I pull back slightly so I can see his face. “Hey, you.” I lean in and kiss him, just as my Dad walks past us and tugs on a strand of my hair.
“Your little brother is watching.”
I look to my side and giggle when I see Olly standing at the door, pulling a disgusted face at us.
Grayson leans up off his car and slides my hand into his. “Come on, birthday girl.”
I can never get enough alone time with my man. We’ve been dating for nine months now, and I am still as hung up on him as I was that day in the school cafeteria when I’d realised I’d fallen in love with him and publicly declared my feelings. I still have to pinch myself sometimes that this fine specimen of a man is all mine.
“We made pancakes,” Olly announces as I take my seat at the table. “Look, I put a smiley face on yours with a banana.” He points proudly at the plate that Sophie places in front of me.
“Wow. Olly thanks buddy. I love it,” I tell him, giving his hair a quick playful ruffle.
Olly beams at me in delight. “We got you a cake too, it’s got—”
“Shush,” Dom tells him, placing a hand over Oll’s mouth. “It’s a surprise, Olly.”
Olly bounces in his seat, nodding and grinning, and he taps his nose. “It’s okay I won’t tell her it’s a Game of Thrones cake.”
“Olly!” Everyone says simultaneously around the table and I chuckle. Olly is useless at keeping secrets. He just can’t hold them in, no matter how hard he tries.
“Okay, everyone eat up,” Sophie urges as she sits herself down.
I bite into my pancake and groan. “Oh, you did peanut butter ones, Soph.”
“Well, I had to do your favourites on a day like today.”
I look around the table at these six people who have become my family. It is strange to think that just over seven months ago they were all strangers to me. I stuff myself with four pancakes and rub my belly in satisfaction.
“We should get going,” Dom announces, looking at his watch.
“Why do we have to go to school, Mummy? I want to stay home and eat birthday cake with Evy.”
Evy is what Olly calls me now. He has decided Everly was too long.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” I tell him, dropping a kiss on his head as I pass him. “We’ll eat lots of cake later, I promise.”
I follow the others to the door and slip on my shoes and grab my bag. Grayson comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist as we walk to the car and nuzzles into my neck.
“Mmm,” he says into my ear. “I want to eat lots of cake later too.”
I blush, my heart beating faster. “Grayson, you’re insatiable.”
I feel his smile against my neck. “Only for you, Manchester. Only for you.”
We pick up Izzy on the way to school and she climbs into the back with Abi and I. She has her red hair up in a messy bun and still manages to look flawlessly beautiful.
“Happy birthday!” She cheers as she gets in. She leans over Abi and drops a kiss on my cheek. “Grayson, I hope you bought her a big fat expensive present.”
Grayson looks over his shoulder and offers her a wink. “Wait and see.”
We pull up at college and everyone climbs out. I stop halfway out of the car when I realise Grayson is still wearing his seat belt up in the front.
“You coming?”
He shakes his head. “Get in the front, we’re not going in there today.”
“We’re not?”
He shakes his head, just as Izzy leans in through his window and drops a set of keys in his hands.
“Enjoy, kids,” she says with a wink and a smile, before she hurries off and catches up to Dom.
Curious, I fasten my seat belt as Grayson pulls off. He beeps his horn twice to Dom and Izzy as we race off back down the long drive of Harper Grange.
“Where are we going?” I ask excitedly.
He doesn’t take his eyes off the road but just smiles wickedly. “We’re spending the day together.”
I squeal in excitement, and he laughs, taking my hand in his.
I watch avidly at the direction we are going in to try to figure out where he’s taking me. I look at him puzzled when we pull off the road and the electric gates for Izzy’s house open.
“Why are we going to Izzy’s house?” I ask him, my nose wrinkling in confusion. If taking me to Izzy’s house is his idea of a birthday surprise, then he is in trouble. He pulls up at the side of the house. With a lazy grin, he takes my hand and tugs me around the back of the house towards the pool house.
“We’re going swimming for my birthday?” I say flatly.
Grayson chuckles and pulls me inside the pool house. He closes the door behind us and hits a button on a small remote that brings the blinds down on all the windows. He hits another button and softly warm fairy lights that decorate the ceiling twinkle to life.
Okay, so maybe he is good at this birthday surprise business. Chewing on my lip, I allow him to guide me along the side of the pool until we reach the hot tub, which is filled with red rose petals. At the side is a bucket with a bottle chilling inside. I jump slightly as music plays and I shake my head, laughing as I hear the opening line for the song - Endgame. He has never let me forget that I’d said Lottie thought we were endgame.
He comes up behind me and reaches round and starts unbuttoning my school shirt. “Time to get into your birthday suit, Manchester.”
He pops the last button open and my shirt slides down my arms to the floor. Then his hands are at my waist and
