Chapter8
The following Friday afternoon, I stood in the doorway to the living room with the baby on my hip and said, “Wow, you’re really going all out.”
Lark and JoJo had taken on the task of decorating for Owen’s first birthday party, and restraint just wasn’t in their vocabulary. The theme was sunshine and rainbows, and the living room looked like an explosion at a rainbow factory.
Lark had sewn a lot of the decorations, with the intention that they’d have a life beyond the party. He and JoJo were currently stringing up one of several long ribbons lined with festive, triangular flags. Some of the flags were rainbow-striped, while others had primary-colored backgrounds and featured cute, smiling suns or happy, grinning clouds. At least eight of these long pennant strings crisscrossed the ceiling, and fluffy clouds, suns, and rainbows hung from the chandelier like a giant mobile.
My brother had also sewn three pillows in the shapes of a sun, a cloud, and a rainbow, each with cute happy faces. They were lined up on the sofa, and Owen was dying to get his hands on them. As the baby squirmed in my arms, JoJo said, “Go ahead and let him roam. All the pins and scissors are out of reach.”
As soon as I put him down, Owen speed-crawled across the room. I followed him and helped him onto the couch, and he smiled delightedly as I sat down beside him and showed him the spiky, round sunshine pillow. He grabbed it and put it on his lap, and then he started drumming on it with both hands.
I looked around and asked, “Where’s Dylan?”
Lark was grinning as he told me, “He needed to run an errand, but he’ll be back soon.” He was definitely hatching some kind of surprise, and I let him have his fun instead of trying to figure out what was up. He quickly changed the subject with, “By the way, we’re getting pizza for dinner. We’re all cooked out after making stuff for brunch tomorrow.”
“That sounds great, and I really wish you’d let me help with some of the party prep,” I said.
“No way. You’re the other guest of honor at the party tomorrow, along with the baby,” JoJo reminded me, as she hung up a hand-painted poster.
I started to protest, but Lark cut me off by saying, “There’s no point in arguing. I’m fully on board with JoJo’s idea that parents of little kids need to be celebrated, too. Your whole life revolves around that little person, day in and day out. This is a great chance for us to tell you we think you’re awesome and we love you. Besides, we missed your birthday, because it was the month before you moved in.”
“This is incredibly sweet, and I appreciate it,” I said. “I guess I’m just not used to people going through so much trouble for me.”
Just then, the front door flew open. Hal ran into the house and threw his backpack aside as he shouted, “Bitch, get over here and give me a hug!”
I yelled, “Oh my god,” and rushed over to him, and as we grabbed each other in an embrace I exclaimed, “I’m so happy to see you! How are you here right now?” Then I held him out at arm’s length to get a good look at him. I felt like I was dreaming, but my best friend was right there in front of me, looking gorgeous as ever in his purple T-shirt, shorts, and matching headband.
Hal gestured at Dylan, who’d followed him inside, and said, “It’s only an hour’s flight from L.A., and your brother’s awesome boyfriend just picked me up at the airport. Lark invited me to the party, so I’m here to celebrate your son’s first birthday with you.”
Lark gave him a hug and exclaimed, “It’s so great to finally meet you!”
I picked up Owen, who was bouncing excitedly on the sofa, and Hal kissed the top of the baby’s head and gushed, “Hey there birthday boy, look how cute you are!”
Then I asked Lark and Hal, “How did you two get in touch?”
Lark was clearly proud of himself. “Remember when I asked to borrow your phone so I could look up a recipe? I was actually on a secret spy mission to snatch Hal’s number so I could invite him to the party.”
“I thought about inviting you myself,” I told Hal, “but I felt bad asking you to spend money to come see me. I know you’ve been pretty broke.”
“My boyfriend actually bought me the plane ticket. I think he was trying to get rid of me for the weekend, but you and I can discuss that later. Right now, I need you to introduce me to this blonde bombshell.” I made the introductions as he shook hands with JoJo, and then he told her, “Logan talks about you all the time, but he forgot to mention you’re an absolute icon. I study fashion design, and you’ve got ‘muse’ written all over you. How’d you get to be so fabulous?” She was currently dressed in white capri pants and a red, off the shoulder blouse that looked like something Sophia Loren would wear.
She flashed him a big smile and said, “I actually have an answer for that. I really thought about who I was meant to be when I transitioned, in terms of more than just gender, obviously. It was an opportunity to reinvent myself from the ground up, and since I was into retro, old Hollywood glamour, I named myself Josephine Deveraux and started to develop my style. We’re about twenty years down that road now, and I can finally say I love who I am.”
Hal was in total fan-boy mode. “Girl, yes! I just met you and I already love you, too.” Oh yeah, those two were definitely going to be great friends.
With the arrival of my bestie, the celebration started early. JoJo and Eliot kept pitchers of icy margaritas flowing, and later on all of us lingered over pizza and dessert, laughing and telling stories. It felt like Hal had been a part of our household for years.
Our little impromptu party finally broke up around eight, when I went upstairs to put Owen to bed. He’d been stirred up by all the excitement, so it took a few minutes to get him to calm down enough to fall asleep. I ended up resorting to singing him a song, which lulled him enough to eventually drift off.
I got up and grabbed the baby monitor off the dresser. Then I drew a sharp breath when I turned around and found Hal standing there. “Sorry,” he whispered, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine. I just didn’t hear you come upstairs.”
I turned on the monitor, and as we went back down to the living room, he said, “That was both really beautiful and pretty funny. Why’d you sing him a rock song?”
“Most songs for babies are insipid. Call me crazy, but I think ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ is actually a pretty awesome lullaby, especially a cappella.”
“Agreed.”