Sweet Mischief’s Rollercoaster Romance

Hansen reached out. "Hand me the little guy. You go on, take care of what you need to."

Cradled in Grandpa Hansen's arms, Wayne was all calm and wide-eyed. Usually, if anyone else tried to hold him and his parents weren't close by, he'd start wailing. But with Grandpa, he just leaned back and stared up at him, quiet as could be.

"Nobody knows more about raising kids than I do," Hansen announced, his voice swelling with pride as he started bragging again.

Henry got scooped up by Grandpa too. Even though Henry was the troublemaker of the bunch, Grandpa always managed to turn his mischief into something to boast about. "My grandson's a genius! I was working on my laptop when it suddenly went dark. Turns out, he found the power switch and turned it off. I still don't know how he figured out which button it was."

Bruce looked around at all the grandkids in everyone else's arms. He glanced over at his own son, then at the young woman who might one day be his daughter-in-law. "Sigh. Both of mine are still students."

Molly, Mia, and Anya were busy decorating the birthday table-streamers, cake, piles of colorful balloons.

Chad's boss was there, Kendrick's coworkers, friends of the Byrne family, Molly's colleagues... the place was packed.

"I wanted to do what Henry's family did, just a simple dinner with everyone together," Molly told Anya as they set out party favors. "But my grandparents insisted on inviting old friends from back home. And if they were coming, we had to book a real venue. So we let a few more friends know... and now look at this crowd. We're almost out of seats."

Anya finished arranging the decorations. "It's a shame we didn't throw a big party for Henry when he turned one."

Molly grinned. "Honestly, I'm glad we kept it small. With Andre's connections, if we'd invited people to Henry's birthday, it would've been as wild as his baby shower. Every hotel in Havenbrook would've been overbooked."

Anya's eyes went wide. "Oh, right! All those businesspeople, even from abroad, would've shown up. It would've been way too much. And Uncle was still upset with Chad then..."

By now, Andre's reputation was far bigger than just being a businessman. People had expected a huge party for his eldest son's first birthday, but he'd announced it would just be a family dinner. Everyone else had to let go of the idea.

Most of the guests had arrived, and the emcee got things started.

Molly stuck to her plan: she'd said she'd hire a team for her son's birthday, and she really handed them the reins.

She picked up Wayne and set him on the table. Instantly, a crowd pressed in, all eyes on the birthday boy.

Wayne clung nervously to Molly, his eyes huge. Chad knelt down and coaxed him, "Wayne, pick out a toy, and Mom will hug you again right away."

Chad smiled reassuringly. "We're both right here, buddy. Don't be scared."noveldrama

He set Wayne down on the red carpet and tugged on Molly's sleeve, both of them watching to see what their son would do.

On the table sat a fountain pen, a stack of books, a calculator, the Chade Inc. company seal, a big gold bar from his aunt, a set of car keys from his big brother... more than twenty things in total, some shiny, some silly, all colorful and fun.

Wayne plopped down, spun around once, then crawled with fierce determination toward something. He grabbed his dad's medal-and of course, shoved it straight into his mouth.

"Not for eating!" Molly called out.

But Wayne was already chomping down.

Chad hurried over and scooped him up, trying to wrestle the medal out of his grip. Wayne's cheeks flushed red as he clamped down with his tiny fingers, refusing to let go.

The medal already had a row of small teeth marks from Jade. Now her son was

adding his own.