We tittered while Beth made a face. “Uh… only just. Presents are, like, the most important part of a birthday.”
Joss, who was holding her baby daughter, Ellie, in her arms, shot her husband a look. “What are you teaching our children?”
“Nu-uh!” Their eight-year-old son, Luke, crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head stubbornly at his sister. “The best part is the food!”
“What are you teaching our children?” Braden countered.
Logan pressed his forehead to the top of mine and chuckled.
“Can we just do something?” Maia said. “So… you know… everyone will stop staring at me.”
“Why?” Beth seemed genuinely bemused by this. “You’re the birthday girl. You should get all of the attention. It’s the third-best part, after the food.”
“You’re not my child,” Joss joked.
Beth put her hands on her hips. “You can’t run from it, Mother.”
Everyone laughed, Braden’s laughter the loudest.
Joss grinned and wrinkled her nose at her daughter. Beth stuck out her tongue and grinned back. “You can’t either,” Joss reminded her.
“I’m younger. I probably could.”
“You run, baby. I’ll run after you.” She winked at her, and Beth smiled before turning her attention back to the still-overwhelmed Maia. I felt happy for Joss and Beth but envious of their teasing. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to have grown up in a home where my mother not only loved me, but treated me like a friend.
“Presents,” Maia suddenly announced, seemingly having caught the persistence in Beth’s gaze.
“Yay!” Beth clapped and ran for the table with the presents. “Open mine first! Please, please, please!”
Braden caught Logan’s eye across the room. “She loves buying people presents.”
“You better hide your credit cards,” Logan warned.
“I sleep with them on me.”
“And with one eye open,” Joss cracked before following everyone over to the presents.
“Hey, we didn’t miss anything, did we?”
I spun around out of Logan’s grasp, delight washing through me as Aidan, Juno, and Chloe strode across the room, carrying birthday presents in their hands. “Guys, you made it.”
Aidan engulfed me in a tight hug. “Long time, no see.” He pulled back, his gaze questioning. “Are we okay?”
“Of course.” I shoved him gently. “Don’t be an idiot. I’ve just been busy.”
His gaze moved over my shoulder. “So I see.”
Juno butted in. “Give me a hug.”
I was just pulling back from hugging Chloe when Logan appeared at my side. Chloe being Chloe, she hugged him whether he wanted to be hugged or not.
After shaking hands with Juno, he offered his hand to Aidan, and as they greeted each other, they eyed each other with masculine wariness.
I was really glad I hadn’t told Logan that Aidan used to be in love with me.
“So,” Aidan began, and I immediately tensed at the mischievous glint in his eyes, “she chose you over the history teacher after all.”
Logan glanced over at me. “I didn’t know the history teacher was an option.”
“He wasn’t,” I said quickly, and then glowered in warning at Aidan.
He just smirked until Juno hit him on the arm.
“A word, Grace.”
“A word, Aidan.”
Logan and I spoke in unison.
“Just… give me a minute to talk to Aidan,” I said.
Without waiting for a response, I grabbed Aidan by his T-shirt and hauled him out of the room into the hallway. Well, not exactly hauled. You didn’t and couldn’t haul Aidan anywhere. “What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Nothing.” He shrugged. “I’m just not convinced about this guy. I want him to know that you have options.”
“I don’t have options,” I whisper shouted. “The history teacher is not an option.”
“That’s not what you said a few weeks ago.”
“A few weeks ago I was hurt. Logan is trying to make up for that. People deserve second chances, Aidan.”
He nodded, concern for me swimming in his eyes. “They do. But, Grace, you have a habit of giving people fifty chances.”
“Look, I know you mean well, but this… Logan isn’t like my mum and dad and Sebastian. He won’t hurt me intentionally.”
“He could still hurt you, intentionally or not.”
“Yes, but so could anyone,” I said, suddenly making the realization myself. “The history teacher could have if I’d given him chance. Even you could have, Aidan.”
He frowned. “He’s not like your usual blokes.”
I laughed. “No, he’s not. And I never felt about them the way I feel about him.”
Slowly Aidan’s shoulders relaxed and his eyes warmed. “So what you’re saying to me is ‘keep your big nose out of it.’”
“Never. You’re my family, Aidan. If you didn’t care, I’d hate it. But Logan and I need to work all this out for ourselves without you pushing his buttons.”
“Gotcha.”
We wandered back into the room only for Logan to grab my hand and lead me over to the table where Maia was opening her presents. “When she’s done, we talk.”
“Logan, it was nothing,” I tried to explain, but he was already focused on Maia and ignoring me for the moment.
I let her delight distract me as she opened present after present. She received books, gift vouchers, makeup, DVDs, chocolate, and other gifts galore. The tribe spoiled her rotten.