Page 93 of Snow, Ice, and Spice
“How old will you be?” she asks.
“Twenty-nine.”
Annabelle’s brown eyes are huge. “Whoa. That’s old.”
I hear Maya chuckle behind me. I laugh too.
“Yeah, I guess twenty-nine seems kind of old when you’re six,” I say.
“Almost seven,” she says pointedly.
I hold up a hand. “Right. Almost seven. Sorry.”
“What are you doing for your birthday, Coach Theo?” Sloane asks me.
I shrug. “Probably nothing.”
All the kids stop skating and gawk at me.
“How come? Did you get in trouble?”
“Yeah, did you make your mom and dad mad and now they said you can’t have a birthday party?’
“Yeah, were you naughty, Coach Theo?”
Maya laughs even harder.
“You can come to my party if you want,” Annabelle says.
I smile at her. “That’s really kind of you to offer, Annabelle. Thank you. But I don’t want to mess up your cool party plans.”
She tugs on my hand, the look on her face bright and eager. “My mom and stepdad said that I should always include everyone because that’s the kind thing to do.”
“Yeah, you should come, Coach Theo,” Emerson says.
Parker nods along. “Yeah! Come to the party.”
My resolve starts to soften as the kids all plead for me to go.
“Okay, okay. I’ll go.”
All the kids cheer.
“But only if Coach Maya is invited too,” I say.
Annabelle says yes. Maya smiles at me.
We get the kids set up to do an easy obstacle course on the frozen pond. As they line up and go through it, Maya turns to me.
“Are you seriously not planning to do anything for your birthday?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Birthdays aren’t a big deal to me anymore. But thanks to Annabelle, I get to have a birthday party with cupcakes and lollipops.”
Maya laughs. “That’s cute, but you need to do something to celebrate yourself.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
Maya looks at me like she’s brewing up something.
