At my tone and what I didn’t know was the look on my face, everyone leaned back a bit.

“My whole family died in a car crash when I was six. My Mom, Dad and older brother. I was with them, got really hurt, spent a lot of time in the hospital but I survived. When I was ten, my new puppy was run over by a truck. Splat!” I clapped one palm on the other and everyone jumped. “When I was eleven, my grandpa, the only living grandparent I had left, died of Parkinson’s. When I was fifteen, my Auntie Reba died after having knee replacement surgery. Knee replacement surgery,” I hissed the last three words. “Four months ago, Park died. I found him in an alley. He was the best kid I’d ever met and I’ve met a lot of them. This morning, I saw the scar of the gunshot wound Vance got during some business he was doing for Lee. He was shot again a few days ago, protecting me. I will not lose another person in my life. I will not lose someone else I care about. I will not.”

“Girlie –” Tod said softly.

My eyes were blurry again and I just hated that. “I will not,” I repeated, turning to Tod.

“What on earth is going on?” Stevie asked, coming late. “Everyone is staring.”

My eyes moved to Stevie and my stomach twisted tighter to the point where I thought I might be sick. “Could they hear me?” I whispered after I’d swallowed back the nausea.

Stevie took one look at my face and blinked. Then he looked at Tod. Tod shook his head. Stevie’s eyes came back to me. “No, they couldn’t hear you. Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay,” I said to Stevie and then looked at May. “Can you please, please…” I grabbed her hand and leaned into her, “please, just serve the cake? I really need that cake.”

She didn’t argue, nodded her head and her hand squeezed mine. “Sure, hon, I’ll serve the cake.”

I closed my eyes again, let out a deep breath and then looked at May. “Thank you.” May peeled off to serve the cake and I looked around at the concerned faces. “Can we quit talking about this and just enjoy this wonderful party?”

Daisy came forward, her arm went around my waist and she held on tight. “Sure, Sugar.” Then she looked back at the gang. “I think we need more champagne.”

“That’d be good,” I whispered, blinking a few times until my vision cleared.

That’s when Jet arrived. She was smiling so huge it lit up the room. She walked up looking somehow dazed and completely unaware and oblivious to the undercurrents of the recent drama.

“Hey guys,” she said then smiled at me and gave me a kiss on the cheek, “happy birthday Jules.”

On closer inspection she didn’t look dazed, she looked dreamy.

“Jet,” I asked, “are you okay?”

“I’m okay. I’m way okay. I’m so okay it’s worth the f**king f-word. I’m f**king, f**king okay.”

“What’s going on?” Ally asked.

Jet turned to her. “Eddie told me he loved me tonight. That’s why we’re late. I, um… kinda pounced on him when he did it.”

Everyone stared.

My stomach twisted further. Hateful jealousy I wished I didn’t feel causing the pain even as my heart warmed for Jet.

Daisy let me go and hugged Jet. “That is so sweet,” she said when she broke the hug. “Champagne! We need champagne! Right here!” she shouted though who she was shouting at I did not know, there weren’t any waiters, it was a help-yourself kind of deal.

“I’ll get the champagne,” Indy offered with a hand squeeze for Jet and a quick, worried look at me.

I ignored the worried look. I didn’t need any worried looks. I needed this night to be over.

Jet moved beside me as Tod, Daisy and Roxie formed a huddle close by (likely to talk about me, I ignored that too) and Ally wandered away (scarily in a direction that would lead her to Vance, I ignored that too).

“Did you tell him you love him?” I asked Jet.

“I told him that ages ago when I tried to break up with him.”

I couldn’t help it, even with all the emotion what she said made no sense and thus made me smile.

“As you know I’m no expert but that sure as hell doesn’t sound like the way to break up with someone,” I told her.

She grinned at me, still in her dreamy daze. “It wasn’t though I didn’t know that. I moved in during my troubles and he didn’t let me break up with him when they were over and never let me move out. This past weekend I even painted his bathroom this really cool shade of deep, deep lavender, a really rich color but Ally said Eddie’d lose his mind to have a purple bathroom. Still, he told me he loved me. Even a purple bathroom didn’t faze Eddie.”

She was gazing across the room while she talked and I followed her gaze. I looked across the room and saw Eddie, his eyes on Jet, his lips twitching, his thoughts clearly private but in a seriously sexy, public way.

I put my arm around her waist and she did the same with mine. “I think you could have painted the bathroom flamingo pink and it wouldn’t faze Eddie.”

She looked at me, her face had settled, lost its daze and was now just plain happy.

“I know,” she said softly.

Don’t ask me why but I touched the side of my head to hers and gave her waist a squeeze. She squeezed me back.

Then May came out with a birthday cake loaded with lit candles singing happy birthday and everyone joined in.

* * * * *

A couple of hours later, the party was winding down and Nick walked up to me.

With a polite smile, he pulled me away from talking to Zip and Heavy.

“I’m leavin’, Jules,” he said to me, walking me to the door where he stopped.

“Did you have fun?” I asked, smiling up at him.

“Yeah. They’re good people.”

He was right, they were.

“Got somethin’ to say, Jules.”

I cocked my head to the side not sure I liked his tone but having had just enough champagne to be able to ignore that too.

“Noticed you gave Vance a wide berth tonight. Don’t know why and it’s none of my business.”

I held my breath knowing from experience he wasn’t done talking and I was right.

Nick continued. “Been scared stiff these past four months, you doin’ what you’re doin’. You know that. The only two good nights of sleep I’ve had in those months have been the last two, with his Harley sittin’ outside the backdoor.”