“Thank you, Lily. He makes me unbelievably happy.” I glanced at my paperbacks on the shelf as she returned the cap next to them. “Thank you for making a place for me.”
“We’re so happy you guys are here for the holidays.”
“Should I help wrap the quilts?”
“Yes, come on. So much to do today.”
Once we were back in the kitchen, she handed me the roll of wrapping paper while she went into the pantry. She came out with a few boxes and set each quilt in a box with tissue paper.
“Would you mind wrapping these in that paper? While you’re working on that, I’ll package the other items up.”
“Okay,” I said.
I unrolled the paper along the table and sat one of the boxes on top of it. I pulled one end of the paper across the box to make sure it would be long enough before I made a cut. I glanced around to see if the scissors were within reach.
“Um, do you have some scissors handy?” I asked.
“Oh! Yes, that would be helpful, wouldn’t it?” She laughed and brought scissors and tape over to me.
I tried to work fast while making sure I did a nice job. While I gift wrapped, I could hear Russell and Stanley moving up and down the stairs. I should have volunteered to help with the heavy stuff and the stairs. Though, if I had, then I might not have seen the shelf in their hobby room.
Thinking about the shelf made my stomach drop again.
Had they read my books?
Were they disappointed their perfect son didn’t send them pictures to put in their home?
Were they disappointed Russell hadn’t married a wonderful woman to help give them little grandkids?
My mind was going a hundred miles an hour as I intensely thought about all of the things that I not only was robbing Russell of, but his parents too. I was putting the last piece of tape on the box when Russell came into the kitchen with Stanley.
“Whoa, you gave Ryan tape?” Russell asked jokingly as he walked toward me. “How many rolls did he go through?” Russell wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug.
“Russell, he was just wrapping those two boxes. He didn’t need a lot of tape,” Lily said.
“Ryan likes to make sure opening a package is an all-day project,” he teased. He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “Your shoulders are tense,” he murmured just so I could hear. When he pulled out of our embrace, my eyes immediately went to his chest. I focused on the silver metal buttons of his Henley. “What’s going on in your head, my boy?”
My boy.
His.
When he called me his boy, I pulled my eyes from his shirt to look into his eyes. I couldn’t bring up the shelf or all the things on my mind. Each time I thought about that shelf, I felt sick inside. Not because I was angry about it, but because my own parents never gave enough of a fuck about me to even have a fucking picture of me in a Halloween costume. No one saw me graduate. No one saw me play baseball. But here were these perfect strangers who thought enough of me to proudly show me off as the person their son loved.
“Ryan.”
I took a deep breath and answered Russell.
“Nothing. I was just kind of thinking about my mom. I need to call her tomorrow,” I said.
I wasn’t sure if Russell bought it or not, but he wasn’t going to make a big deal about this right now.
“We’ll talk later.” Russell pulled me into another hug and pressed his lips against my ear. “I’ll be in the dining room with my dad.”
I nodded, and when we pulled apart, I returned the scissors and the tape to the drawer that I’d watched Lily get them out of.
“Thank you, Ryan, for wrapping these,” Lily said as she set a box with some baked goods next to the boxes I’d wrapped.
“You’re welcome. I like to help out. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
