Page 172 of The Man Upstairs

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

The day was just beginning, and it was going to be a long one.

The first surprise came when we were in the kitchen, preparing for the party ahead. There was a knock at the door as the baker delivered a two-tiered piece of chocolate brilliance with her name in creamed letters on the top. She was still fawning over it withthankswhen the second knock came a few minutes later – the florist’s assistant handing over twenty-one red roses, in a glorious bouquet.

“I’m so spoilt,” she told me. “Way too spoilt!”

“You could never be too spoilt, princess. You’ll never be spoilt enough.”

Jayden and Amy arrived first, in the car I’d handed Jayden the keys to when we’d left Crenham. It didn’t have the sprayed green dick on the bonnet anymore, which was a shame. It would have been an icon all on its own.

Lola and Peter arrived an hour later with Beverly and Tom, with party poppers, and hugs and kisses, and Molly showed up a just a few minutes after that, with her mum and Jacob in tow.

We were all there, enjoying the buffet on the kitchen island, laughing and joking happily, or so it seemed. But my heart was pounding, nerves jangling as the final surprise of them all loomed ahead of us.

Only Rosie didn’t know about it.

She had no idea.

The doorbell sounded while we were preparing to cut the cake, in fact. Earlier than I’d anticipated. I’d expected it to be a flying visit, a simplehello, not a full on joining in at the party.

Rosie wasn’t the only one getting surprises today.

She looked quizzical, then she grinned at me.

“Not another present?” she asked. “Julian! Seriously. You’ve given me enough already!”

“Go see,” I told her, trying to hide the emotions churning in my gut.

I followed her as she bounded to the doorway, my steps slow behind hers. I held my breath as she opened the door, knowing she was expecting another courier, only to find a group of people waiting for her.

A group of people she’d never met before.

She jumped back in shock, and I joined her there, with tears in my eyes.

Emily stepped up first, my adorable five-year-old granddaughter, with a hand drawn birthday card that she’d scribbled for Rosie herself. Grace looked relatively serene as she set eyes on my fiancée for the very first time, and Ryan was quiet, but ok. He managed ahappy birthdayas she stared at him with tears of her own.

And there was Michael, too. Suited like he was set for a business meeting, with a smile and a tip of the head.

“Hello, Rosie,” he said. “It’s nice to be meeting under better circumstances.”

“I can’t believe it,” she told him, and neither could I. It was finally here. It was happening.

My family was here, along with hers.

My family was here to celebrate the birthday of the woman I loved. The woman they’d struggled to accept, but were beginning to manage it. Just. I had no doubt they’d adore her when they got to know her.

They’d have no choice. Rosie was a soul too gorgeous not to.

I’d been preparing for some awkwardness, or stuttering, but Rosie was too quick for that. She knelt down and accepted Emily’s card with awow, thank you, and then she pulled the little girl into her arms, saying a true hello for the very first time.

But it didn’t stop there.

She didn’t wait for niceties, or the pleasantries of stilted conversation. Instead, she hugged them tightly, one by one, contented to cry with happiness in front of the people she thought would never accept her.

And I was crying, too.

“I’m so pleased to meet you,” she told my family. “All of you! I just… thank you! Really, thank you!”