She listens, wasting no time ripping into the paper and revealing a box with a mobile puzzle table. Lately, Tae’s become obsessed with doing puzzles while she recovers from her chemo treatments.
“I thought this way you could do puzzles in any room in the house, so that way if you’re not feeling the best, I can just carry this into the bedroom or living room,” I explain before pointing to a black gift bag. “Open this one next.”
“It’s perfect. Thank you!” Tossing the black tissue paper aside, Tae pulls out a black wooden box with a black and white photo I took from backstage of her performing at The Summer Stampede.
“What’s this?” she asks on a gasp.
With one arm around her waist, I bring the other on top of hers, helping her slide the top of the box to the side to reveal puzzle pieces. “I snuck this picture of you, knowing I needed to capture that memory forever. Then, when you took a liking to puzzles, I found a company that makes custom puzzles and had them make a thousand piece puzzle out of it.”
“It looks like it’ll be a tough one,” she points out, an electric smile on her face, assuring me she’s up for the challenge.
“I’m sure you’ll get it done in no time. You’ve been flying through all of them no problem.”
Turning to face me, she wraps her arms around my neck and brings me in for a kiss. Once she pulls away, she whispers, “This was so thoughtful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She punctuates each expression of gratitude with a kiss on my cheek.
“You’re welcome. But you’re not done yet. Here, take a seat and I’ll get you a plate of food while you open the next one,” I suggest, pulling out a barstool for her as I set another present in front of her.
This one is just a basket filled with her favorite bath salts, bubbles, oils, a new rose-scented candle, and a book of black-stemmed matches.
Filling up her plate with pancakes, bacon I stored away in the oven to keep warm, and fruit, I set the plate in front of her before grabbing us each a cup of coffee.
As I set the mug in front of her, she picks it up and laughs. “I’m so sexy even life gets hard?” she questions, reading the white lettering out loud before turning the black mug toward me.
“Saw it and thought of you,” I muse, smiling as I take a sip of my coffee.
Her smile only grows. “That’s actually perfect.”
Taking the seat beside her, I hand her another gift bag. “Here, open this one. I had it specially made.”
Tae pulls out a lime green Wolverines jersey with my number on the back, but above the number reads MRS. WILSON. Waggling my eyebrows I tell her, “Thought after the last road trip you might need a new one.”
She chuckles, shaking her head. “You just want to have me wear this while you take me from behind so you can admire the title across my back.”
“Am I that obvious?”
“Very. But I love it nonetheless.” She hugs the jersey to her chest and leans in to kiss me.
“Good.” I reach for the last two presents on the table, handing her the larger of the two first.
“Jax. This is seriously too much.”
“Nonsense. A present for each year we were apart, though two of them will have to wait until later.”
“You’re spoiling me rotten.”
“And I’ve never met someone more deserving. Now open this one before I lose my nerve over it.” Truth is, I’m nervous as hell for her to open this one. Vulnerability floods my system as she carefully opens the paper, exposing a leatherbound notebook filled with lyrics and sonnets I’ve written for her since we first started dating at eighteen.
“Some pages are filled with song lyrics, some with notes to you, or texts I wish I could’ve sent during our time apart,” I explain to her, pointing to each entry she flips through that’s dated throughout the past almost-eleven years.
Taevin closes the book just as tears drip from her cheeks and land on the front cover.
“This is the most precious gift I’ve ever been given. You still wrote all this time?”
I nod, rubbing the back of my neck, hesitating how much I want to admit. “There were times I couldn’t bear to write anything, and then there were others where I’d fill up multiple pages in a matter of hours. Since you moved in, I finally got to the last page of this notebook and started on a new one.”
She closes her eyes as her chin quivers. “I can’t wait to read every word.”
“Maybe one day we could record one of the songs together just for us,” I suggest.
