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.

party favors. "But my grandparents insisted on inviting old friends from back home. And

didn't throw a big party for Henry when he turned

connections, if we'd invited people to Henry's birthday, it would've been as wild as his

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

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

had arrived, and the emcee got

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

table. Instantly, a crowd pressed in, all

him, "Wayne, pick out a toy,

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

tugged on Molly's sleeve, both