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a pink rose winding around its thick base, was all that stood atop the third tier. Callie had made her wish and blown it out to the sound of cheers, applause and laughter.

      “Older than you,” Callie responded with a toss of her head. Her eyes shone as she added, “That’s all you need to know.”

      “My wife is ageless,” Brent Montgomery informed Riley and anyone else who cared to make inquiries about Callie’s chronological age. “Like fine wine, she just gets better with time.”

      Slipping her arm around Brent’s waist, Callie inclined her head, resting it against his shoulder as she gave him a quick squeeze. “Knew there was a reason why I married this man.”

      “Yeah, ‘cause he was the only one who wasn’t fast enough to run for the hills,” Clay, her younger brother and Teri’s twin, chimed in. It earned him a swat to the back of his head from his wife, Ilene.

      “I suggest we begin cutting the cake before someone gets tempted to start throwing it instead,” Andrew told the gathering. He placed one of his prized knives in Callie’s hand, moving the plates closer to her.

      “You heard the man,” Callie said to the rest of her family and friends. She made the first cut. “Line up if you don’t want to be left out.”

      No one had to be told twice. Riley was first in line, but rather than take a plate and walk away, she began to pass out the slices as Callie cut them and placed them on the plates.

      “Are they always like this?” Jaren asked. She was standing off to the side with Kyle, waiting for the crowd to thin down a little.

      Kyle shook his head. “I wouldn’t know. I’m new to this.”

      She slanted a knowing look in his direction. “That would explain it.”

      “Explain what?”

      “Why you didn’t sing ‘Happy Birthday’ when everyone else did.” She’d been standing right next to him and had wondered why he hadn’t joined in with the rest.

      “I sang,” he protested tersely.

      “No, you moved your lips,” she corrected. “But no sound came out of your mouth.” She grinned at Kyle. “So, what we had was video, but no audio.”

      He was one of those people who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket and he knew it. He didn’t particularly like calling attention to the fact.

      “Maybe that was because I figured you’d take care of the audio all by yourself,” he retorted.

      She was a guest here and since he was the one who’d brought her, she wasn’t about to get embroiled in an argument, no matter how innocuous it was. So she nodded. “Glad to pitch in.”

      Riley handed him a plate. He, in turn, passed the slice of vanilla fudge cake to Jaren. “I’ve got a question for you,” he said.

      That surprised her. He seemed more inclined not to ask any questions, and she was certain that he was given to the philosophy: the less you know about a person, the less likely you are to get close to that person.

      “Okay,” she responded, drawing the single word out.

      Accepting the slice that Riley handed him, Kyle moved over to the side. Seeming to devote his attention to the cake on his plate, he asked, “Are you always this cheerful?”

      There were times when a sadness threatened to overwhelm her, but she always fought it off. She’d seen what an innate sadness could do. It had eventually destroyed her father.

      “I do my best.”

      “Well, stop it,” Kyle ordered just before he took a bite of cake.

      She glanced in his direction. There was a tolerant smile on her face that he found annoying and yet, still oddly attractive. Whatever else her faults were, she had an aura of sorts.

      “You don’t mean that,” she replied. “You might think you do, but you don’t.”

      “Oh, so now you think that you’re a psychiatrist?” he scoffed.

      “No, but I did take a few psych courses in college,” she answered glibly. “Everyone is better off thinking positive than dwelling on the negative.”

      “I don’t dwell on the negative,” he corrected her tersely, “I accept reality for what it is.”

      “Or what you make it out to be,” she countered.

      “When I figure it out, I’ll let you know,” Kyle told her darkly and with that, he turned away and put distance between them. Her cheerfulness was really starting to get under his skin.

      Feeling awkward was not something she ever allowed herself to experience for long. Left alone, Jaren made her way over to Andrew. The latter stood with his wife, Rose, as well as Callie, her husband and their children.

      Callie smiled at her, then, excusing herself, she ushered her family away.

      “What can I do for you, Jaren?” Andrew asked.

      That he remembered her name amid all these other people, even if they were his family, told her the kind of man he was. She wondered if his family appreciated him.

      “Chief, I just wanted to tell you that this has to be the best cake I’ve ever had.”

      Andrew allowed himself a moment to bask in the compliment. He knew exactly what he was capable of and had the utmost confidence in his abilities. But every once in a while, he relished hearing someone say it. His own family had become so accustomed to having their taste buds romanced. For the most part, the Cavanaughs took their meals here for granted.

      “Thank you, Jaren. And it’s Andrew,” he corrected. “It hasn’t been Chief for a very long time.”

      “If it’s all the same to you, sir, I’d still like to call you Chief. You’re my dad’s age and it just doesn’t seem respectful for me to call you by your first name.”

      He was nothing if not flexible. Raising five children single-handedly while searching for his missing wife had gone a long way in teaching him how to bend. “Then Chief it is,” Andrew allowed kindly. As he spoke, he refilled her plate with another slice. “So, tell me, how long have you been in Aurora?”

      It began simply enough, with her answering his question. That led to another question and another after that. Before she realized what was happening, Jaren found herself pouring out her heart to this man who had once known her father.

      By the time she finished, Jaren confided to Andrew that his was a family that most people dreamed of having.

      Andrew grinned broadly, surveying the room. “Yes, they did turn out pretty well, didn’t they? And the most amazing part was that every last one of them found soul mates who blended well into this mix.” He thought of the events of the last few months. “And just recently, the family expanded again when we gained Brian’s four stepchildren, plus my late brother’s trio.” He glanced over his shoulder toward the room where he spent a good deal of his time each day—the kitchen. “We’ve had to expand the basic table that’s in the kitchen. Again,” he added with a soft chuckle.

      “Not to mention that the kitchen’s been expanded twice,” Rose Cavanaugh told her, then confided, “You’d think with all that extra room, the man would let me in once in a while to experiment.”

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