Special thanks to those who took time to read my story last week. And even more to those who passed on that they enjoyed it. That is the BEST part of being an author!
I might even do something like this again in the future. Stay tuned.
Now, for what you've all been waiting for. The answers to the scavenger hunt questions, right?
#1. What's Cassandra's favorite dish? Shrimp scampi
#2. What kind of ice cream does Cassandra want? chocolate with ALL the toppings!
#3. How many balloons did Cassandra's roommates blow up? 30
#4. What's the name of the main characters in Cassandra's book? Mykal and Fern
#5. Is Cassandra's hair curly or straight? curly
Did you get them right? The ones who sent them to me did!
And the winner of the drawing is ......



My youngest reader (that I know of), Abigail P! Abigail, I'm going to get with your mom to find out which of my books you'd like an e-copy of, and what kind of ice cream I need to send a gift card for. Enjoy!

​​Welcome to birthday week! We're celebrating my birthday all week long with a short story I wrote just for the occasion, as well as a chance for you to win some ice cream. Want more information or to see the list of scavenger hunt clues you're looking for? Check it out here. If you missed yesterday's part of the story, it's here (you'll want to read it first).

​When the lights came back on, Cassandra tried to see through the smoke lingering in the air. If it didn’t dissipate soon, the fire detector would start blaring. She waved her hand through the wisps and glanced this way and that. No sign of that handsome guy who had grinned at her over Sarah’s shoulder. Had she only imagined him? He looked just like how she pictured Mykal in her book.
“Birthday girl first.” Sarah gave Cassandra a gentle push toward the table laden with food. “You have to fix your plate before anyone else can and we’re starving.”
 In a haze, Cassandra added dibs and dabs to her plate. Sandwiches, chips, pickles, carrot sticks. She wasn’t even hungry, really. Not after the huge lunch and the big bowl of ice cream this afternoon. Laden with food, she glanced around the living area, wondering where she should sit. Maybe she could just slip down the hall and disappear while everyone was preoccupied with feeding themselves, too.
No such luck. Three steps in that direction, and the handsome stranger was in front of her, a cup of red liquid in his hands. Her feet and heart faltered at the same moment. Why, oh why, was she wearing yoga pants at a time like this?
“Hi. You must be Cassandra.” His grin spread lazily across his tan face.
“Unfortunately, yes.” She couldn’t help but smile back at him. “Though I’d rather be just about anywhere besides here.”
“Really?” He took a sip of his drink. “Not a fan of parties?”
“Don’t get me wrong. Lucy and Sarah are great. And I appreciate how much effort went into this.” She shrugged and looked down at her plate, wondering why she had picked up three pickles. “I just had this crazy plan to spend the whole day reading. And thanks to well-intentioned friends and family, I still have about a third of the book left.”
“That’s the worst.” He scooped her plate out of her hands and motioned with his head. “I’ve got an idea.”
She followed him through the crowd, She didn’t even know who he was, and yet she already trusted him. Lucy jumped up and down and waved at her, a big grin on her face. What was she mouthing? Cassandra shook her head and then quickly caught up with her dinner.
He glanced around when he reached the living room wall, then slipped behind the curtains. What? His hand reached out and pulled her behind, too. He shoved the French door open and escorted her out onto their tiny balcony. The warm night air wrapped around her, and the noise from inside was muffled as he pulled the door closed behind them.
She laughed. “Don’t you think Lucy and Sarah will be mad if I hide out here?”
“Is it your birthday or theirs?” His eyes crinkled at the edges as he smiled. He pulled out a patio chair with a flourish and motioned for her to sit. “How’s this?”
“Wonderful.”
“I’ll be right back.” He didn’t wait for her to answer, but slipped back inside.
Was he going to fill a plate and join her? The other chair was full of Lucy’s wilting herb garden. Maybe she should start moving the pots. She hesitated. Would that seem too forward? This had been his idea, but maybe he had just intended to help her and then disappear again.
Her heart ached at the thought.
The party noise increased again as he came back out the door. He set a cup of punch on the table next to her plate. Then, from behind his back, he pulled out the book she’d left on her bed earlier along with the book lamp that lived on her bedside table.
He gave her a wink as he presented his findings to her. “I won’t tell. But everyone deserves to have what they most want for their birthday.”
“That’s amazing.” She ran her hand over the cover and then looked back up at the guy who reminded her of the hero. “How can I thank you?”
He held out an envelope and grinned. “Give me a call when it’s not your birthday.”
He disappeared back inside before she could say anything else. She hadn’t even caught his name. With trembling fingers, she pulled out a simple birthday card.
“I hope you don’t mind my forwardness.” His writing was neat and straight inside the card. “When Lucy told me about you, I couldn’t turn down her invitation to come tonight. I hope you have a wonderful birthday. Call me as soon as you’re free.”
Mark. His name was Mark Borden. The same name as the author of the book. Really?
She traced his number with her fingertips and smiled again. She’d have to thank Lucy for the best birthday present ever. But not right now. Right now, she had a date in Andorya. She’d work out her date with her real-life hero tomorrow. When she was thirty-years-and-one-day old.

