“Oh my goodness,” I say, putting my hand to my mouth and trying not to cry in front of them. I think the last time my parents ever got me a birthday cake was when I was sixteen and that was only because my mother threw me a huge sweet sixteen. I want to say she planned the party out of love, but I always thought she did it more for appearances. Because all my friends had them, and she wanted mine to be much better than theirs.
“I made you something,” Nora singsongs, “but I get to give it to you after the cake.”
“After the cake?” I repeat her words, looking at Knox, who just smiles.
“We can’t have a birthday without cake,” he informs me and for the first time he kisses me in front of the kids. The two of us look at each other and neither of us moves as my eyes go big and so do his. “Happy Birthday,” he repeats nervously; he must have told me happy birthday at least twenty times already today. “Who is hungry?” He claps his hands, and I look over at the kids.
Vincent smirks at me and then looks down, trying to hide it. Nora runs to me and hugs me around my waist. “Happy Birthday, Kylie,” she says and I have to take a second to answer her because I know my voice will tremble.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” I reply, bending to kiss the top of her head. Westley is the next one who side hugs me, and I can’t help but laugh. Vincent comes to me and holds up his hand so we can share our secret handshake.
“What can I do to help?” I turn when he walks away from me as I walk into the kitchen.
“I ordered all the food,” Knox relays, taking platters out of the stove. “I was busy doing other things today,” he says and I shake my head.
“Yeah, I see that.” I point to the balloons.
“We’re sitting in the big dining room,” Nora states and comes over to grab my hand and pull me into the room. The whole room is filled with gold-and-white balloons, gold metallic strings hanging from each of them. A white tablecloth is on the table with gold circles of metallic confetti. Four small vases with white roses are in the middle of the table, with big vases filled with water and floating candles. “I helped with the flowers,” Nora shares and I can’t even see because my eyes are filled with water, tears welling at the bottom of my eyelids, ready to fall over. I put my hand on my mouth, looking over at Knox, who smiles at me. He must see that I’m about to lose it because he comes over and hugs me so I can bury my face in his chest. “She must really like it,” Nora says. “She’s speechless.”
I can’t help but laugh as I wipe away the tears. “I love it.” I turn in his arms and look a the three of them. “It’s the best birthday surprise I’ve ever gotten.” I swallow down the sob that wants to come out.
“You sit in this chair,” Nora instructs, pointing to the head chair, “and Dad said you can wear this.” She grabs something gold in her hand and runs back to me. It’s a gold headband with Birthday Girl in glitter. “It’s mine but I can lend it to you.”
I look up at him then down at Nora. “I would be honored,” I say, putting it on. “How do I look?” I ask the room.
“Beautiful,” Knox replies, “now let’s eat.” He motions with his head toward the kitchen, the kids running off first. “Surprised?”
I look down. “Yeah,” I say softly, “more than you know.” I follow him to the kitchen, making my plate and when I sit down I can’t eat a thing. I try to but my stomach is just in knots as I take it all in. The shock of being celebrated, of being given something like this. I’m overwhelmed, and it’s taking everything in me not to run out of here. I eat half my plate and even Knox notices but doesn’t say anything.
“You stay here,” Nora tells me and I sit down, looking at all the work he put into my birthday. My chest contracts as I hear her running back with something in her hand, followed by Westley and then Vincent. Knox is behind them with a cake as they sing “Happy Birthday” to me. I look at the pink cake with white writing that says Happy Birthday, Kylie. “Make a wish,” Nora urges me as soon as they finish. I hold up my hands, crossing my two fingers together, while I close my eyes and blow out the candles. “Did you make a wish?” she asks me and I nod. “You can’t tell me or it won’t come true.”
“Got it,” I tell her and then she hands me what was in her hand. “What is this?” I ask of the white folded paper.
I open it and I gasp. “I made you a birthday card,” she tells me. “That’s me,” she points to the stick figure, “and that’s you.” She points to the taller stick figure next to her. The sun is in the sky as my stick figure holds a string with different colored balloons. Happy Birthday, Kylie is written on the top.
“You made this?” I try not to have my voice tremble, but I fail. “This is the best thing I’ve ever gotten for my birthday.” I put the paper to my chest. “I’m one very lucky girl today.”
“We made you one also,” Westley interjects, handing me his but it’s just a Happy Birthday, Kylie written with have a nice day. I smile at him, then Vincent hands me his, which is much the same as Westley’s, and I think they probably did it to be nice to me.
“This,” I look at them, “is the best birthday ever.”
“Yeah,” Nora says, “now let’s eat cake” She gets on her chair on her knees as Knox cuts a piece of cake for each of us. I smile at him as I eat my slice, and then I’m told to sit on the couch and wait for him.
Obviously, I clean up the kitchen as he puts the kids to bed. When he comes back downstairs, I’m sitting on the couch looking at the balloons. “I see you listened to me.”
He comes over to me and I just smile up at him as he sits on the table in front of me, a brown box in his hand. “One last birthday surprise,” he says and I look at the box in front of him.
“After everything that you did,” I lift my hands to the balloons, “you didn’t have to do this.”
“I know.” He smiles, and I lean in and kiss his lips. “But I wanted to.” He thrusts the box in my hand. “Open it.”
I grab the brown square box with a brown satin bow. I pull the sash off the box and then open it and gasp. Sitting in the middle of the box, on top of a brown satin cover, is a gold necklace with a diamond in the middle. Dangling off the diamond on a little piece of necklace is the letter K, also in diamonds. “This is…” I can’t help the tears that roll down my cheeks as I look up at him. “I stopped celebrating my birthday when I turned fourteen and was told that it was just another day and we should celebrate each day, even though we did not celebrate each day.” I breathe out of my mouth, trying not to sob. “From that day on, I celebrated my birthday alone. I used to have dinner by myself.” My finger touches the K. “This is why I was scared to fall in love with you,” I admit to him. “All of this. It’s too much.”
“Baby,” he says softly.
“I usually just pretended it was another day,” I tell him.
“It’s not, it will always be a special day.” He grabs my face in his hands and kisses my lips. “I promise you that every single birthday from here on out will be special.”
