Her eyes were full of something he’d never seen before, almost like marvel. “Did you call me your woman?”
He dipped his chin. “Of course I did. You’re mine.”
“Wow. So, my man wants to do housework with me… even though I’m laying here naked beside him?”
He chuckled and leaned toward her. “Woman, I don’t know when your sister’s comin’ home, and I don’t think she needs to walk into the house and hear me fuckin’ you. Agreed?”
A cross between a frown and a grimace pulled at her lips and he nearly laughed. “Yeah, that might require therapy and I don’t need another bill.”
“Right. Then we need to get dressed and deal with those boxes you mentioned.”
She draped her arm over her eyes. “Ugh. There’s like twelve boxes out there, and the ones on the bottom are heavy. I have no idea where we’ll put them if we move them.”
He lifted her arm off her face, and lowered his weight onto her while cupping her cheek with his free hand. “We’ll figure it out, sweetheart. But to do that, we gotta get up first.”
She stared up at him with those warm brown eyes. “You’re right. Let’s tackle this project.”
Five minutes later, they hit the button to open the garage door to let out some of the heat.
“Middle of the day in late June isn’t the best time do something like this,” she muttered.
He wandered to the boxes and did a quick count. “Yeah, but there’s only ten here. Do you know what’s in ‘em?”
“No, and I keep forgetting to ask Cat if she knows.”
Punc pulled one of the smaller boxes off the top of the stack and opened it. “What the hell? Why does your mom have a box full of empty backpacks?”
Savannah sidled up to him. “Let me see one of those.” She pulled a bag wrapped in clear cellophane out and frowned. “Iwish Cat were here. I swear these are the trendy backpacks all of her friends had at the end of the school year.”
“Okay, but why would your mom have a whole box of them?” he asked, pulling down another box that was the same size.
He lifted the lid and found more empty backpacks inside.
Savannah held the bag up for closer inspection. “Let me grab my phone. This says Sprayglow…but I swear that’s the wrong name. Mainly because Cat gave me so much grief when she first told me about these. I couldn’t keep the name straight.”
Punc shook his head. “Hold on a sec. Let’s see what’s in the larger boxes. I’m thinking you can stash these backpacks in your room or something.”
She tucked the bag into the first box while he grabbed another box from the stack. This one was a little heavier, but still felt like whatever was in it was lightweight. He set the box on the floor, opened the flap, and reared back. Inside were a bunch of stuffed dolls with large rabbit-like ears and in-set plastic faces featuring a creepy grin with nine large square teeth peeking out.
“What the hell kind of doll is that? And why does it look familiar?” he asked.
Savannah laughed. “That’s a Labubu and it looks familiar because your niece has one compliments of Catalina and Mom. They bought one for her at Christmas right when they became all the rage. If I’m not mistaken, it cost around seventy bucks.”
“Are you shitting me?” he asked.
She shook her head and peered into the box. “I’m not, but something tells me these aren’t the real deal because part of the fun is the surprise of unboxing them.”
Her tone had shifted, but he couldn’t put his finger on what was going through her mind.
“Was your mom runnin’ a side hustle?”
Savannah glanced at him with a dour look on her face. “I doubt it, but Dad might have been.”
He turned his head a touch. “Fences normally move shit with higher ticket prices, babe.”
She tipped her head to concede his point. “Yeah, but Dad’s never been very good at being a fence. My every instinct says these boxes are his.”
The boxes on the bottom of the stack were taller and wider. He tipped his head toward them. “Let’s check those and see what else we’re dealing with.”
