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.

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.

the decorations. "It's a shame we didn't throw a big party for

invited people to Henry's birthday, it

those businesspeople, even from abroad, would've shown up. It would've been way too much. And

son's first birthday, but he'd announced it would just be a family dinner. Everyone else had to let go of the

arrived, and

she'd said she'd hire a team for her son's birthday,

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

huge. Chad knelt down and coaxed him, "Wayne, pick out a toy, and Mom will hug

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

down on the red carpet and tugged on Molly's sleeve,