”

“Done,” I muttered around the bite in my mouth.

“And my cake.”

“That cake takes forever,” I complained half-heartedly.

“Please,” he argued, walking over to grab a doughnut. “I could tell you I wanted a chocolate box cake, and you’d still make my carrot cake. You always make my carrot cake.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“It’s nasty.” Ronan shuddered. “Who puts carrots in a cake?”

“Yet, you always eat it,” I mumbled under my breath.

“There’s zucchini in those chocolate muffins you love so much,” Cian shot back.

“What?” Ronan yelped, his head whipping around to stare at me in accusation.

“You’re an asshole,” I snapped at Cian.

“There’szucchiniin my muffins?” Ronan nearly shouted with horror.

“You can’t even taste it,” I replied placatingly.

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re going to melt into a puddle of artificial preservatives and sugar if I don’t sneak some vegetables into your diet,” I mumbled into my doughnut.

Richie laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we leaned against the counter. Ronan continued to pout, but I was relieved to see that the kids were all in pretty good moods otherwise. I’d been able to turn their night around.

“You didn’t text me back until after I was asleep last night,” Richie said quietly in my ear. “Everything okay?”

“Mother of the year struck again,” I whispered back. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Did you bring water balloons?” Aisling interrupted, looking at Richie. “Ronan said you were bringing more water balloons.”

---