That's it. What did you think? Is this something you'd like to do again in the future?
I'll give you a few days to turn in your answers and the winner will be announced next Thursday, September 5th. Thanks so much for joining us this week as we celebrated my birthday (and Cassandra's). ;-)

​​Welcome to birthday week! We're celebrating my birthday all week long with a short story I wrote just for the occasion, as well as a chance for you to win some ice cream. Want more information or to see the list of scavenger hunt clues you're looking for? Check it out here. If you missed yesterday's part of the story, it's here (you'll want to read it first).

​Foreboding inched its way through her body as she glanced up at her apartment windows. No lights. Sarah and Lucy should be home by now. Hadn’t they promised to celebrate more with her tonight?
“Anything but a surprise party, God.” Cassandra muttered the prayer under her breath as she opened the door of her sister’s car.
“What did you say?” Paige stood beside her.
“I was praying.”
“Oh-kay.” Paige drug out the word, showing her skepticism. “Hey, do you still have that cute blue and white stripey dress? It would be perfect for my date this weekend.”
“Really?” Cassandra turned a frown on her sister. “Is that why you filled me up with ice cream? To get me in a good enough mood for you to borrow a dress?”
“No. The ice cream was the real reason I came. The dress was just something I thought of as we were hanging out.” Paige winked and then motioned for her sister to walk ahead of her.
“One day you’re going to have to get your own wardrobe instead of borrowing mine and forgetting to return most of it.” Cassandra huffed up the steps. “I’m going to come raid your closet soon so I can have most of my clothes back.”
“You’re such a drama queen.”
“You’re one to talk.” Cassandra unlocked the door and pushed it open.
“Surprise!”
Even though she had suspected it, the loud cacophonous roar of the greeting threw her off-balance. She took a step back and squished Paige’s toes. Her cheeks burned and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to try and find it in herself to act happy about this unwanted celebration.
“Cass?” Lucy tugged on her arm.
“You guys really shouldn’t have.” Cassandra forced a smile to her face, no longer caring if it were real or fake.
“And we told you that you only turn thirty once. We’ve got to live it up!” Sarah grabbed her other hand and pulled her into the crowded apartment.
Everyone from their Sunday school class, several co-workers, her parents, and Paige surrounded her with greetings and laughter. Was that the guy who lived down the hall? She didn’t even know him.
“You didn’t even get dressed?” Her mother’s voice held its usual disapproval. “Eating here with us in that get-up was bad enough, but you actually went out like that?”
“It’s not that much different from what Paige has on.” Cassandra hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “And she’s the one who lured me out without giving me a warning that I should wear something different.”
“I told you yoga pants weren’t a good idea.” Paige shrugged.
“Cass, there’s someone here I want you to meet.” Lucy grabbed her elbow and saved her from further discussion over her rotten life choices with her mother. Although, meeting a stranger wasn’t Cassandra’s idea of being rescued. More like out of one fire into another. “Where is he? I saw him just a minute ago.” Lucy raised up on her tiptoes, as if that would help her five-foot-one frame see over the heads of everyone around them.
Cassandra wished for the ability to turn invisible and hide somewhere quiet. Then, she could finish her book in peace and end her birthday how she wanted to.
“Don’t move. I think I see him over there. I’m going to grab him and be right back.” Lucy poked Cassandra in the chest.
Two seconds after Lucy walked away, the lights dimmed and a cake full of candles was carried into the room, the glow lending a sinister affect to Sarah’s smile above it.
The usual off-key chorus of the birthday song started slowly and then picked up speed and gusto, ending with several notes that weren’t originally meant to be there.
“Make a wish, Cassandra.” Sarah stood right in front of her.
Cassandra glanced around at everyone, her eyes landing on an unfamiliar face nearby. His smile made her heart skip a beat. She had planned to wish for everyone to disappear so she could go read, but suddenly, her desires took a different turn.

