“Great, now I gotta off my sister. Thanks a lot, Brody.”
Tess ignored her brother. Just as she was about to ask Logan if he’d recuperated from the campout, Carter made his entrance.
At six-seven, he was hard to miss, and all eyes shifted, surely wondering who he was and why he was here.
“Hey,” Nick said, forgetting all about his deadly mission. “Isn’t that Carter McNair? The guy the Celtics signed last season?”
Tess thought she heard a groan from Logan, but couldn’t be sure. “Yes,” she hissed. “Don’t embarrass me.”
Carter made a beeline for Tess, smiling and handing her a small wrapped present.
“Oh, wow. A gift wasn’t necessary,” Tess protested. How had he found something on such short notice anyway?
“It’s easy when money’s no issue.”
It was a cocky, kind of tacky, thing to say, but Tess supposed he was right.
When it came time to officially open presents, Tess was surprised to see Logan had also brought a gift.
“I’m too old for this,” Tess said, as Faith made her sit in a seat of honor. “I feel like I’m eight again.”
“Relax,” Faith said. “There are only a few.”
Embarrassed, Tess quickly tore into the gifts from her parents and friends—a pretty sweater from her mom, a baseball cap that read “Let’s assume I’m right—It’ll save time” from Alex, and a book about getting people to do what you wanted from Faith.
When she picked up Carter’s gift, he moved to the front of the group. Pulling back the paper, she saw it was a jewelry box.
Her mouth fell into an O when she opened the long black velvet box to reveal a diamond bracelet. These could not possibly be real diamonds. Right? She shot him a questioning glance, and he smiled.
“Never met a girl who doesn’t like diamonds,” Carter said. Well, that answered that.
“Geez, Carter,” Tess said, gliding her fingers along the bracelet. “You didn’t have to do that. It’s too much.”
“Consider it a thank you for keeping me alive all week.” Carter winked.
“Well, thank you.” Tess didn’t know what to do. Should she put it on? It was a little gaudy. Not really her style. But of course, she wouldn’t say that. She’d talk to him in private later and let him know she couldn’t accept it.
Logan’s was next, and she felt sorry for him. Diamonds were a tough act to follow.
It was obviously a CD, and when she got it open and figured out what it was, a smile spread across her lips.
“A mixtape on CD?” she said. “Full of eighties songs! I love it. Let’s play it right now.”
She stood, walked to the sound system in the corner, inserted the CD, and pushed “Play.” A Guns N’ Roses song started. She raised her hands above her head and swung her hips. “Now it’s a party.”
Logan beamed as she returned and thanked him.
“There’s one other small thing,” he said. “I didn’t have a lot of time to shop, but I thought you might like this.”
“I can’t believe you got me anything at all,” Tess said, taking another roughly wrapped box from him, this one bigger than the last.
She peeled the paper and squinted to read the label, unsure what she was looking at.
“Sourdough bread starter kit,” she read.
“I heard it’s a ‘thing’ in the prepper world,” he explained. “And your brother mentioned you were into self-sufficiency stuff. I thought this might come in handy. I mean, ya gotta have bread for the apocalypse.”
“Yes,” Tess said. “This is great. I don’t have one, but it was on my radar to get someday. I willsooouse this. It’s very thoughtful. Thank you.”
