Matty shifted in his seat, his expression uncomfortable. “Now I feel like a bad dad for not knowing that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Like I’m going to deprive my son of good birthday parties if I don’t use a planner? I know it’s ridiculous, but that’s always my first worry—are my actions harming or depriving Jack? Hannah and I have been talking about sending him to private school, and I’m pretty sure there will be children there who have those kinds of birthdays. So will Jack be missing out if he doesn’t?”
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “To me, a good birthday was just having some friends around, maybe playing video games and getting pizza. Maybe going to McDonald’s. Thecoolest birthday I ever went to was when my best mate was nine and had a party at laser tag—like that was top fucking tier—or when I got to go bowling for my thirteenth. But now… that shit won’t cut it.”
“It’s okay,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. “You don’t need to stress about any of that now, I promise. Yes, if he goes to private school, there probably will be children there who have extravagant parties. But that’s not something we’re dealing with right now. Jack is turning three. You don’t need to do anything over the top. Just something fun that he’ll enjoy. And I promise, doing something low-key doesn’t make you a bad parent.”
“Thanks. I’m glad you’re here to remind me of that.”
“No problem.” I opened my notebook. “Right, date. Jack’s birthday is the twenty-third, which is a Wednesday, so we can easily do the Saturday afterwards. Hannah is free. Do you have a match?” I grabbed up my phone to double-check my calendar because I’d added the Knights schedule a couple of weeks ago when I’d finally gotten it from Matty. “Oh, don’t forget you have the team day out this week.”
Matty groaned. “It’s the start of April. Who the fuck wants to go to the beach?”
“Did you get any say?”
“Not really. I think it’s so we can do some team building and training somewhere else. But I know at least half of them will go into the sea, even if it’s fucking freezing.”
“At least you can get a hot chocolate afterwards,” I said with a little smile. “That’s what my sisters and I used to get.”
“Yeah? Did you used to do a lot of beach trips?”
I nodded. “My grandparents lived in Norfolk, in Wells-next-the-Sea, so it was easy for them to turn us loose there for a few hours to run around. Didn’t matter the weather—if we were at their house, we were sent to the beach. Unless it was stormy or unsafe, then we were out in the garden. But then they’dalways make us hot chocolate with marshmallows to warm up. Sometimes whipped cream if we were lucky, and maybe a Flake if Grandad had snuck a box of them into the house.”
“That sounds fun,” Matty said, a wistful look on his face. We hadn’t talked about his relationship with his family, but he never brought them up and I had to assume they weren’t close. It wasn’t my place to ask, so I wasn’t going to.
“It was, mostly. Don’t think I’ll ever quite forgive Marissa for pushing me into the sea in the middle of December when I was eleven.” I shivered at the memory. “At least if anyone pushes you in, you’re strong enough to take them in with you.”
He laughed. “Not if it’s a member of the front row. They’re all about twice my size. Jaden’s probably too sweet to try but Mason… yeah, he’d do it.”
“You’ll have to make sure you pack a towel then.”
“I’m taking two. I don’t trust any of them. I mean, I do on the pitch, but I can guarantee someone will try something because I’m the captain and it’s tradition to give me shit.”
“Hopefully, you can run fast then,” I said with a grin.
“Fingers crossed.” His smile made my stomach flip and I exhaled deeply, trying to keep my raging libido in check. Birthday party first, sex second. “Okay, you’re not playing on the twenty-sixth because the game that week is Friday night. So, would the Saturday afternoon work? It would only be for a few hours.”
“Yeah, that’ll work if you’re happy to stay home with Jack on Friday night? Or he can go to Hannah’s if she’s around. I don’t usually take him to evening games because he’ll be up too late, and if he’s having a big day on Saturday, he’ll need a proper bedtime the night before.”
“That’s fine. And I can do some party prep while he’s sleeping.” I made a note. “Timing… I’d say maybe three untilfive. It doesn’t need to be long, and then if he needs a nap beforehand, he can have one.”
“Works for me.”
“Where do you want to have it?”
“Here is fine,” Matty said. “Hopefully it’ll be nice so we can have it in the back garden, and if not, we can move some of the furniture around.”
“Perfect.” Another note to myself. This was proving to be much easier than I’d thought.
Probably because both of us wanted to get it sorted so we could do other things.
“Do you have a budget?”
Matty shrugged. “I don’t know. Should I?”
“It would be helpful, just so I don’t go overboard with decorations or anything.”
