She had on a pair of blue pajama bottoms and a yellow shirt. I missed the days when she wore pink nightgowns with ruffles on the end. We used to have so much fun dressing up, but she was growing into a woman too soon.

“How come no one told me Auntie Naya was coming over?” she asked gruffly.

“I’m just here for a minute, princess.”

Denver swiveled to face her. “Come here, birthday girl.”

She flashed her blue eyes at him with a growing smile. “It’s not my birthday yet.”

He glanced at his watch and masked his humor with a serious expression. “You’re right. Only birthday girls get to stay up past their bedtime. That means you need to go back to sleep.” He reached out his arms. “Come on, Peanut. The express train is going upstairs, so all aboard.”

“The express train is going to crash with that heavy cargo,” Lexi quipped. “She’s getting too big to carry.”

Denver hunched over, letting Maizy leap onto his back and wrap her arms around his neck.

“She’ll never be too big for me to carry,” he choked out, his face turning red from the lack of circulation. When he hopped and shifted her higher, he was able to grab her legs and release the death grip around his neck. “Say good night, Peanut.”

“Good night, Peanut,” Maizy replied sleepily. She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Denver turned around and glanced at Lexi. “Tomorrow I need a few hours sleep before we head out, so can you tell everyone to keep it down when I get home from work?”

“I’ll kick them out of the house,” Lexi promised, pulling her hair out of its ponytail. She threaded her fingers through the top until it was disheveled. “We have to be there at noon, so if you get home early enough, you should be able to sleep for about five hours.”

“True that. I’m going to take her upstairs and then I’m outta here.”

“G’nite, Maze. I love you.” Lexi watched Denver carry the sleepyhead down the hall.

“He can be the biggest dickhead, but he’s so good with her,” Izzy said. “I used to think it had to do with his lack of maturity, but she’s getting older and he treats her differently. Still attentive, but in a different way. I would have never imagined a guy like Denver being such a good watchdog.”

“I can’t lie,” Lexi said. “He’s the best. He really listens when she has something to say, and that’s not easy in a house like ours when we’re all talking over one another. Last week I drove out to Wes’s grave. She never got to meet her big brother, but I still want her to know about him. I guess his death is sinking in now that she’s older, because she was in such a sullen mood when we got home. She wouldn’t talk to me about it, but Denver took her out front and they sat down on the steps. He wrapped his arm around her and just listened to everything she had to say—stuff she’s never admitted to me, like how sad she is that she never got to meet Wes. She wondered if he’d like her.” Lexi’s lip quivered and tears glossed up her eyes. “I can’t imagine the absence she has to live with of having never known her brother, and on top of that, coming to grips with reality that her own father didn’t love her.”