​​Welcome to birthday week! We're celebrating my birthday all week long with a short story I wrote just for the occasion, as well as a chance for you to win some ice cream. Want more information or to see the list of scavenger hunt clues you're looking for? Check it out here. If you missed yesterday's part of the story, it's here (you'll want to read it first).

​“Meet me in the parking lot.” Cassandra’s sister, Paige texted in the middle of the afternoon.
“This is getting ridiculous.” Cassandra stuck her bookmark back between the pages. “And right as I get to the climax.”
She peeked out her window and spotted her sister’s little green car in a spot next to her own silver SUV. She slid on flip-flops, grabbed her key, and pulled the door shut behind her. At least her parents had come up to her. Not Paige. She was too busy to walk up a flight of stairs.
“Hey.” Paige looked up from her phone when Cassandra stood next to her window. “Wow. You look—”
“What?” Cassandra glanced down at her outfit. Nothing wrong with it. She’d just been lounging around the apartment. “It’s not like I had plans today. No one was supposed to see me.”
“Yoga pants? I didn’t even know people wore those anymore.”
“Was there a reason you summoned me down here or was it just to criticize my clothes?” Cassandra started to turn.
“I was going to take you for ice cream. Thought I’d do something nice for your birthday.” Paige waved her hand. “But if you don’t want to accept my nice gesture, it’s no skin off my back. More money to spend on something for myself later.”
“Wow.” For a full minute, Cassandra battled the temptation to simply walk back upstairs and wipe this whole visit from her mind. But the craving for ice cream won out. “Where are we going?”
“I knew you’d cave.” Paige laughed. “You’re so predictable in your old age.”
“Old-ER. You left off the end of that word.” Cassandra poked her sister in the arm. “I’m only two years older than you. You’ll be thirty before you know it.”
“But hopefully I’ll dress better and maybe even be married by then.” Paige flipped her perfectly straight hair over her shoulder.
“What’s wrong with yoga pants? They’re comfy. And I had planned to stay home and read all day. The universe obviously has other plans. You’re the third interruption of the day.”
“Seriously? That was your big birthday plan? To read all day?” Paige shook her head as she pulled into the parking lot of their favorite treat shop. “If that’s what’s considered exciting, I don’t want to turn thirty.”
“I think I want the biggest size they have of chocolate with all the toppings we can pile on.” Cassandra narrowed her eyes at her flippant sibling.
“I’ll let you go medium. I’m only getting a small frozen yogurt. Can’t ruin this figure, after all.”
Cassandra rolled her eyes as she watched her sister walk in the door of the shop. Paige wore a tunic over leggings, almost Cassandra’s exact same outfit. What was it with people offering treats laden with backhanded criticism today?
In the midst of the verbal sparring with Paige, Cassandra forgot about the impending promise of more fun from her apartment mates.

​Welcome to birthday week! We're celebrating my birthday all week long with a short story I wrote just for the occasion, as well as a chance for you to win some ice cream. Want more information or to see the list of scavenger hunt clues you're looking for? Check it out here. If you missed yesterday's part of the story, it's here (you'll want to read it first).

