Sweet Mischief’s Rollercoaster Romance

They were halfway through their meal when Henry insisted on another round of toasts. The four of them raised their glasses again, following his lead. Henry followed up with a rambling speech that nobody really understood, then sat back down to eat.

"Milka,” Molly said, half-laughing, "you know so many talented people through work. Find me a superstar manager, will you? I'm so over running the company every day. Just bring me someone amazing so I can finally be a slacker."

Milka nodded toward Wayne, who was sitting quietly and looking extra well-behaved. "Start training this one. In eighteen years, you'll have your perfect manager."

“Him?” Molly scoffed, remembering something from earlier in the week. “He's such a little goofball. Yesterday I tried teaching him the Gettysburg Address-he couldn't remember even the first line.”

Wayne, just handed a mini churro by his aunt, turned to his mom with a frown and protested, “Mom!"

The other three women stared at Molly in disbelief and all blurted out at once, “Molly, what were you teaching Wayne?"

Molly dipped a slice of lamb into a mountain of sesame sauce and said, "The Gettysburg Address, of course. Mia, what are you teaching your boy?"

rhymes,” Mia answered, wiping her

wrap, chimed in, "Well, that's nothing. My folks were way tougher than

had witnessed the full spectrum of Cedillo family parenting styles. She was already familiar with Henry's old-school, tough-love upbringing. But Molly's tiger-mom, push-them-to-the-top style

parenting hacks. My aunt is the real baby-whisperer. When you have your own kid

and said, “Milka, let's swap numbers. If you ever need advice, just text me. You've been gone a while—if you want Mars updates, I'll get

chopsticks and quickly exchanged contacts with Mia. “Honestly, I don't care

a ton on Facebook," Mia

conversation drifted to Annie

couldn't help but gossip a little. “Is Officer Chapman really as

paused, her bright eyes darting as she thought it over, then shook

her sister and added, "Not rough. If you want to talk about tough, you should meet Annie's sister-in-law. Now that's