She rolled in his arm and tipped her green eyes up to him, her light brown hair with its blonde highlights tousled and partly in her face.

“Who’s that?” she asked, lifting a hand to shift the soft tendrils out of her eyes.

“Tim McGraw,” he answered, understanding her question and knowing she had no fucking clue who Tim McGraw was. He’d spent more than a year introducing her to his music and she spent more than a year mostly ignoring these efforts.

The music started to get louder.

He watched her eyes narrow and it wasn’t because she didn’t have her glasses.

“How’d that get on my player?”

“I put it there.”

“You—” she began, but he rolled into her so his body was on her soft, sweet one and he dipped his face close to hers.

“Baby,” he whispered, “it’s my birthday. I’m not wakin’ up to Fiona Apple.”

“Fiona wasn’t in the scheduled mix,” she informed him.

“Or Tori Amos,” he added.

“She wasn’t either.”

“Or Sarah McLachlan.”

“Her either.”

“Or Paula Cole.”

She snapped her mouth shut.

Yeah, there it was, and Paula fucking Cole was definitely not scheduled for his birthday.

He felt his body start shaking and he heard Tim McGraw start to get louder.

He controlled his humor, dipped his face closer, and again reminded her, “It’s my birthday.”

“I need to turn off the music.”

“Yeah, you can do that after you start my birthday right.”

“It’s getting louder.”

She wasn’t wrong. It was getting louder.

“Tess,” he growled as he pressed his body into hers. She bit her lip and then the door flew open.

His head jerked back and he watched Joel and Rex walk in just as they had last year, just as Tess organized for him, her, and Joel to walk into Rex’s room two days later with his cake and for them with Rex to walk into Joel’s room four days after that with his.

Joel was carrying a beautifully decorated birthday cake, undoubtedly carrot, his favorite, that held an abundance of tall, thin, blue candles, all of them lit.

They were sing-shouting “Happy Birthday to You” over Tim McGraw and smiling like idiots.

He looked down at Tess who was grinning up at him, not like an idiot. Her eyes were warm, her face was soft, and her smile was sweet.

All Tess.

He grinned back, bent his neck, and touched his mouth to hers then he rolled off his wife onto a forearm in the bed. She rolled to the alarm, turning off Tim McGraw at around the time Rex and Joey were standing by the bed and drawing out “Happy Birthday dear Daaaaaaaad,” to which Tess sat up in the bed and joined them for the last four words.

Joel shoved the cake forward and demanded, “Blow out the candles and make a wish.”