Lifting the lid, I sat it aside and pulled back the tissue paper. Inside was a stack of envelopes. I looked up at my dad. “What’s this?”
He smiled at me, then I saw his glassy eyes. “Thirty birthday cards—one a year for all the ones I missed.”
“Dammit, Dad. You gotta stop doing this to me in public,” I said, then closed my eyes as tears came again. I heard sniffles and knew I wasn’t the only one.
“Thank you,” I croaked, wiping my eyes.
“Now this one,” Logan said, equally choked up. “This is from everyone. We all worked on this one.”
He motioned his hand around to include everyone who stood looking at me with kind smiles on their faces.
I chuckled nervously, then tore the paper off. Opening the box, I took out a photo album as Michael moved the box away. Everyone was quiet as I looked down at the keepsake in my hands.
“Open it,” Cole said from beside me, and bumped his shoulder into mine.
I looked at my brother and nodded.
I flipped open the first pages to find pictures of what looked like my dad and his brother next to pictures of Cole and me at the same age. I flipped through page after page of family photos of me with the Bradleys.
The best ones came at the end. Photos of Michael and I dressed up on Halloween with Cole and Patrick that made us laugh.
Photos from Thanksgiving when we played halftime of the Pirates game, then dinner afterward.
Christmas with the Colemans in Oceanside.
Photos from the day I met my dad and my uncle here in this house.
Photos from their visit to Portland.
And, on the last pages, photos from tonight as we played on the stage together.
I could barely see as I looked around at Claire and William, who had always given me so much love. I skated my eyes to my Aunt Grace and Uncle Grant, then to my cousins, before landing on Charlotte and Jack. Katherine, Adeline, and their husbands were here as well.
And then there was Cole. My brother, confidant, defender, and the best friend a guy could ever have. The only person missing was Patrick.
Everyone had gone silent as I turned to look at Michael. He could read me like a book and leaned in to kiss me on the forehead. “Happy Birthday, Rockstar.”
Just when I thought it was all over, Jayden wormed his way through the crowd and handed me an unwrapped box. I looked at it curiously, then up at him.
“What’s this dude? You didn’t have to get me anything.”
He grinned. “It’s something Michael said you needed.”
I looked at my boyfriend, hoping to God it wasn’t a sex toy for me to unwrap with everyone’s eyes on me. “Uh, you sure you want me to open it here in front of everyone?”
“Yeah, it’s cool. Go ahead,” he said, bright-eyed and bouncy.
I cut my eyes to my boyfriend, who sat back with a smug-as-hell expression on his face. Narrowing my eyes at him, I carefully removed the top to find an oddly shaped model made of red plastic.
I looked up at Jayden curiously, then pulled it out.
Turning the fist-sized object in my hand, it dawned on me what it was, and I started laughing uncontrollably.
“What?” Jayden asked. “He said you needed a kidney. So my friend made it on his 3-D printer.”
Our conversation in the shower came back to me, making me love Michael Coleman even more.
I turned to look at him, smug expression and all, filled with so much love for me.
“God, I love you,” I said around the tears of laughter.
“I love you too, Rockstar. Always will.”
* * *
