He groans and I roll my eyes, setting the gifts on the coffee table.
“It’s silly, really. Nothing special.” I shove the first box in his hands. “This one’s edible.”
“Better be edible underwear,” he grumbles, then grins as he slips off the ribbon and lifts the lid on the box of custom sugar cookies. Twelve hearts, twelve penises, and a whole lot of I heart your dick’s written all over them. He picks up one tiny penis cookie, examining it. “Not made to size, I see.”
“No, that was the smallest cookie cutter they had.”
Garrett snorts a laugh.
I thrust the next package into his chest, clapping eagerly. “Next!”
He pulls out the underwear inside, lips moving as he reads, and promptly falls forward with a burst of laughter.
I point at the bright yellow caution sign on the crotch, the words that read CAUTION: CHOKING HAZARD. “That’s you, big guy!”
“You are unbelievable.” He kisses my cheek, then reaches for the last box.
I elbow him out of the way, nabbing the box and hugging it to my chest. “You don’t have to open this one. It’s actually…it’s…it’s not for you. It got mixed in. It’s for Dublin.”
“You got the dog a Valentine’s gift?”
I press my lips together. “Mhmm.”
“I don’t believe you.” He snatches the gift away.
“Garrett!” I lunge at him, but he holds his palm against my collarbone, keeping me at bay. Then he twists, squishing me into the couch cushions with his back, essentially lying on top of me as he opens the small box. My ears burn when he pulls out the keychain, the small silver charm attached, a bear etched into the metal, standing on its hind legs, right below the sun. “It’s stupid,” I mumble. “Just, like…” I wave a hand around as he looks over his shoulder at me. “I don’t even know why I got it.”
He rolls off me and pulls me onto his lap. “I love it.” He hauls me forward by my nape, but pauses, mouth hovering above mine in question.
“Kiss me,” I whisper. “Please.”
The moment his lips touch mine, my sky explodes, fireworks that make the night glow. I sink into his touch, lips parting with a sigh, and his tongue sweeps inside, tentative, tender. He pulls back, kissing me once, twice more, then rests his forehead against mine, smiling.
“My turn.” Shifting me off his lap, he hands me the pink gift bag, dotted with gold foil hearts, the matching tissue paper, and chuckles, anxious and so utterly Garrett as he scratches his jaw. “I hope you like it.”
I pull out the first thing my fingers find below the tissue, a long, slim box, blushing velvet. The box creaks when I open it, and I trace the gold sunflower set on a dainty chain. “It’s beautiful, Garrett.”
“Open it,” he urges gently.
I pull the necklace from the box, turning the small flower between my fingers until I find the seam and coax it open. You are my sunshine is etched into one side, making me smile, but it’s the other side that brings out my gasp, has my heart leaping to my throat. Because my dad’s face and mine smile up at me.
“I know it’s not the same locket your dad got you. I tried to find it. I contacted the company, but they don’t make the same one anymore. So I got you this one because you’re my sunshine, and I think you were your dad’s too.”
I throw myself in his lap, knocking him to his back as tears blur my vision. “Thank you, Garrett. So much. This is the best gift ever.”
He chuckles. “Well, there’s one more, and you might love it more.”
“I doubt that.” I stick my hand into the tissue paper, feeling the softness of the object below. It’s plush but a little coarse at the same time, kind of cozy, like something that’s been well-loved. “I don’t think anything could top the—” My words fizzle, dying in my throat as I pull the stuffed animal from the bag. Its pink fur, once so bright, is pale and muted, just the way I remember, the white patch on its chest a little gray from years of dragging it everywhere, the black button eye on the left hanging loose.
I clutch my favorite bunny to my chest, inhaling the smell, the familiarity, welcoming the memories that flood my mind, and tears spill down my cheeks.
“Princess Bubblegum,” I weep into her fur. “You found her.”
“I thought maybe she fell out in the moving truck. I called the company and they let me go through the lost and found bin, but it wasn’t there. I went by the house one day and looked everywhere. Up and down the street, in the garden…I found her in the bushes by the road, half-buried in a pile of snow. She was all muddy, so I washed her up for you, and I hope—”
I crush my mouth to his, sinking my fingers in his hair, smooshing my stuffie between us. When I pull away, his cheeks glisten with my tears, lips red, hair a mess from my assault.
“This is the kindest, most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“Yeah, well…” He rubs the back of his neck. “I’d do anything for you, Jennie.”
“’Cause I’m your sunshine?”
He nods. “The brightest.”
“And you love me?”
“I do. Wild, huh?”
I don’t answer him. Not with words anyway. Instead, I stand, pressing a kiss to Princess Bubblegum’s head before I tuck her on my bookshelf, right next to a picture of me and Dad. Then I take Garrett’s hand in mine and tow him down the hallway.
His palm grows damp, fingers clutching tightly at mine, a telltale sign of the nerves that grow with each step closer to my bedroom.
“We don’t have to do anything, Jennie. It’s not…I’m not, like…We don’t have to do anything.” The way he fumbles over his words when he’s anxious is one of my favorites of his traits. “I’m cool to just snuggle. And plus,” he chuckles, running his fingers through his hair when I yank him through the door, “I don’t have a condom.”
“That’s okay.”
“Okay.” His body deflates with a whooshing sigh. He sinks to the edge of the bed. “Grool.” He shakes his head, cringing. “Fuck. Cool. Cool.”
“I’ve been on the pill for a month and a half now.”
Aw, he’s so cute when he looks like he’s going to be sick.
CHAPTER 35
HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS?
JENNIE
“You want to—but I—” Garrett’s face pales, jaw hanging. He snaps it shut and shakes his head. “No.”
“No? You don’t want me?”
“No, I—” He drags his hands down his face, groaning. “I didn’t tell you I love you so you would have sex with me. If you want to wait longer, we can wait longer.”
He’s so sweet, so gentle sometimes it makes my heart ache. He’s never wanted to take anything that didn’t belong to him, but I think this part of me was always meant for him.
I step between his legs, draping my arms around his neck. His hands move up the backs of my thighs, squeezing my ass before he lifts me onto his lap. He wraps his arms around me, burying his face in my neck.
“I love when you wear my sweater,” he murmurs. “Everything in me screams mine when you do.”