After Happily Ever Afte- Astrid Ohletz Page 0,42
type A, so, therefore, yes, it was last minute.”
A pointed sigh was all Lane had on offer. “I can’t believe I went through being traumatised by Toby the other day for nothing. You didn’t even get anything done.”
“It still helped—”
“Wait.” Kym sat forward. “Traumatised by Toby? The chubster with angelic blue eyes?”
The glare Lane pointed at Kym made Anna snicker.
“I was traumatised,” Lane said. “Those angelic eyes are more demonic sometimes.”
“What did he do? Smile you to death?”
“He…nothing.”
Looking from Anna to Lane, Kym poked Anna in the leg. “What happened?”
“All right, all right.” Lane broke in before Anna could answer. “I lost Toby in the shopping centre. Happy now?”
Anna spoke up quickly. “Toby lost himself in the shopping centre.”
Kym grinned. “You must’ve been freaking, Lane.”
“Yes, I’m glad you find it so amusing. And I wasn’t, I didn’t—I didn’t freak.”
Taking a quick sip of her wine, Anna shrugged. “You, uh—you freaked a little.”
“Anna!”
Laughing loudly, Kym flopped back against the sofa. “I knew it.”
“He hid from me. What’s up with him doing that at the moment?”
“He likes your reaction.”
The smirk playing at Kym’s lips prompted a pout from Lane.
“Great. What a special thing to share with Toby. Anyway—did you get everything you need?”
“Yeah, but—”
“But what?”
“What if I forgot something?”
Kym rolled her eyes. “You made a list and checked it three times.”
“But, we still have to—”
“Anna!” Lane and Kym said in unison, and Anna gave in.
“Yes, okay, we’ll sort the rest tonight, and it will be fine.”
Kym raised her glass. “Atta girl.”
Even still, Anna sat chewing her lip as Lane sighed dramatically. “Anna, it’s a two-year-old’s birthday party. He won’t even remember it.”
“Okay, he may not remember it in detail, but these experiences shape kids! We still have to make the pass-the-parcel and goodie bags, the fairy bread, and the cake! Shouldn’t I be making the cake? We could always cancel the order, and I could make—”
“No!” Lane and Kym both smirked in unison again.
Making a cake could not be that hard. Anna huffed and leaned back into the couch again, pushing Lane’s hand off her knee, pointedly crossing her arms over her chest. “My cooking is not that bad.”
Kym choked on her wine, and Lane looked the other way.
Anna gave them both the glare of death, even though they were studiously avoiding her attention. “You both suck.”
Putting her wine glass on the table, Lane turned to look at her. “You have got to calm down.” Lane gestured widely to the bags and bags of things Anna had returned with. “We are going to make the goody bags and games tonight while polishing off this wine. And we have already assembled his damn present. We have blisters to prove it.”
“This is a big deal. He’s turning two.”
Kym rolled her eyes. “And he’s going to have an amazing day at the park and play games and eat sugar and have lots of attention and presents. He barely knows what a birthday is. He is going to have a great time. You need to have another glass of wine and calm the hell down and tell me if I should have said ‘no’ to a date tomorrow night.”
Anna felt her mouth dropping open of its own volition. She looked over at Lane, who was simply staring at Kym, her face a mirror of what Anna imagined her own to be.
Plastering a determined smile on her face, Anna got her act together first. “You—you said ‘yes’ to a date?”
For months, Anna had been tempted to nudge Kym to get out there but had restrained herself, thinking it probably wasn’t the best idea. Pushing her wouldn’t help anyone. She would start that process when she was ready and not a minute before.
Disappearing behind her glass, Kym took a long sip of wine.
Across from her, Lane was doing a terrible job of hiding her delight. “Kym…that’s awesome.”
Kym finally detached from her glass. “Is it, though?”
“It is such a good thing.” Anna leant over and squeezed her knee.
“I was going to cancel.”
“No.” As always, Lane’s voice was soft, reassuring. “Don’t cancel. Just—just think of it as dinner; dinner with a manly shaped friend.”
Grateful that Lane was there and knew what to say, Anna nodded. “Exactly. Don’t put pressure on it.” Kym looked from one to the other as if she wanted them to keep talking. “And if you feel like shit, come over here afterwards and have a Toby cuddle, and we’ll consume our body weight in wine and watch Friends.”
Kym let out a slow breath. “Okay.”
“What are you