Eeyore's Birthday Party had been held in Central Austin's Pease Park on the last Saturday of April for longer than Jenna had been alive. And she'd been a regular attendee all her life, having missed only two that she could recall. Last year, when she'd been in LA interviewing for jobs, and her sophomore year of high school, when she'd been in the hospital recovering from an emergency appendectomy.

Founded in honor of the gloomy character from the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne, the party had grown from a simple gathering that some University students had put together to an event so large it sometimes seemed that the whole town turned out. Including, always, a flower-draped donkey as the donkey-of-honor.

All proceeds from the event went to various non-profit organizations, and dozens upon dozens of local vendors showed up with games, crafts, food, and enough drinks to keep the party going. Even in the new millennium, the party had a hippie vibe, and it was much more kid-friendly in the early hours when children and adults lined up for face-painting, giant soap bubble games, kites, henna tattoos, and lots and lots of costumes.

"There he is!" Faith called, jerking free of Jenna's hand so she could run pell-mell across the park toward where this year's Eeyore stood inside a pen looking appropriately gloomy.

Jenna squeezed Reece's hand. "What time are we supposed to relieve Brent?"

He glanced at his watch. "Soon. But he knows what we've got on our hands," he added, with a nod toward Faith, who had entered the pen and was gently stroking the donkey's nose. "He won't care if we're a little late."

Brent was currently manning the booth that The Fix on Sixth was sponsoring, selling beer, wine, and a limited selection from the menu, with this year's proceeds benefitting the Austin Zoo, a small local zoo dedicated to animal rescue and rehabilitation. Jenna had loaded him and the rest of the staff up with stacks of flyers announcing The Fix on Sixth's Man of the Month calendar model contest, and giving details on both how to sign up and when the contest would be running live on stage.

"Maybe we should be a lot late," Jenna said as she and Reece parked themselves by the pen's exit. Then she turned in his arms and tilted her face up for a kiss. She and Faith had gotten their faces painted less than an hour before, and glittery pink rubbed off on Reece's nose. She wiped it away with her thumb. "We could enlist Elijah to watch Faith, and you and I could go escape into the trees." Not that there were many trees where they were, but Jenna was motivated enough to walk a ways if it meant some privacy with Reece.

"Tempting," he said. "How about I kiss you again now, and we'll call it a rain check for later?"

"That's a plan I can live with." She rose up on her toes, her arms going around his neck as she lost herself in the kind of slow, deep, demanding kiss that had her imagining long nights in bed with that tongue doing even more amazing things to her body.

"Well," she said when they broke apart. "Is it later yet?"

His mouth curved up. "Anticipation, baby. It's the best aphrodisiac there is."

"Jenna! Reece! Did you see? I petted Eeyore!" Faith burst out of the gate and ran toward them.

"I know," Jenna said. "Was his nose soft?"

"Uh-huh." She looked between the two of them, her face screwed up with concentration. "Can I be a flower girl?"

"A what?" Reece asked.

"A flower girl."

"Like this?" Jenna pointed to her own face and a colorful flower that curled up near her eye.

"Nooooooo." Faith rolled her eyes. "A real flower girl. Like Missy got to be when her big sister got married last month. I want to be a flower girl, too. Can I be yours? Pretty please?"

"Oh," Jenna said. She glanced at Reece, and her stomach twisted when she saw the tightness on his face. She knew why, of course, and not for the first time, she had to wonder if he'd ever come around on the side of marriage—and what she'd do if he didn't. But she shoved the thought firmly from her head. They'd been a couple for all of twenty-seven seconds, and their best friend didn't even know the truth yet. Marriage was the last thing she needed to be thinking about.

"Please..." Faith's voice rose in a heartfelt plea.

"I have an idea," Jenna began, managing a sideways smile at Reece. "The minute we need a flower girl, you're going to be the one we call. Okay?" The girl's smile widened. And before she could ask when exactly that might be, Jenna grabbed her hand and said, "Why don't we go get henna flower tattoos on our hands right now?"

"Can we?" Faith's eyes went wide.

"Sure. Wouldn't Daddy think that's pretty?"

