“I appreciate the warm welcome, but I’d like a chance to get to know everyone, okay?”
She nods, still not looking up at me.
“C’mon, I bet that pizza came out great. Let’s get it before it gets cold.”
She finally looks up at me and gives me a small smile.
When she doesn’t try to touch me as we rise and walk over to where the pizza is being served, I take it as a win.
Her pizza looks even more Frankensteinian after a trip through the oven. Mary Lisa giggles at the monstrosity, takes a piece from Ginger, and offers it to me. I accept the plate with asmile and wander off in search of Logan and Emily as quickly as I can.
Emily takes one look at what’s on my plate and swaps it for Logan’s. Before he even gets a chance to protest, she trots off and returns with a fresh plate. A small forest has sprouted on his pizza slices.
Logan looks pained but eats it gamely.
When Emily’s distracted by something going on between Sammi and another little, Logan folds the paper plate with most of the pizza left on it and stuffs it in a garbage bin. I follow suit.
“Lettuce doesn’t not belong on pizza,” he grumbles to me.
“Is that what it was?”
“Rocket. Same thing. She’s killing me.”
“Bet your cholesterol number’s lower than mine now, though,” I snigger.
He tags me in the ribs with his elbow. “How are you doing so far?”
“Good.” I nod as I look around the group. Most are still eating but a few have moved back over to the games area. “The littles are kind of ... entrancing.”
My eyes drift to one entrancing little in particular. She’s trying on flowered hats with Aggie and giggling that magical giggle.
Logan follows my eyes. “Sucker.”
I give him a matching elbow.
While we’re jostling each other and behaving like adolescents, Emily returns with a plate of cupcakes that completely make up for the spiky, green pizza. I cut up my third cupcake into quarters and take them over to the game and dress-up area, sharing pieces with Sammi, Mary Lisa, and Aggie.
I’m about to apologize to Cynnie for not being able to offer her cupcake when Emily bounces up beside me. “I made them with oat milk so Cynnie could have some,” she whispers to me.
With a grin, I offer the last piece to Cynnie and stand, both awkward and entranced, while she eats it, covering her mouth with her hand so she doesn’t spit cupcake at me while she giggles.
“Does your bee like cupcake?” I ask after searching through a catalogue of everything I could possibly say to this woman.
She shakes her head. “Buzzybee only eat honey.”
Her giggle trickles out again and tickles me, so I laugh gently. “Want me to see if the kitchen has any honey for Buzzybee?”
Her eyes widen again. “He ate before we came but thank you very much for finding oat milk for me.”
“My pleasure.”
There’s another awkward gap, before Cynnie fills it by grabbing a cowboy hat out of the dress-up box and offering it me.
I run my hand through my hair to brush it back before I settle the hat on my head. “What do you think?”
“Cowboy Daddy,” Aggie whispers and the corner where we’re standing erupts with giggles.
I wink at her before I tip my hat and put my thumbs through my belt-loops. “How’re them thar cupcakes, little lady?”