​Who on earth was knocking on the door at this time of day? Weren’t all the people who knew her at work right now? Cassandra slid down a little further in the sudsy tub and hoped that if she pretended she didn’t hear the banging, whoever it was would go away.
The noise stopped and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then, her phone dinged with a message.
“Cassandra. We’re at your front door. Let us in.”
Why was her mother here? Now? She groaned and typed out a quick “Coming.”
Holding her fuzzy robe as tightly as she could around her body, her hair twisted up in a towel, she peeked through the peephole. Sure enough, her mother glanced at her watch on the other side and then made an angry gesture as she said something to her father. Cassandra slid the locks open and cracked the door.
“Cassandra, I know you took the day off, but I expected you to at least be dressed by now.” Her mother breezed past, motioning to her state of dishabille as she headed toward the kitchen.
“I was being lazy this morning and decided to take advantage of having the apartment to myself and enjoy a bubble bath. I wasn’t expecting company.” Cassandra grinned as her father pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.
“We brought you your favorite lunch.” He held up a bag from which the heady aroma of shrimp scampi wafted. “Couldn’t let our firstborn girl have a birthday without a little celebration.”
Was Cassandra the only one in the world who didn’t think it was impossible to let someone celebrate her own way? “I’ll go change and then we can eat.”
“This kitchen is never in order. How are we supposed to eat if there aren’t any plates in the cabinet?” Her mother’s voice carried down the hall along with the bangs of cabinet doors being shut with more force than necessary.
“I think they might be over there.” Her father never sounded as put upon as her mom.
Cassandra pulled on yoga pants and a pink tunic length top, twisted her brown curls up into a messy bun, and decided it was good enough. Her parents had seen her in worse. For example, the robe she had greeted them in.
And since everyone seemed to be conspiring against her lazy day, she didn’t see the need to put herself out there any more than possible. She checked that her bookmark hadn’t slipped out when she tossed the novel on her bed. Running her fingers lovingly over the cover, she sighed at the interruption that would more than likely take several hours away from her reading time, and went to face the parents.
It couldn’t be any worse than being left to clean up the breakfast dishes this morning. Or the threat her roommates had left her with of a party later this evening. She slid into her chair at the table, pretending she didn’t see her mother’s disapproving once-over of her outfit.
“This looks great, Dad.” She spooned a helping onto the plate in front of her and readily accepted a breadstick from him.
“Only the best for my birthday girl.”
“Now that you’re in your thirties ...” Her mother waved a paper napkin and then spread it in her lap as if it were the finest linen.
Maybe breakfast dishes weren’t so bad. Cassandra quickly stuffed a bite in her mouth to delay having to answer whatever question was about to come out of her mother’s mouth.

Welcome to birthday week! We're celebrating my birthday all week long with a short story I wrote just for the occasion, as well as a chance for you to win some ice cream. Want more information or to see the list of scavenger hunt clues you're looking for? Check it out here.

Thirty. Today. 10,955 trips around the sun, give or take a leap year. Cassandra stretched languorously in her bed, unwilling to get up until she absolutely had to. After all, it wasn’t every day that a girl woke up no longer in her twenties. Besides, what was the point of taking a day off work if you couldn’t be lazy?
A beam of sunlight hit the one spot in her miniblinds that was broken and aimed itself directly at her eyes. She squinted and rolled over to block the offending brightness. Down the hall, she could hear her apartment mates clinking and clanking in the kitchen. They were noisier than normal this morning.
She gave up on getting any more sleep, threw back the covers, and stood. Her favorite author’s newest release had come in the library yesterday, and Cassandra’s name had been first one the waiting list. She couldn’t wait to get back to the land of Andorya and see what Mykal and Fern were up to. She planned to escape for the whole day. No better way to face the fact that she was thirty and still single than by not facing it at all.
She clasped the doorknob, twisted and shrieked as balloons cascaded down around her, swirling in the air current from the opening door. What in the world? Sarah and Lucy peeked through the streamers taped over the entryway to her room and giggled.
“Happy Birthday!”
“How long did it take you to blow all these up?” Cassandra kicked aside a light blue latex orb and resisted the urge to step on it, just for the pleasure of hearing it explode.
“Almost an hour. We blew up thirty, but since we got the cheapest ones we could find, they didn’t stretch easily.” Lucy helped tear down the crepe spiderweb. “And we might have been eating chocolate between each one, too. Which added a few minutes.”
“You knew we’d have to do something for your birthday!” Sarah grabbed Cassandra’s hand and tugged. “We can’t just ignore you hitting the big three-oh.”
Cassandra glanced back at her book sitting all alone on her bedside table and then gave in to her friends as they pulled her along the hallway. “I’ll have to remember this favor when it’s your turn in a few months.”
“Ta da!” Lucy waved her hands at a table loaded with waffles, strawberries and a can of whipped cream.
“Wow.” Cassandra sank into a chair.
“And we’ll celebrate more tonight.” Sarah glanced at her watch. “But I’m going to be late for work if I don’t leave right now.”
“You really don’t have to do more.” Cassandra shook her head. “This is more than enough. I just want to be lazy and read all day. That would be the best birthday present ever.”
“Don’t be silly.” Lucy gave her a hug and then grabbed her giant yellow purse. “You only turn thirty once, you know."