ARIA POV
*almost 7 years later*
By the time the third cake almost caught fire, I decided fourteen was a dangerous age.
Not because of the candles.
Although there were twenty-eight of them between Ella and Owen, and Eva had taken the number as a personal challenge to the structural integrity of the dessert table.
“Do not touch the flames,” I said without looking.
“I wasn’t.”
“You were thinking about it.”
Eva, eight years old, red-haired, green-eyed, and entirely too much like her father when denied something interesting, froze with one finger hovering a suspicious distance from the candlelight.
“I was observing.”
“Sell that to someone that doesn’t know you the way I do.”
“I’m just curious.”
“Curiosity killed the cat in this particular case.”
Eva considered that.
Then nodded, b
