Page 43 of The Playboy's Playbook

“You just met him like a month ago, baby. I don’t think he’ll be upset if you don’t get him a gift,” Matt says, earning an eye roll from me.

“I don’t care if I met him yesterday. He’s turning seven and the fact that he gave me a birthday invitation means that he likes me and that’s important to me, Matty,” I say, my voice falling off at the end.

Clay took a liking to me the moment we met, and I value the bond we’ve created. Instead of mailing out his birthday invitations like he did for everyone else, he made Matt drive him to my house just to hand me mine.

“Then get him shoes. Luke talks about how Clay is burning through his shoes right now because he’s so rough on them.”

I nod and smile. “Shoes I can do. I’ll see you at the party tomorrow.” I move to hang up the phone when Matt stops me.

“Woah!” he shouts. “You know I always call you when I get home from work. Why did you say that like I wouldn’t speak to you between now and the party tomorrow?”

I smile and set my phone down. “Because it’s Friday and you’ve been talking about this boys’ night with Luke all week.”

I see the cogs turn in Matt’s mind as he remembers that he’s hanging out with his best friend tonight.

He nods his head. “Right. Boys’ night. You know, I can cancel and we can hang out instead. You’re nicer to me than Luke is.”

“He told you he’d string you up by your front teeth if you took his Stetson without asking, so I think it’s safe to say he won’t let you out of boys’ night so easily. You’ll see me tomorrow, and then I’m yours for the rest of the weekend.”

He smirks at me and his blue eyes blaze into me through the phone’s screen. “Damn right you’re all mine. I’ll let you know when I’m home from hanging out with Luke.”

“Don’t miss me too much,” I chuckle.

“Yeah, that’ll be impossible.”

“Happy birthday to you!” Everyone sings as Clay moves to blow out his candles. He stops and turns to pull Jen up next to him and they blow the candles out together.

They have the cutest relationship as siblings and take being each other’s built-in best friend seriously. Luke’s done a great job raising his boys. I still haven’t asked about their mother and I don’t plan on it. Luke will tell me when he’s ready.

After the candles are blown, Luke moves to take the candles out of the cake and starts cutting it to hand out to the thirty excitable kids he invited to invade his house.

I beat Matt here, so I helped Luke get things set up last minute and got a few Clay and Jen snuggles in before they were whisked off by their friends to the backyard.

Matt walks over to me and falls into the empty chair next to me. “I’m so tired, baby.”

I laugh and push his wet hair off of his forehead. “Well, you were the one who decided to rent the boys a water slide for the day and then proceeded to promise them and all of their friends a game of water basketball.”

Matt takes a deep breath before taking the water bottle out of my hand and bringing it to his lips. “Well, now I know better. Why are you here in the corner by yourself?”

I shrug. “I’m perfectly fine manning the gift table and making sure Jen doesn’t sneak over to try and see what his brother got.”

“Good point. That’s honestly the most important job of the day. What did you get Clay? You wouldn’t tell me over the phone.” Matt looks at me skeptically.

I shrug my shoulders again. “I guess you’ll have to wait and find out when he opens his gifts.”

Fifteen minutes later, Luke’s patio is completely covered in wrapping paper and blue tissue paper. Luke pulled the ultimate dad move and got a trash bag and sat next to Clay while he opened his gifts so the paper could immediately go in the bag.

“Who got you that one, Clay?” Jen asks his older brother as he sits next to him on the ground, wrapped in a shark towel.

Jen’s been on his best behavior and only cried once today when he missed a shot during a game of water basketball – he quickly hopped out of the pool and sulked over to me where I hugged him tightly until he felt better.

“This is from Uncle Matty,” Clay says and smiles over at Matt. Matt returns the smile as Clay rips into the bag and pulls out a towel adorned with seashells, water goggles, and new beach toys.

“Daddy, look!” Clay shows the towel to Luke who is subtly trying to pick up the tissue paper while still giving his son all of his attention.

“Oh, wow! That’s nice, bud! Tell Uncle Matty thank you.”

Clay jumps up from his chair and runs over to where Matt and I are posted in the corner. He wraps his arms around Matt’s legs and looks up at him with wide, blue eyes. “Thank you, Uncle Matty!”

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