Dex took another deep, steady breath and let it out slowly through his mouth. “No, I need to. It’s time. Besides, it’s all my stuff, so I’m the most familiar with it.”
“Okay, but if at any point you want to stop or it gets to be too much, you just tell me, yeah?”
Dex nodded. “Thanks.”
“So how do we want to do this?” Tony asked. He turned to Ash. “This is your department.”
Ash walked around the room, assessing the boxes, their sizes, positions. He started moving some stuff around, arranging boxes by size, moving them closer to the stairs and to one side so the majority of the stuff was now at the front.
“We can take boxes from this side here, check them in our own section, and when we’re done inspecting, seal them up again, label them, and move them to the far end of the basement.”
Dex agreed. “Sounds like a plan.” He handed out the permanent markers he’d brought down, along with tape and box cutters. Taking a deep, steady breath, Dex grabbed the first box. It was big but barely weighed anything. Man, he wished he’d at least stuck a year on these things. Then agai
n, he kept telling himself he’d get around to it and never did. Everyone else grabbed their boxes and snagged themselves a spot to get comfortable in.
Some of these boxes had been packed by Tony back when Dex’s parents had died. Dex had no idea what he’d find. Putting on his big-boy pants, he cut open the first box and grinned. He discreetly looked up, waited until Cael had his back turned, and then swiped the furry blue stuffed toy from the box. Sloane arched an eyebrow at him but didn’t say a word as Dex snuck up on Cael.
“Grr!”
Dex plopped the toy on Cael’s shoulder. His brother took one look at it and squealed, jumping so high he almost landed in Ash’s lap. Dex doubled over laughing.
“You shit!” Cael growled, glaring at him.
Dex could barely breathe. The indignant expression on Cael’s flushed face was priceless.
“What the hell is that?” Ash asked, eyeing the blue stuffed toy in Dex’s hands.
“My Pet Monster,” Dex replied when he was able to form coherent sentences again. “Dad got it for Cael one year, for Christmas, I think it was. Cael took one look at it and burst into tears. You should have seen him. He was so adorable, with his little chubby cheeks, shrieking his little face off.” Dex went to pinch Cael’s cheek and had his hand slapped away, making Dex laugh. “When he was in his cheetah Therian form, he’d chirp furiously, batting at it with his claws. He hated this thing.”
“Still do,” Cael muttered. He turned to his dad, looking unimpressed. “I mean, really, Dad. That thing is—to quote Dex—fugly.”
Tony shrugged. “It’s a monster. It’s supposed to be. Besides, the lady at the toy store said it was very popular among boys your age.”
“Well, not all boys like monsters,” Cael muttered as he went about opening his box.
Dex chuckled and returned to his own box. It was filled with stuffed animals. “True.” He reached into the box and pulled out another stuffed toy, this one cute and cuddly. “Remember this guy?”
Ash eyed the stuffed toy warily. What exactly was he expecting the fluffy doll to do?
“Is that a lion or a bee?”
Dex wriggled his eyebrows. “Both.”
“So… how would that work?” Ash cocked his head to one side. “That’s not physically possible. Besides, bees hatch from eggs. Are they suggesting a lion impregnated a bee? Or vice versa?”
Dex stared at him. “Are you really trying to biologically explain a child’s toy? From the eighties. We’re talking about an era with babies born in cabbage patches and where people thought wearing spandex out in public was a good idea.”
“I’m just saying, it’s not possible.”
“Neither is a cross-dressing rabbit, but you don’t see me trying to debunk a legend.”
“First of all, that bee-lion—”
“Bumblelion,” Dex corrected, trying his hardest to keep a straight face.
“What?”
“His name’s Bumblelion.”