The following afternoon, Ava’s birthday party at Bounce-A-Rama, was in full swing by the time Cara got there. She was on her way when Luke had called her and asked her if she could pick up the cake, since she lived two blocks from the bakery. Of course she helped him out, but in the interim, she ran into Dart Guy from last week. Apparently when he wasn’t playing darts at Rudy’s he was baking cupcakes, because he was the head baker at Riverdale Sweets. Yep, he was definitely a slow-cooking stew. And she couldn’t stop craving chicken cutlets.
She sighed and pushed her analogies out of her mind as she took a look out onto the party that came to life around her. There were about six huge inflatable bounce mazes. She spotted Ava on top of the middle one that was a huge inflatable slide. The little girl threw her arms over her head and smiled, showing off the gap in her top front tooth, that had fallen out this morning. She slid down and let out a happy scream. Cara smiled when she saw Luke at the bottom of the slide with his camera, taking pictures of his happy little girl. He was a great dad, she marveled. Sam grabbed Luke’s camera from him and he grabbed Ava and hoisted her onto his shoulders. Father and daughter smiled as Sam snapped a bunch of pictures of them.
Cara turned around when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Deb smiled at her and took the cake box out of her hands and handed it off to her husband. “Cara, sweetie. Thank you for picking up the cake. Luke completely forgot this morning. Joe, would you give that to the party host, tell her it has to be refrigerated.” Cara looked over at Joe, he was donning his usual dress pants and knit shirt, only he had a Cinderella party hat on top of his head. She felt the smile tug at the corners of her mouth and leaned in to kiss his cheek.
“Looking good, Joe.” And then she hugged Deb. “It was no trouble at all.”
Joe threw his scarf over his shoulder and winked at Cara. It would be seventy degrees out and the man still wore a scarf. She watched Deb blow out an exasperated breath and unravel the scarf from his neck.
“Really, do you need to wear this damn scarf?” Deb said as she crumbled it into a ball.
“Hey! Give it back woman or I swear you’ll wear this cake!” He said to his wife, but they both knew he wouldn’t dare. He let out a huff and stomped away with the cake. Deb turned back towards Cara.
“I swear that man is going to be the death of me. You kids didn’t give me as many gray hairs as he has.”
Cara laughed and stuck her hands in her back pockets. “Well, he definitely keeps things interesting.”
Deb laced her arm with Cara’s and walked towards the main floor where the bounce houses. “When you get married dear, you’ll sing a different tune.” They stared at the kids running around and jumping in the bounce houses. They all looked like they were having the time of their lives and Cara couldn’t help but think of her childhood. She didn’t remember once having a birthday party. After her mother had passed away, she barely celebrated her birthday. Her father never once went out of his way for cake much less a birthday party. Once she became a teenager, she would go to the cemetery on her birthday and spend some time with the one who brought her into this world. She still did, and next week when she turned twenty nine, that’s exactly where she’d be, wishing that her mother would be there with her to blow out the candles on a cake, just once.
She was pulled from her thoughts when she felt an arm swing around her and Deb. “There are my two favorite ladies.” Jake said and squeezed the women closer to him.
“You’re all out of breath, where were you Jake?” His mother asked.
“Bouncing!” He grinned like a little kid as Cara turned around and looked at him. He was dressed in jeans that were well worn and hung a little low on the waist. The sleeves on his gray Henley were pushed up to his elbows and his tattoos were out on display. She looked down and noticed he was just wearing socks, and had indeed taken his shoes off to bounce around with the kids. Damn it, her heart melted a little at the sight of him. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She smiled back at him and then noticed Deb staring at them, with a goofy grin on her face.
“Jake told us, you went by his place and cooked dinner for the two of you.” She tucked one of Cara’s loose curls behind her ear and smiled affectionately at her. “Such a good egg you are, my sweet Cara.”
Jake crossed his arms on his chest with a cocky grin on his handsome face. “She sure did, she makes some pretty good chicken cutlets.”
She eyed him, wishing she could knock the grin off his face. “I burnt half of them.”