Page 180 of By A Thread

“Not really. If Dad’s having a good day, I’ll sit with him, but I haven’t practiced in forever. Did you ever play?”

I shook my head. “I was into baseball,” I said.

“I bet your butt looked really cute in those uniform pants,” she teased.

“My butt looks good in all pants,” I insisted.

“Speaking of birthdays—”

“We were not.”

“We are now,” she said, guiding me down the block toward the ice cream sign. “What’s with the birthday hating?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t hate birthdays.” Just my own.

“Just your own,” she said, apparently reading my mind.

“It’s just another day,” I insisted.

“It’s just the anniversary of you surviving another entire year on this planet. It’s a celebration of being here. Didn’t you love birthday parties when you were a kid?”

“Growing up, it wasn’t so much of a celebration as just one more day for my father to either disappoint me or pit himself against me in a competition.”

She stopped outside the cheerily painted shop with a hand-lettered sign in the window promising homemade hot chocolate. “That’s terrible.”

“Ally, I’ll be forty-five. I don’t need or want a celebration. I don’t like receiving gifts. If there’s something I want, I buy it for myself. My worst nightmare is a bunch of people who have better things to do singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me.”

“But, Dom—”

I shook my head. “Stop looking at me with pity eyes.” Her brown eyes were wide and sad for a privileged kid she’d never known.

“Can I please do something for you for your birthday? Please?”

She was not going to let me say no. And letting her do something for me would make her happy, which would make me happy. This was one of those stupid compromises she’d been talking about.

“Fine,” I said. “One thing. One small, inexpensive thing.”

“Yes!” She threw her arms around my neck and pressed a noisy kiss to my cheek.

I realized I’d be willing to say yes to a lot of things if it always got that reaction out of her.

“No singing,” I warned her.

“No singing,” she agreed.

“And no spending money on me.”

“Excuse me, why are you allowed to make that a rule, and I’m the one with a dozen pairs of La Perla thongs that magically appeared in her drawer?”

“Because I have money to spend, and I’ll take great pleasure in taking those thongs off you. Consider them a birthday gift for me.”

“Well, consider this,” she said, reaching for the door. “I’m wearing one of your birthday gifts right now.”

* * *

That night,I made dinner while Ally worked on her laptop at the island with a glass of wine. It was a nice, normal scene that I was still having trouble adjusting to.

“How’s Gola working out?” she asked.