“You’ll get them!” Seb starts bobbing in his seat again, and I lament the shift in our car ride. No more quiet air drawings with his little fingers; my Energizer bunny has recharged. “I’m gonna give you the most!”
“Oh, I bet you will.” Blake laughs again. “Anyway, the reason I’m calling is one, to wish you a very Happy Birthday Eve!”
“Stop,” I groan. “That’s not what this weekend is about. It’s a family celebration and I’m hoping everyone forgets it’s my birthday. I want it to be about Valentine’s Day and Christmas. That’s it.”
“We’re celebrating Mom when we get back,” Dom chips in. “We’ve got a whole Day of Fun planned.”
“Shhh.” Jane leans forward. “Don’t tell her.”
Dom turns in his seat to frown at his sister. “I haven’t told her what we’re doing? She already knows about the Day of Fun thing.”
“Yeah, but don’t tell her that we’re doing all her favorite stuff.” Seb pipes up. “Like the karaoke thing.”
“Sebastian!” Dom and Jane bark at him in unison.
“What?” he shouts right back, while Blake starts to laugh.
I stifle a groan. Bless my sweet children. I love that they’re going to so much effort for me. I know Wily’s been working with them to come up with the best way to celebrate my birthday. I begged him not to make it part of the Football Frat celebrations and he finally caved and agreed to keep things low key, but the weekend after it… he was going all out for me.
A Day of Fun for Mom. It’s adorable and I know they’ve been working really hard on it.
“Sounds awesome you guys,” Blake breaks up their bickering. “I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
Seb pokes out his tongue at Jane again who pouts back at him while Dom spins around to face the front and gives me a pained frown, obviously super annoyed that Seb gave something away.
I smile at him and turn my attention back to my sister-in-law. “So, what else were you calling about?”
“Oh, I wanted to find out if you’ve heard anything from Tyrell and Dani.”
“No.” I glance at my phone with a worried frown. “I hope they’re okay. Fingers crossed their flight didn’t get canceled or anything. They’re flying out of Singapore. Let’s hope they’re on a plane and not stuck at an airport.”
“Fucking airport!” Seb tries for another laugh, but it goes down like a lead balloon.
“Sebastian,” I snap. “That’s enough. You don’t use that word in Mommy’s car, you understand?”
His bottom lip sticks out in a pout and he slumps back in his seat, my tone firm enough to shut him up for a few minutes.
He starts kicking the back of my seat, and I ignore him in order to quickly finish up this call with Blake.
“I hope they make it in time. We’ve got all that fun stuff planned for Valentine’s Day.”
“Yeah, I know.” I sigh. “Oh man, I hope they won’t miss out.”
“They won’t,” Dom assures me. “They probably haven’t called because they’re mid-flight or something.” He reaches across to pat my hand, then give it a little squeeze.
My sweet boy. So protective of his mama. Always trying to look out for me and make sure I’m okay. It melts my heart every time.
“Thanks, buddy.” I wink at him, loving his smile—so much like Wily’s. He’s the spitting image of his dad, and I’m so glad he was our first.
My seat jolts as Sebastian gives it a decent kick, then gets told off by both his older siblings.
He responds with an incoherent yell.
“Yikes. Sounds like I better let you go.” I can picture Blake’s face wrinkling with sympathy. “We’ll see you tonight.”
“Yep, looking forward to it.”
I hang up the call and have to put my firm voice on in order to break up the brewing storm.
