“Love you, Allie!” he said, snuggling against her as she pulled him up into her lap, then flashed me a grin.
“We’ve got a weird family,” she said, “but I think it's a pretty good one.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I think we’re doing just fine.”
CHAPTER 21
“Hey there, birthday boy,” Eric said, scooping Timmy up as soon as he stepped into the entrance hall. He hung my kiddo upside down from his ankles the same way he’d done with Allie when she was little. And Timmy loved it just as much as his big sister had.
“Swing me, Unca David! Swing me!”
Eric was doing just that and Timmy was shrieking with glee when Stuart emerged from his office where he’d been wrangling with some sort of forms he needed for some regulation having to do with something about theForza Westplans.
“Wow,” Stuart said, grinning at Eric. “Looks like you caught a very big fish.”
“I’m aboy, Daddy. And I’m three!”
“Yes, you are. Good to see you, Eric. Careful, or you’ll be carrying him around upside down all day.”
“We could handle that, couldn’t we, Timster?”
“Higher! Swing higher!”
As Eric chuckled, I beamed. I was getting used to the civil chatter between these men of mine, but I wasn’t about to let myself hope that it would continue. That would be too good to be true.
“Daddy!” Allie bounded into the room, then stopped short. “Timmy! You stole my hug,” she teased. “How is Uncle Eric supposed to hug me if he’s dangling you?”
“Mybirthday.MyUnca David.”
“Okey-dokey. I’ll get a hug from Stuart.”
She sidled up to him for a hug, which he returned with a half-hearted squeeze. I don’t know if Allie noticed, but I did. I met Stuart’s eyes, saw the guilt there, and excused myself back to the kitchen.
“What’s wrong?” Laura asked, the moment I rounded the corner. She was standing by the sink, sipping a Mimosa and chatting with Cutter.
I stopped short, not realizing they’d arrived from the back while the rest of us had been gathered by the front door. “Nothing. I’ll tell you later. I’ll be fine.”
I closed my eyes, exhaled, and when I opened them again, she was holding a Mimosa out to me. “And see? I’m better already.”
She tilted her head in question, but I waved it away. “Seriously. I’m fine.” I glanced around. “Where’s Mindy?”
“Bringing the cake,” she said. “She’ll be here in a few.”
“Great. I think we’re ready.” I glanced at the clock. A quarter-to-one, and the party started at two with cake in the middle and a loosey-goosey end time of four. I could make it. I’d be exhausted at the end, but I could make it.
I turned in a circle, taking in the house, trying to think of what I might have forgotten. That’s when I spied the box. Not that there was anything wrong with having a cardboard box under a side table, but I didn’t want an eager toddler using whatever family documents Eliza had gathered as drawing paper.
I headed that way, tugged the box out, then hefted it, intending to take it to Stuart’s study for safe keeping.
Naturally, I took one step and tripped over my own feet, dropping the box and sending papers tumbling.Well, hell.
Cutter and Laura dropped down by me, and Allie hurried over to help, too. With the exception of a few photos, the box was filled with nothing but paper, and we scooped it up and tossed it in the box.
I wasn’t really even paying attention to what what I was gathering, so I’m not sure how it caught my eye, but I stopped short when I saw Eliza’s family tree. A tree that shot off in one direction to my mother, Amanda, but had another familiar name up near the top.
Donnelly.
I pulled the paper closer and studied it, getting lost in the ancestry lines. A Donnelly was one of my great-uncles? I wasn’t sure.
