Brock “Slim” Lucas looked at his oldest son, his eyes moved to his youngest son, and then they slid to his wife.

And when his eyes hit her shining ones he realized he had not one thing to wish for. Not one. There was nothing he wanted.

He had it all right there.

Except one thing.

So he leaned over Tess, silently made his wish, and blew out the candles.

She hooted and clapped.

Rex stated, “So freaking cool! Just like last year! Cake for breakfast three days this week!”

Joel, having shot up in the last year, now well taller than Tess and definitely a boy-man only a week away from his fourteenth birthday, turned on his bare foot and started marching to the door, declaring, “I’ll get plates.”

Rex, also having grown, though nowhere near as much as his brother, still he was taller than Tess and nearly twelve, therefore maintaining boy status but only just, followed him, announcing, “I’ll get the milk.”

Tess threw back the covers and decreed, “I’ll start the coffee.”

He let her feet hit the floor before his arm curled around her waist again. He pulled her back into the bed and rolled over her.

Before she could say a word, he took his birthday kiss. He made it long, he did it hard, and it was wet.

When he lifted his head and saw her eyes slightly dazed but mostly happy and still shining, he got his wish.

* * *

Brock walked up to the door that was opening before he got there. When he arrived, he jerked up his chin to the older man. The man tipped his down and stepped aside.

Brock stepped in.

The man closed the door and turned to him.

“Would you like coffee?” he asked, like he always asked.

Brock shook his head like he always shook his head, shoved his hand in his overcoat, pulled the envelope out of the inside pocket, and handed it to the man.

Donald Heller took it. He didn’t even try to hide his eagerness when he instantly opened the folded-in flap and pulled out the pictures.

He never tried to hide his eagerness.

Head bent, he studied the snapshots of Tess with Joey, Rex, and his family at Christmas. Tess decorating a cake in the back of her new bakery. Tess standing in their kitchen, phone to her ear, laughing at something Elvira was saying. Tess in an ass-to-heels, knees-to-chest squat, her arm around Ellie’s waist, her head bent to listen to what Ellie was whispering in her ear, her body hidden by Ellie’s exceptionally girlie, pink flower girl dress.

And he stopped at the last and studied it for a long time.