I walk away from the doorway and turn to Wren. “You’ve done some magic,” I tell her. It’s true. Ever since she texted me the day after my father’s episode, I knew this would be an incredible birthday party. Wren has thought of everything. If she hadn’t been there to create the whole schedule and tell me what to go buy, I never would’ve been able to give Callie something like this. All credit goes to the girl standing in front of me, a simple black dress covering her lithe body. “Your kids are going to have the coolest birthday parties ever.”

Wren’s eyes become two wide orbs before she says, “I won’t have kids.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Leaning down to pick up a cucumber slice that fell on the floor, she says, “I’d just never want to pass down my genes.”

My throat feels tight.

“But do you want kids? Because I’m sure there are options.”

She shakes her head as she gets back up. “No. I wouldn’t want to put anyone through what I lived with my mother.”

“Right.” She hasn’t explained much of what it was like to take care of someone with Alzheimer’s, but I can assume it’s been far from easy. Her reasoning makes sense, as much as it breaks my heart that the decision was made for her the second she was born.

“What about you?” she asks. “You want kids.”

“I don’t know yet,” I answer honestly. “My life is busy as it is, and I wouldn’t want to have a kid only to half-ass the job.”

“Why am I not surprised by your answer,” she says teasingly.

I smirk, then point back at the room the girls are lounging in. “All that to say, I’m very glad you have those organization skills. I never could’ve planned all this by myself.”

“It wasn’t that hard,” she answers in a lighter voice, apparently relieved at my switch in subject. “Just had to think of what my ideal birthday party as an eleven-year-old would’ve been.”

I lean back against the hallway wall. “And what was your eleventh birthday party like?”

She looks up. “I don’t remember exactly.”

Four words. Enough to make me feel like I’m choking.

My face must change because she lifts her hands in front of her and says, “Not like that. I just meant that my birthdays have never been something that memorable.”

Oh, thank God. I nod, forcing my lips into a smile. “Oh, yeah, okay.”

“Don’t get weird on me now,” she says.

“I won’t,” I say, hoping I’ll be able to keep that promise.