Chapter 60 Royal
ROYAL
THE WHOLE ROOM
Leticia’s family boxed up her entire room and sent it over with a moving truck. Bed, dresser, nightstands, drapes, and anything else you can imagine. I’m pretty sure if the wallpaper could come off the walls, they would have sent it too.
“This is a nightmare.” Leticia pulls at her hair near the roots, her features pinched together as she looks at the back of the moving truck.
It arrived unannounced this afternoon with a work order signed by Berto.
“So, where do you want it?” the delivery guy harrumphs.
Rightfully so, he’s a little pissed off that we’re not ready to receive a full room of furniture. What we had expected to be a few dozen boxes of clothing, accessories, shoes, and books turned into a bigger dilemma than anticipated.
But my wolf doesn’t like his tone and keeps demanding I step between him and Leticia.
“I’ll back my SUV out. We can put it in the spare garage stall.” I shrug and head to the house for my keys.
Leticia follows me. “I’m so sorry. This is —”
I stop short, and she runs into me. Turning, I put my arm around her and lead her with me into the house.
“It’s not a disaster, it’s not a nightmare, it’s a mild inconvenience at best, and truthfully, it’s kinda funny.
I’m sure we can find a home for everything they sent.
Stop worrying about taking up space. Remember that we’re a family and we’re better together. ”
Leticia sighs, her shoulders relaxing, and she shivers with the change in temperature as we step into the warm house.
“Did they send her bed and everything?” Mom calls, probably from the living room where she’s looking out the window.
“Everything,” Leticia groans loudly while scrubbing her hands down her face.
“Devious. I like their style,” Mom shouts again. I hear her, but Leticia probably doesn’t. “I’ll have to remember that trick for revenge someday.”
“Stay in here with Mom. I’ll take care of unloading the truck, and we can sort boxes in the garage after it warms back up.” I kiss her forehead before grabbing the keys off the rack and heading back outside.
It took the moving company guys less than twenty minutes to unload the whole truck into the garage stall and for me to sign the paperwork.
After leaving the heat on in the garage for an hour, it was finally warm enough for us to sort boxes without Leticia needing to be bundled up in more than a sweatshirt.
“Oh!” Leticia gasps and then folds the lid back on the box she’s looking at. Her eyes are wide with shock or surprise.
Danger? My wolf questions, scenting the air.
“Oh?” I encourage for more information.
“We never exchanged Christmas gifts, and yours is in this box.” She folds the lid back over, trying to seal it up.
“No way, it’s my gift. I wanna see it.” I step over to her and teasingly try to lift a flap to peek inside.
Leticia bats my hand away. “No way, it’s not even wrapped.”
“So?” I shrug. “Neither is yours.”
“Oh.” Leticia worries her bottom lip, and I bring my hand up to her face, gently cupping her chin. I brush my thumb across her lips, freeing the one trapped between her teeth, and she turns those intense blue eyes on me. “I guess we could have Christmas in February.”
“I’ll go get your gift and put it in this box.” I pick up one of the boxes we already emptied. “While I’m gone, you can put my gift in another box. We don’t need fancy wrapping paper.”
She nods and nuzzles into the touch of my hand. “Sounds good.”
I rush through the house, down to the basement, and into my storage room. The safe, where I hid Leticia’s presents, is on the far wall, and I spin the dial through its combination like the thousands of times I’ve done it before, but it still feels slow compared to how fast my heart is beating.
There, stacked on one of the shelves, sit the presents. Various blue phone cases and computer cases sit stacked on top of each other, and the top box is a blue velvet ring box. I wasn’t planning on giving it to her today, but . . . we’re giving gifts, and this is the one that matters most.
No. My wolf riots. She deserves a better proposal. The garage is for killing people, not that.
He makes a valid point.
I tuck the ring box back into the safe and pull out the other presents, placing them into the box for her to open. After closing the safe, I head back upstairs.
“You better be proposing to her. With a ring!” Mom calls from where she’s reading in the living room.
“According to my wolf, we can’t propose to her in the same place we kill people.” I back up from the hallway to the garage to look at her.
“So?” Mom puts the bookmark into her book. “Take her someplace nice. Tell her you heard there are swans down on the pond and that you want to go see them. It’s true enough.”
“The swans or me wanting to see them?” I clarify.
