Page 63 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
Ethan came back down. “Nathan's not in his room or anywhere else.”
“He went out,” Caleb informed us.
“Do you know where he went?” I asked.
Caleb shrugged.
Ethan sighed.
“I'll call him and tell him to come home,” I said, leaving the living room and dialing Nathan's number on my phone at the same time. This wasn't the first time he vanished from the house without telling anyone where he was going or how long he was going to be gone. We needed to have a talk about that soon. “Where are you?” I asked when a clicking sound on the other end of the line told me that the call connected.
“Did you know the book store is having a small exhibition on omega rights?”
What? “Since when do you care about exhibitions?”
“I've always cared about exhibitions,” Nathan claimed, but I'd seen right through him the moment he said book store.
“You're there to see Conner, aren't you?” I lowered my voice so his father wouldn't hear us. The boy didn't need to be embarrassed any further.
“That's not why I'm here!”
“We've talked about this, Nathan. You need to move on. You also need to come home.”
“Why?”
Did he really have to ask? “Your brother's party is about to start. You don't want to make him sad, do you?”
“No,” Nathan said grudgingly. “I'll come home.”
“And you need to walk the dog too.”
“Fine, and I'll walk the dog too.”
“Good boy.”
I pictured Nathan sticking his tongue out at me before he hung up, but I didn't care. It was good to know that the kid was willing to listen to me at all if I wanted to be part of this family, which I did.
Triumphant, I walked back into the living room to finish the rest of my preparations.
I had a feeling it was going to be a good day.
Lord, was I in for a surprise.
The first guest who arrived—half an hour too early—was Ethan's grandmother. I hadn't seen her since that one time when we'd run into her on the streets, and I remembered her as a sweet, if a little peculiar, old lady, but today her attitude toward me seemed a little different.
“Good to see you again, Mrs. Rosewood,” I said.
She huffed at me in response and let me take her coat as if I was some sort of servant. I looked at Ethan, but he only shook his head and made a gesture as if to say his grandmother was simply off her rocker. Then he wheeled her into the living room. Quietly, I followed behind while Ethan asked the old lady what she was carrying in that bag she'd brought.
“Just a gift for my favorite great-grandson,” she said. “And a few gifts for the party guests.”
“What kind of gifts?” For some reason, Ethan appeared apprehensive.
“I made them myself!” Mrs. Rosewood said proudly and I thought I saw a look of horror on my boyfriend's face before his expression smoothed over again. I made a mental note to ask him about that later, but never got around to it.
One after another, the other guests started coming in and things became busy. Caleb didn't have a lot of friends, but his dad knew a lot of people with small children who were only too happy to come and fill up the house. After everyone had been fed cake—and most kids ran around with chocolate smears on their faces—I tried to organize the crowd of children enough to play some party games.
I might as well have been herding cats. No one listened to a word I said until Nathan joined me. For some reason, the kids consideredhimas cool. “Thanks for showing up,” I murmured, passing him as he set up a penguin-shaped piñata for Caleb to whack with a stick. We'd cleared the family room for this, since it was still too cold to do it outside.
