“That makes a lot of sense,” Cooper said.
“I agree,” Hazel said. “Should we decorate the house for family dinner night and give her presents? And I can bake a cake!”
“That sounds nice, but I was thinking something even more special than that,” Julia said. “I don’t know, I just want to do something elaborate and fun that really shows her how much we care about—oh!” She snapped her fingers as she was struck with a thought. “I just had the best idea. What about a surprise party?”
“Oh, hey!” Jacob said, clearly liking the idea.
Hazel bit her lip, hesitating. “I don’t know, Julia. Surprise parties aren’t for everyone. We threw one for my friend Marcey back in grade school, and it made her cry. Not everyone likes to have that much thrown at them unexpectedly.”
“Well, sure, but she was a kid,” Julia pointed out. “And Faith is pretty laid-back, and I know she loves to feel appreciated. I think a surprise party is just the thing. It’ll show her how many people want to celebrate her birthday with her and it’ll make her feel really special. Plus, surprise parties are so much fun for everyone involved.”
“They are fun,” Cooper said. “And every surprise party I’ve been to made the person we were celebrating really happy.”
“What do you all think?” Julia said, her eyes twinkling. “I think it’ll make Faith feel really loved and appreciated, since she hasn’t had family for so long. It’s been years since anyone went out of their way to make her feel special, and I think we should do that for her. Will you help plan this surprise party with me?”
“Okay,” Hazel said, her look of doubt shifting into a grin. “It does sound like fun, and you’re right that it’ll make Faith feel special.”
“I’m in,” Jacob said.
“Me too,” Cooper agreed.
“Great!” Julia clasped her hands together, feeling enthused. “I can’t wait to start planning. We don’t have a lot of time, but it’ll be enough time. I’ll tell Ryan about our plans straightaway and he can help us. He’ll probably have to be our decoy, which I’m sure he’s happy to do. And I know Dean and Noelle are busy planning their wedding, and Dean’s auto shop is usually extra-busy with cars in the spring, but I have a feeling they’ll want to be in on this as well.”
“I’m sure they will,” Hazel said. “Dean absolutely loves surprise parties—he has ever since we threw him one when he was in high school.”
“So true!” Julia pulled a small notebook from her purse and started jotting down ideas. “I won’t do this all the time during dinner, I promise. I just want to write down a couple of things before I forget and then I’ll put it back in my purse.”
Her family members laughed, and Julia wrinkled her nose.
“What?” she protested.
“You’re not going to be doing it all night, but every time there’s a lull in the conversation you’re going to have another idea and that notebook is going to come out of your purse again,” Cooper said, his smile affectionate. “You might as well leave it on the table.”
“No, I’m not—oh, you’re probably right.” Julia laughed and clicked her pen shut. “I’ll just leave this notebook over here on the side.”
She set it down with a pretend flourish, which made Hazel snort with amusement. They went back to eating their delicious meal and talking about other things, but sure enough, throughout the rest of the evening, Julia’s quick and eager mind kept thinking about new great ideas for Faith’s surprise party.
CHAPTER FIVE
Dean pulled his car up in front of the physical therapy clinic and sighed. He was there to pick up his fiancée Noelle so that he could take her out for dinner, and he was trying to muster his energy so that she wouldn’t see how tired he was and feel sorry for him.
It had been a particularly exhausting day for him, and he knew that in reality, it would take more than a few deep breaths for him to recover from it. The mechanic shop that he owned, Main Street Auto, was usually extra busy in the spring as people were repairing issues that had occurred to their cars during the long, icy winter or issues that they wanted resolved before taking long summer road trips. Even though that day hadn’t been particularly busy for him—and even on their most hectic days he had the support of an excellent team—he’d started the day a little fatigued and he’d ignored the way his internal voice of caution had urged him to take more frequent breaks.
Dean had been diagnosed the year before with early onset osteoarthritis, and he was still learning how to deal with it. He was used to being the kind of person who just kept pushing himself, pulling the energy to keep going out of thin air. Now, however, when he pushed himself too hard, especially during anarthritis flare-up, it inevitably caused intense fatigue and muscle aches, which made everything more challenging.
He glanced at the physical therapy clinic’s doors, wondering when Noelle was going to come out, and he smiled. Meeting the beautiful woman that was going to become his wife was undoubtedly the best part about everything that had happened to him. If it hadn’t been for his arthritis, he never would have gone to physical therapy and met Noelle, who’d initially been his P.T. They’d become great friends almost instantly, and after hanging out with her a few times, he’d known that he felt more for her than friendship. He’d switched to another physical therapist—a friendly and highly competent man named Chip—before asking Noelle out on a date. Ever since then, the two of them had been inseparable, and she’d been incredibly patient and sweet as he’d navigated the tricky waters of his struggle with pain and fatigue and needing to rest more.
For the past several months, things had been going extremely well for him, and he’d had almost normal levels of energy and hardly any pain at all. He’d begun to feel that maybe he’d finally cracked the code of taking care of himself, and it was all going to be smooth sailing from there. However, the severity of his current flare-up made him feel a bit concerned. He wasn’t entirely sure what had started it, since the day before he hadn’t worked unusually hard or pushed himself too much.
I don’t want to let worry spoil the evening,he thought, taking another deep breath and doing his best to smile.I have an appointment coming up at the doctor’s soon, so they can tell me then if there is some kind of issue. But I’m sure there’s nothing wrong—I’m probably just tired. Fatigue is funny like that; it can be caused by all kinds of things.
In the next moment, Noelle stepped outside the physical therapy office, and his heart leapt up when he saw her. She was wearing jeans and a mustard yellow sweater that seemedto accent the beautiful red tones of her hair. He saw that she’d changed into a pair of heeled boots—something she wouldn’t have worn while working—for their date. His heart ached a little, wishing he had more energy to give her that night. Still, he was determined to muster his adrenaline as best he could. He wanted Noelle to have a wonderful time on their date.
“Hey, sweetie,” she said as she swung into the passenger seat of his car. “You look handsome.”
Dean laughed and shook his head. He was sure that his messy dark brown hair was looking particularly messy at the moment, since all he’d done to freshen up after getting home from the shop was wash his hands and arms to get the grease off and change into clean clothes. “You look beautiful,” he told her, feeling smitten.
She laughed happily and kissed him. He started the engine of the car and pulled out of the physical therapy parking lot. Their drive to The Salty Spoon was a short one, and Dean was looking forward to sitting down and eating something delicious. He hoped that eating some food would help pick up his energy levels.