“The swans, Royal,” Mom growls, shaking her head like I’m smart enough to know better.
“That girl has been here, pining over you while you were gone, and now she’s living here and being the absolute sweetest, and even starting to get to know people in the pack.
You’re obviously utterly obsessed and in love with her. Why wait?”
I put the box down in the entryway. Retreating down the stairs, I go back to the safe. More intentionally this time, I spin the knob.
She deserves to have it all. I agree with Mom.
Swans are stupid. My wolf disagrees. They’re just birds.
They mate for life. I argue, trying to find the romantic nature of a half-frozen pond and swans. Maybe it doesn’t have to be entirely romantic. It just has to be pretty and peaceful? I just want it to be perfect, and nothing seems perfect, especially not compared to her.
My wolf concedes with a sigh. At least it’s not where Dad killed someone with a screwdriver.
I grab the small box, taking the stairs two at a time until I’m once again standing in the hallway in front of Mom.
I shake the ring box at her, demonstrating that I have it before tucking it into the pocket of my jacket.
I stack Leticia’s jacket on top of the box with her presents and take them out to the garage.
She’s sitting on top of one of the work stools, digging through another box of items, when I come in, and she looks up with a big smile. “Ready?”
“So ready, and then after . . .” I remote start my SUV with the fob so that it warms up while we open gifts. “I just heard there are some swans down on the pond. We should go see them.”
“Ooooh, I’ve only seen swans at the zoo. That’ll be fun!” Leticia’s excitement comes with a genuine smile.
Mom was right. Swans it is. I toss our coats over the hood of Mom’s SUV, and the ring box in my pocket makes an extra thump. My heartbeat goes a million miles a minute. Trying to play it cool, I look at Leticia, but she doesn’t seem to notice the sound.
“Who is opening their gift first?” Leticia suspiciously eyes the box I brought with me.
“Same time, on three?” I offer the fairest, in my eyes, option.
“Deal.” She pushes up from the shop stool, and I set her box on it before positioning myself in front of the box she put together for me.
“One.” She starts.
“Two.” I count with her.
“Three,” we say together and open the boxes.
My box is arranged nicely — a blanket, a pair of plaid pajama bottoms in the local hockey team’s colors, and a little card with three airplane-shaped paperclips on it.
I quickly disregard it to look at Leticia and watch her open her gift, only to find her doing the same thing, looking at me for my reaction.
“Maybe this wasn’t a good idea since clearly we’re both too interested in the other person and what they’re doing. You go first.” Leticia points to me.
I make a big deal of looking into the box, trying to figure out where to start. Picking up the paperclips, I smile wide. “I’ve been looking for these everywhere. They’re perfect for all my paper collating needs.”
Leticia giggles. “I couldn’t resist.”
I pull out the pajama pants next, holding them up and admiring how cool the pattern is. “How did you know I wear plaid pajama bottoms? Before we slept together?”
“You seemed like a plaid guy. Kinda quirky, open to tradition, but all about comfort.” She shrugs as I set them aside.
The blanket is pretty much the softest thing I’ve ever touched, and I pull it out of the box to find a second one underneath. “Two blankets?”
“Well, I had gotten one for each of us, but now I live here, so we could share.”
“No way.” I shake my head and nuzzle the super soft fabric. It’s white with ribbon microphones printed on it. “This is mine. I’m hogging this blanket. You can have your own.”
“Do you like it?” She laughs. “They’re old-school microphones from our very own podcast Late Nite Bytes.”
“Like?” I shake my head, pretending to be disgusted. But my smile cracks through. “I love my gifts. I just wish I had been as creative and as thoughtful as you.”
“Really?” Leticia laughs again as she starts pulling the cases and covers out of her box. “A bunch of blue covers? I don’t have hardly any blue. I love these.”
“Well, you can hardly be married to someone named Royal and not have a bunch of blue things.” I shrug. “I bought so many because I wasn’t sure I got the styles you liked. It was hard to tell from the camera angles.”
“They’re perfect.” She strokes a finger over a glossy one with silver stars embedded in it.
“You’re perfect.” I correct her. “Come on, let’s go see those swans before they decide it’s too cold and migrate south like the Canada geese cousins.”
Leticia sets down the computer cover but grabs a phone case. She changes out the current green one for the blue one before putting on her jacket and heading over to the warmed-up SUV.