Mara puffed out her lip. “Jackie.”
“Open it!” I prodded her.
She lifted the clamshell lid and found a necklace inside. “Oh, Jack, it’s beautiful.”
“So, if you slide that part to the side, it’s an alert necklace. If you ever get into trouble, press that button and it’ll call me and 911. It’s also got a location tracker on it, which you can turn off if you don’t want me to know where you are.”
Mara extended her arms to me. “Thank you. It’s so thoughtful.”
I lifted up on my knees to make kissing her easier. “I want to keep you around. I want to be able to help you if you need it. And I might have gotten you something else too.”
“Jack. Now my present’s going to look stupid.”
“Never,” I said. “Give it to me. Now.”
Mara drew back. “Greedy!”
“Here it is, Daddy,” Harper said, carrying Mara’s present to me.
Mara’s face went red and she covered it with her hands. “Mar, you know I’m going to love it.”
“It’s so weird, though.”
I shot her a look and recruited Jace to help me tear the paper. A lump rose in my throat. I wouldn’t be able to speak without crying.
“What is it, Daddy?” Jace asked.
Mara looked at me sheepishly. “I thought you could commune with your yard friends.”
Inside the box was a hat with a face shield with a set of small hummingbird feeders at the bottom.
Sydney had always made fun of my love for birds. She said I was weird, and that I was lucky she still fucked me with that kind of interest.
But not Mara.
Mara knew it was important to me, and she seemed to make it her mission to bring me closer to things I loved.
“I still have the receipt. We can send it back?—”
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I scooted over to wrap her in a tight hug. I kissed her neck, leaving my nose buried in it, inhaling her soft scent. “Thank you.”
Sydney’s gifts for me were always something expensive, something she liked to mold me into some image for her. Mara’s acknowledged who I really am.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered, not even acting like it was weird that I wouldn’t let her go. But I couldn’t get over it. It was so strange, finally being seen for who I am. “Try not to let the birds shit on you,” she joked, her breath soft on the shell of my ear.
“It’s good luck if they do,” I said, pulling at my nose as I let her go. “One more present for Mommy. It’s a little heavy.”
I reached under the tree and extracted the package, a big one. As Mara tore back the paper, her face lit up and her jaw dropped.
“Jack. Is this signed?”
I swallowed hard, grinning. “Yep. I won’t lie, this one’s kind of for me too. I thought it could go in our room.”
It was a framed, signed vinyl of My Chemical Romance’s Welcome to the Black Parade, the main song we’d used to shake off our wedding day jitters. Mara peeled the paper back more and her eyes welled. “Jack, seriously?”
I couldn’t stop smiling.
“It’s us,” she said through her tears. “Our wedding. Did you, like, call the band for this or get it second hand?”