The little girl nodded, then looked up at Reece. "Are you coming, too, Uncle Reece?"

"I think this sounds like girl-time, okay?"

Faith nodded, her black curls bobbing. "I like girl time," she said. "Someday, I'll have a mommy, and can have it whenever I want."

A knot of tears rose in Jenna's throat, and she blinked furiously to keep them from seeping out through her eyes. "Did your daddy tell you that?"

"Oh, no. Mrs. Westerfield," Faith said, referring to her regular babysitter. "She says Daddy doesn't know what's good for him, but that someday he'll find a nice lady."

Jenna met Reece's eyes, and saw that he looked as helpless as she felt. But then he sank to one knee and pulled Faith close. "Well, I'll tell you what. Until he does, you and Aunt Jenna can have all the girl time you want, okay?"

"Okay," she said agreeably, then stuck one thumb into her mouth and held out her unoccupied hand for Jenna.

"What are you going to do?" Jenna asked, as Reece pulled her close and rested his forehead against hers.

"I'm going to go relieve Brent," he said. "It's not the same, but I think a little daddy-daughter time wouldn't come amiss."

"No," she agreed. "Definitely not."

"Aunt Jenna! Come on!" A little hand tugged hard on her fingers.

"Someone's anxious," she said, letting herself be led away. "We'll find you later," she called back to Reece.

Later turned out to be a full hour since the line for henna was long and, right next to the henna tent was a small pen filled with peacocks.

"All right, rug rat," Jenna said. "Time to go find Reece."

"Good luck," a familiar voice said, and she looked over her shoulder to see Brent leaning on a nearby post.

"Oh, you're here. Good. Reece is covering The Fix's booth?"

"Tiffany's on it," Brent said. "That's why I came to find you. That, and to check on my junior ornithologist," he added, pointing to Faith, who was creeping up on a preening male peacock.

"We're having a great time," Jenna said. "But what about Reece?"

"He had to go. His dad called. Edie slipped, and she's in the ER."

"Oh no."

"He said he tried to call, but your phone's going straight to voicemail. He thinks you may be out of charge."

She pulled it out of her small shoulder bag and saw that he was right.

"Do you want to go meet him? I know you told Faith that you were going to spend the evening playing with her, but I can smooth that over."

"No. Thanks, but it's okay. I'll check in with him tonight, and I'll go over there and see her tomorrow." She hesitated, then cocked her head to one side. Something was off, but she wasn't sure what.

"I'm not blind," he said, his voice suggesting that he was giving her a clue.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about," he said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She hugged herself. "Because I'm an idiot?"

"You?"

"Reece thought we should tell you right away. But I..."

"What?"

"Don't tease me, Brent. You know me too well. I was scared, okay? I love you, too. And this—with Reece, I mean—it changes everything."

"You're right," he said, and her eyes shot to his in shock. "It does change everything."

Her heart was suddenly pounding very hard. "What are you—"

"And you're right that you're an idiot," he continued.

She frowned, confused, but a tiny bit of the terror was lifting. "Am I?"

"Do you think we haven't already survived change? The three of us, I mean?" Before she could answer, he turned and pointed to Faith. "Faith was one hell of a change. Did I lose either of you?"

"No." Her word was barely a whisper. "It's just that I—"

He pulled her roughly to him, his hands on her shoulders, and he stared into her eyes with the same intensity with which she'd seen him look into Faith's. It's just a nightmare, sweetie. None of it is real.

"I know," he said to Jenna now. "I know it scares you. I even know why. But you won't lose me."

"You." She turned the word over in her head, examining the implications. "But you think I might lose him?"

He didn't deny it. "Just be careful before you get in too deep."

Her heart skipped a beat, but she understood what he was talking about. How could she not? She knew Reece as well as Brent did—better when you factored in the last couple of days. And she'd seen the way his expression had closed off when Faith mentioned being a flower girl at their wedding.

"I went in with eyes open," she told Brent. "And we've just barely gone from friends to lovers."

"All I'm saying is to be careful. And to be sure what you want—and what you're willing to settle for—before you get too deep."

She managed a sideways smile. "No worries. I'm already treading water. And the truth is, I'm a damn good swimmer."