Setting down the towel I'd been holding, I darted to the living room and grabbed my dress. "I'll call a cab. You go. Don't worry about me."

 "Seriously, it's no problem," he argued. "I can give you a ride home even, or... well, if you wanted, you could come with me."

 We both froze awkwardly. I didn't really feel up to going to some strange party. What I needed to do was get home and do damage control with Roman and Doug. Yet... Seth had been terribly nice to me, and he had wanted me to go to this thing before. Didn't I owe him? Surely I could do this for him. An afternoon party probably wouldn't even last that long.

 "Would we need to pick up anything?" I asked at last. "Wine? Brie?"

 He shook his head. "Probably not. It's for my eight-year-old niece."

 "Oh. So no wine then?"

 "Yeah. And I think she's more into Gouda anyway."

 I looked at the dress. "I'll be overdressed. You got anything I can put on over this?"

 Seven minutes later, I sat in Seth's car, driving toward Lake Forest Park. I had the georgette dress back on, along with a man's plaid flannel shirt in shades of white, gray, and navy.

 The shirt was open save for a couple buttons. I had French-braided my hair in lieu of shape-shifting it into place and now frantically applied cosmetics from my purse as I rode. I suspected I had a sort of Ginger-Rogers-Joins-Nirvana look going.

 We arrived at the suburban house I'd dropped Seth off at a few weeks ago. Pink balloons fluttered from the mailbox, and a mother in jeans and a sweatshirt waved goodbye as a small girl disappeared into the house. Said mother then returned to the massive, soccer team-carrying vehicle running in the driveway.

 "Whoa," I said, taking it all in. "I've never been to anything like this before."

 "You must have when you were little," Seth amended, parking across the street.

 "Well, yeah," I lied. "But it's a different experience at this age."

 We approached the front door, and he entered without knocking. Immediately, four small, blond female forms slammed into him, grappling onto his limbs, nearly knocking him over.

 "Uncle Seth! Uncle Seth!"

 "Uncle Seth's here!"

 "Is that for me? Is that for me?"

 "Desist, before I have to break out the tear gas," Seth told them mildly, unclasping one who threatened to rip his left arm off.

 One of them, all blond curls and giant blue eyes like the others, caught sight of me. "Hi," she said boldly, "who are you?" Before I could answer, she tore out of the foyer, yelling, "Uncle Seth brought a girl!"

 Seth made a face. "That's Morgan. She's six." He pointed to a clone of her. "This is McKenna, her twin. Over here's Kayla, four. This one"—he paused to lift up the tallest of the four, a motion that made her cackle gleefully—"is Kendall, the birthday girl. And I imagine Brandy's here somewhere, but she's too civilized to assault me like the rest."

 A living room extended beyond the foyer, and another blond girl, a few years older than Kendall, watched us over the back of a couch. Other assorted children—the party guests, I presumed—ran and screamed beyond her. "I'm here, Uncle Seth."

 Seth set Kendall down and tousled Brandy's hair, much to her chagrin. She wore the affronted dignity only one on the edge of adolescence could have. Morgan returned shortly thereafter with a tall, blond woman in tow. "See? See?" exclaimed the little girl. "I told you."

 "Do you always create such a scene?" the woman asked, giving Seth a quick hug. She looked happy but exhausted. I could understand why.

 "I should be so lucky. My fans aren't half this ravenous. Andrea, this is Georgina. Georgina, Andrea." I shook her hand as a slightly shorter, younger version of Seth entered the room. "And that's my brother, Terry."

 "Welcome to our chaos, Georgina," Terry told me after I'd been introduced. He glanced at all of the children, his own and others, running around the house. "I'm not sure I fully understand Seth's wisdom in bringing you here. You'll never come back."

 "Hey," exclaimed Kendall to me, "isn't that the shirt we got Uncle Seth for Christmas?"

 An awkward silence fell among us adults as we all tried to look somewhere else. Finally, Andrea cleared her throat and said, "All right, guys, let's fall into line and get some games going."

 I had expected a child's birthday party to be wild, but what proceeded to pass that afternoon surpassed even my imaginings. Equally impressive was the way in which Seth's brother and sister-in-law managed to control the herd of screaming, jumping creatures that somehow seemed to be everywhere in the house at once. Terry and Andrea handled them all with efficient good nature while Seth and I did little more than watch, occasionally fielding random questions tossed our way. The entire experience stunned me as a bystander; I could hardly imagine coping with it on a regular basis. It was fascinating.

 At one point, catching his breath, Terry saw me alone and struck up a conversation.

 "I'm glad you could come," he said. "I didn't know Seth was seeing anyone."

 "We're just friends," I clarified.

 "Still. It's nice to see him with someone flesh and blood. Someone he didn't make up."

 "Is it true he nearly missed your wedding?"

 Terry grimaced by way of confirmation. "My best man, if you can believe that. Showing up two minutes before the ceremony began. We were on the verge of starting without him."

 I could only laugh.

 He shook his head. "If you continue hanging out with him, make sure you keep him in line. My brother may be brilliant, but by God, he needs a keeper sometimes."

 After party games came cake, and after cake came presents. Kendall lifted Seth's up expertly and shook it. "Books," she declared.

 Brandy, older and therefore quietest of the group, glanced at me and explained, "Uncle Seth always gets us books."

 This did not seem to faze Kendall any. She tore open the package and crowed delightedly over three books of pirate stories contained within.

 "Pirates, huh?" I asked Seth. "Is that politically correct?"

 His eyes danced. "She wants to be one."

 As the party wound down and guests were retrieved by parents, Kendall beseeched Seth to read stories, and I followed him, the nieces, and other stragglers into the living room while the girls' parents attempted to clean up in the kitchen. Seth read in the same compelling way he had at his signing, and I curled up in an armchair, content to just listen and watch. I was therefore startled when Kayla's small form scrambled up and sat on my lap.

 Youngest of the girls, she could shriek with the best but tended to speak very little. She studied me with her globes of eyes, touched my French braid with interest, and then snuggled into me to listen to Seth. I wondered if she understood any of what he was saying. Regardless, she was soft and warm and smelled like little girl. Unconsciously, I ran my fingers through the fine, corn silk strands of hair and soon began weaving it into a braid similar to mine.

 When Seth finished a story, McKenna noticed what I was doing. "Me next."

 "No, me," ordered Kendall eagerly. "It's my birthday."

 I ended up braiding for all four of the younger girls. Brandy shyly demurred. Not wanting four copies of me, I elected other styles for the girls, herringbones and plaits that delighted them. Seth continued to read, occasionally glancing up at me and my handiwork.

 By the time we were ready to leave, I felt drained physically and emotionally. Children always made me feel a little wistful; being in close contact like this made me downright sad in a way I couldn't explain.

 Seth said goodbye to his brother while I lingered near the door. As I did, I noticed a small bookcase beside me. Studying the titles, I picked out Burberry's New Annotated Bible: Old and New Testaments. Remembering what Roman had said about the King James Version being a bad translation, I opened this one up to Genesis 6.