Page 57 of The Birthday List (Maysen Jar 1)

“You didn’t like this one?” I teased. “I think this was my favorite ride of the day.”

Cole scoffed. “My favorite part was when I got stuck trying to get out of the damn car.”

I laughed. I’d had to help him off the ride by holding his arm so he could balance as he yanked his feet free. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh.” I tried to rein it in, but I couldn’t stop picturing the faces of the parents who had been watching. They’d had vise grips on their children as they watched Cole curse at the triceratops. “Did you see that one mother? She looked like she was about to call the cops on you.”

“Thank god she didn’t.” He shook his head. “I never would have lived that down at the station.”

I smiled up at him, conveying silent thanks. It was hard to believe that I’d had such an awful lunch with Jamie’s parents earlier. Cole had turned my whole day around by bringing me here.

Him, and doing this for Jamie.

Even though his parents were against it, today had reinforced my decision to finish the birthday list. No matter how much Debbie and Kyle objected, I was seeing this through. A year ago, nothing would have helped after such a bad encounter with Kyle and Debbie. I would have let it ruin my day, probably an entire week. But doing something fun, something for Jamie, had made it all go away.

“Aunt Poppy!” Kali screeched, waving wildly from her seat on the dinosaur train.

“Kali!” I waved back as I reached Finn’s side. My brother gave me a quick hug before I bent down to Max in his stroller. “How’s my Max?” I kissed his cheek.

“Pop, Pop.” He pointed to Kali. “Wook.”

“I see that. Isn’t it cool?”

He stared at his sister with a dazed look, probably wondering what she was doing or wishing he were old enough to follow.

I smiled and kissed him again, then stood just as Cole and Finn were shaking hands.

“I know you,” Finn said.

Cole nodded. “Cole Goodman.”

“Right.” Finn looked to me and then back to Cole, letting go of his hand. “Well, it’s nice to see you again under better circumstances.”

“Same to you. Is this your son?”

“This is Max.” I patted the stroller, then pointed to the ride. “And that’s Kali.”

“The mini-Molly?” Cole asked.

I smiled. “That’s the one.”

“What are you two doing here?” From Finn’s furrowed eyebrows, he wasn’t quite sure what to make of me and Cole, but I’d explain later.

“Well, your sister spent the better part of the afternoon dragging me along on every ride at the fair. Every. Single. One.” Cole circled his finger around, indicating each of the kiddie rides surrounding us.

“Yikes.” Finn chuckled. “How’d you even fit?”

Cole and I looked at each other, then burst out laughing. “Finn,” I held my side, “you should have seen him try and get into the little flying bumble bees. He had to beg the guy running the machine to even let him try. Then they had to balance the ride with me and a bunch of kids on the opposite arm. All of these people were standing around, glaring at Cole for being a pain. It was hilarious.”

Cole shook his head at my teasing. “I knew I should have snapped a picture of your green face when we were on The Zipper.”

“Sorry, Detective. You missed your chance, because that will never happen again.”

“You got her on The Zipper?” Finn’s eyes widened. “I’m impressed.”

Cole shrugged. “I can’t take much credit. She would have braved it with or without me.”

He had no idea how much I’d relied on him today, but I wasn’t going to debate that in front of my brother.

“So, you’re a detective now?” Finn asked Cole.