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“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETHEART,” Dad says as I lean over my birthday cake, trying not to catch my hair on fire.
“Make a wish,” my grandmother says from across the table.
Every year, I wish for the impossible. Not surprisingly, it’s never granted. This year, I decided I’d wish for something else, but it may be just as impossible as my usual dream.
I close my eyes and think of what my perfect life would look like. I want what my grandmother has…a large family of my own someday. I inhale a big breath, needing as much air as possible to blow out the ridiculous number of candles my stepmother Tilly placed on the cake.
“What did you wish for?” my youngest brother Mason asks me as soon as I blow out the candles.
“You never tell a wish,” I say to him as I do every year when he asks me the same question.
“Someday you’ll slip up.” He smiles at me. “And when you do, I’ll be here for it.”
“I never make mistakes,” I tease him with a wink.
My other brother, Brax, snorts from Mason’s other side. “I have one word…Rowdy.”
I roll my eyes, hating that I’ll always be reminded of the biggest mistake of my life. If I could go back in time and make it so I never met him, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Rowdy was a very long phase in my life. We were never serious, but the man took up enough of my time to make it damn near impossible for me to meet anyone else. I was all about fun back then, and if there was a perfect word to describe Rowdy, it would be “fun.” The second would be “womanizer,” but in my early twenties, I didn’t want to be tied down either.
What started as fun turned into something entirely different, and my casual relationship with Rowdy almost ended my life.
“Rowdy was a learning experience, not a mistake,” I tell Brax.
I have to think of him that way, because a mistake should only happen once, not many times spanning years. When everything with Rowdy finally ended, I knew what I wanted, and it didn’t include being unimportant in my partner’s life.
I wanted it all. I wanted what my father had with my mother before she died and with Tilly when he finally remarried. I wanted a man who would look out for me, love me, and be fierce in his loyalty.
“He was also a dick,” Brax adds.
Tilly slides a piece of cake in front of me, thankfully interrupting our conversation. “The first piece for the birthday girl.”
Tilly is the best kind of human. She is sweet, kind, and caring, with a hint of sass that sometimes has me doubling over in laughter. I couldn’t have picked a better stepmother than her. It didn’t hurt that she owned a cupcake shop when I was little. What girl doesn’t want an unlimited supply of sweets at her disposal?
“Thanks, Ma.” I smile up at her as I take the plate and move it closer. “It looks delicious. You outdid yourself.”
Tilly places her hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “Only the best for you, sweetheart."
“I want a big piece, Ma,” Mason tells her. “A corner with tons of frosting. I’m a growing boy.”
She stares at Mason and shakes her head. “First, you’re not a boy, and you haven’t grown an inch in years. But I’ll still get you a big piece because you’re the only one who has a bottomless pit of a stomach for frosting.”
“I was born with a sweet tooth,” he says unapologetically. It’s amazing how few cavities Mason has with the amount of sugar he ingests every day.
“If only you were as sweet as the food you ate,” Zoey, my cousin, teases Mason from across the table. “Instead of being the giant asshole you really are.”
“I’m an angel, ...
