“Do you know what year it is?”

Catherine looked up from the newspaper, watching Lindsey tap her foot in front of her. “Two thousand six. Why?”

“Mom… doesn’t that have any significance to you?”

She folded the paper, setting it on the coffee table to prepare for what she was sure was going to be one of Lindsey’s long winded explanations.

Lindsey rolled her eyes and flopped onto the couch next to her mother. “Uncle Gil turns fifty this year. The big Five - O. That only happens once. He’s going to be half a century old.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t remind him of that.”

“But Mom, this is big. We should do something for him.”

“What do you want to do?”

Lindsey sat for a minute, quietly thinking. “How about a party? We can invite all of his relatives. His friends from high school and college. And we can rent out…”

“Just a minute…” Catherine took a breath before continuing. “You know Gil doesn’t like big parties. He’d never agree to…”

“A surprise party! It’s perfect.”

“Lindsey.”

“But Mom, I’ve never been able to plan a surprise party. I promise I wont go overboard. And we can do it together. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Catherine sighed, feeling herself give in to her daughter’s excitement. “I get complete veto power.”

“Yes!” Lindsey jumped off the couch, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen off the desk. “Can we rent…?”

“Why do we need to rent a place. We can have the party here.”

“That’s no fun. Besides where would everyone park? We need it to be somewhere public. Where everyone’s cars will go unnoticed.”

Catherine nodded, agreeing to Lindsey’s ideas. “We’ll look into renting a place. But it needs to be somewhere that will let us bring in our own food. I don’t want to shell out thousands of dollars for this party.”

“Fine. Can we…”

“You can look into renting a place. Write down where you’d like to have the party. Maybe your grandma can call and find out prices for us.”

“Can we have it at one of Grandpa’s hotels? I’m sure he’d let us have the room for free.”

“Last resort, Linds.” She didn’t want to explain to Lindsey the cause of the bad blood between the two men, nor did she want to have to try to lure Gil into one of Sam’s hotels on his birthday.

“What about people?”

Catherine nodded, letting Lindsey think things out.

“Does he know a lot of people? The only ones I ever really hear him talk about, besides his mom, are the people the two of you work with.”

“I’m sure those are the people he would want there.”

“But what about…”

“I’ll see if I can dig anyone up, Lindsey.”

“Okay, then that’s your assignment.”

“My assignment?” Catherine smiled as she glanced over at her daughter.

“Yep. You need to do the background on Gil. Find out what he likes, that way we can pick out the right color of decorations. Does he like chocolate cake?”

“I’m sure he does, Lindsey. You know, he’s going to like anything we plan, just because he’ll know you planned it.”

“Oh please. I’m not his kid. Besides, I don’t want him to like this because we planned it. I want him to like it because he likes it.” She jotted down a few more ideas on the paper and then looked at her mom. “Do we have enough time for this?”

“We’ll be fine. His birthday is still a few months away. And you’re out of school now, so this will give you something to do while I’m sleeping.” Catherine stood up, walking towards the kitchen. “Why don’t you come with me, we can keep talking while I start dinner.”

“Do you know what kind of music he likes?”

“Classical.”

“Classical? Maybe we don’t need music.”

Catherine laughed as Lindsey drew a line across the paper.

“How are we going to get him there?”

“Well that’s simple. All you have to do is ask him out.”

“All I have to do?” Catherine set the knife down on the cutting board. “Why do you make that sound so simple?”

“Because it is. All you have to do is ask him to go out with you so the two of you can celebrate his birthday. He’ll say yes.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Lindsey looked at her mother, a smile lighting her eyes. “Because he loves you. All you’ll have to do is ask and he’ll say yes.”