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Chapter 4: Birthday

Eva sat in the kitchen at her grandparents breaking green beans into a bowl.

"Grandma," she said. Ana Duncan-Riley looked at her. "Do you think it's OK to keep secrets sometimes?"

"What do you mean?" Ana asked sitting down next to her.

"I just," she sighed. "I mean, well, if something might hurt someone, then you can keep it a secret, right?"

"Mom?" They heard a call from the front of the house.

"Can we get back to this?" Ana asked. "Your Aunt Tammy is here, with my other grandchildren, you know, the ones I never see." Eva laughed. Tammy walked in preceeded by the running twins Anne and Calvin. "Hey honey!"

"Hi," Tammy said and hugged her. "Evie! Why aren't you at school?"

"I'm helping," Eva said and hugged her and then picked up Cal. "Where's Uncle Steve?"

"He's coming," Tammy laughed. Eva tickled her cousin and he screamed.

"Evie stop!" He screamed. She laughed and put him down. "We missed you."

"I missed you guys too," she said.

"Evie, guess what!" Anne said. "Mommy taught me how to sew and I'm going to make dresses just like her."

"Well, that's ambitious of you," Eva smiled. Steve walked in carrying three suitcases. "Hi Uncle Steve."

"Hi Eva," he said putting them down. "Cal, you wanna get those for me." Cal nodded and picked them up. "Hi Ana."

"Hi Steve," she said. "Cal, put yours in the Uncle Tommy's room and Anne's in Aunt Kelly's." He nodded. "Anne, go help him." The little girl nodded and ran upstairs. "You look good honey."

"Thanks," Tammy said. "Are Julie and Jimmy here yet?"

"No, they should be here any minute," Ana said. "They were going to watch Mikey's game first."

"Oh there's a game tonight?" Steve said. "Evie, why aren't you there? Isn't that like the Eden Hall social cornerstone?" Tammy hit him. "Ow."

"You said that like it was a bad thing!" Tammy said. Eva laughed. "I guess we should do things the Park Street way and the social corner stone should be getting drunk by a lake." He stuck out his tongue.

"I um skipped this week to help Grandma get ready," Eva explained.

"It's all really just prep work," Ana said. "Julie's cooking." Tammy nodded.

"So," Tammy said putting her arm around Eva, "tell me all about high school. I want to know everything!" Eva smiled and they sat down on the couch. "Have you met any cute boys?"

"Well, kind of," Eva blushed. Tammy smiled. "Aunt Tammy, when you started seeing Uncle Steve you two didn't tell Aunt Julie right?"

"Right," Tammy nodded. "We didn't want to hurt her, plus we felt like it was the kind of conversation we should have face to face. Do you have a secret boyfriend or something?" Eva sighed. "You don't want to tell your dad, because he's Rick and he'll freak."

"Something like that," Eva said.

"Your secret's safe with me," Tammy kissed her on the forehead. "You should talk to Aunt Kelly about it, she and Uncle Scooter started as a secret, he wrote a whole book about it. And then it was a movie." Eva laughed.

Mikey stepped out of the locker room and smiled seeing Julie arguing with Coach Conway about something, but it was the kind of spirited friendly argument he liked seeing which meant it hadn't gotten around to his wife refusing to speak to Tammy yet, and they probably still arguing about Mikey getting benched in the second period.

"Cat!" He called and jogged over to her.

"Hey kid!" She smiled and hugged him. "Charlie, my brother is extremely talented."

"He is," Charlie nodded, "and he knows that next year, when he's a senior then he'll get to play full games, right Mike."

"Uh yeah," Mikey nodded, "but don't argue with her, you'll never get anywhere, she's really stubborn." He laughed.

"Good game kid," Charlie said. "Good to see you Cat."

"You too," she said and hugged him. "So, birthday boy, how's it going?"

"Fine," he said and they kept walking. She nodded. Mikey had never been a chatterer. They walked outside.

"Mikey!" Stephanie squealed and ran and hugged him.

"Hey Stephie," he said squeezing her. He cupped her face. "God, you look more like Mom every day." She beamed. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," she said softly. "Happy Birthday." He smiled. "You played good."

"Thanks," he said. "Hey Jimmy."

"Hey kid," Jimmy smiled, he was holding Elisa.

"Daddy!" Elisa said. "I want to go to Mikey!" Jimmy laughed and Mikey took her.

"Hey Angel," he said, spinning a lock of her long blonde hair around his finger. "It's so good to see you."

"I missed you," she said burying her face in his shoulder. "I want you to come home." He laughed.

"I missed you too," he said. "I'll come home soon. I promise."

"Ellie, baby," Julie said. "Come on, let's get to Grandma and Grandpa's so that you can get to bed."

"I'm not sleepy," Elisa shook her head and yawned.

"Of course you aren't," Julie laughed. "Mikey, you want to come or are you OK?"

"I'm fine," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"OK," she kissed him on the cheek, "good game, I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," he smiled. "I'm glad you came." She nodded and hugged him again.

The next day at the house everyone was mingling. Most of the Eden Hall kids were totally engrossed in eating Julie's food. Mikey smiled watching Eva playing with Ellie, Cal and Anne. She looked up at him and smiled, and then walked over to him.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," he smiled. "I was disappointed last night, I thought I'd see you."

"I was here helping get your birthday party ready." She said. He laughed. "Can we go someplace to I can give you your present?"

"Sure," he nodded and they walked outside and into the poolhouse. "So, what did you get me?" He teased, she giggled and kissed him softly. "Evie," he whispered.

"I thought maybe we could just," she sat down and pulled him with her, they kissed again. He smiled, "if that's OK with you."

"This is the best birthday present ever," he assured her and kissed her again. She smiled.

"Could you maybe keep your sister away from my son?" Rick said walking over to Julie in the kitchen. She looked at him. "I'm serious every time he spends time with her, he mopes for like two weeks, because of some incurable crush on her."

"Rick, if you are asking me to try and come between the cosmic connection between the Riley men and my father's daughters, I can't do that," she shrugged. He laughed. "Stephanie loves TJ, all she could talk about for a week was seeing him." He smiled. "How are you?"

"I'm good," he nodded. "It's been weird, with Eva at Eden Hall now." Julie nodded. "Seems like just yesterday she was," he smiled.

"I know," she said.

"Hi Julie," David walked in. "Um hey Mr. Riley."

"David," Julie said. "I was wondering when we'd see you. How's senior year going?"

"Good," he smiled. "Can I help at all?"

"I'm good," she said. "Thank you though," she said. "You could find Mike, he's disappeared somewhere and we have to do the whole birthday cake thing."

"Sure," David nodded and walked away.

"I have so much trouble believing that kid is actually related to Dean Portman," Rick shook his head. Julie hit him in the stomach. "I mean because he is so nice and polite and, has never once slept with my sister!"

"Well, considering Kelly is sixteen years older than him," Julie said, "and was married and had a baby by the time he was sexually mature, I'd say that's a really good thing." He laughed. "Ana said that the cake is in the fridge in the poolhouse, can you get it?"

"Sure," he nodded. "I'm glad you guys are here. You need to come out and visit more."

"Aw you miss your baby brother," she said. He laughed and rolled his eyes and walked outside. He opened the door to the poolhouse.

"Daddy," Eva said, sitting up. Mikey looked at him, his eyes big.

"This is a really bad déjà vu," Rick sighed.

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