Hayes stood up.
“Take your pick,” Derek said as he swept his hand toward the table.
Hayes picked a medium-sized box and started to rip into it. When he got to the box on the inside, he pulled a pocketknife from his back pocket and easily cut through the duct tape that held the box closed.
He blinked when he saw what he’d unwrapped.
“Ummm,” he said as he placed the box on the table. “Cool?”
Inside was a plastic bag with air and water in it… and a goldfish.
He pulled the bag out of the box and held it up for everyone to see.
“Oh, cool!” Ares cried. “I’ve always wanted a fish!”
Except, upon closer inspection, the fish was floating upside down.
“That fish is dead.” Carolina pointed out the obvious.
“It died after I got it home,” Nathan admitted. “I have the receipt for whoever gets to keep it.”
There were snickers all around as Ares took the dead fish bag and put it back into the box.
“That sucks.” She pouted.
Bourne was next, picking up the largest box on the table and ripping into it.
He pulled the box out and gasped. “This is exactly what I’ve always wanted.”
Snorts followed his obviously false enthusiasm.
“A motion-activated light-up toilet seat,” Reggie read the box. “Sweet. Asa’s gonna love that. But, just sayin’, so will I. Nathan’s gonna steal that.”
Bourne scowled at her.
Ford was next, picking up a small-ish box and opening it.
He pulled out what looked to be about a hundred pairs of socks.
“Nice,” he said as he poured them all out onto the table. “Always exactly what I wanted.”
Chuckles followed the announcement as Samuel stood up. He walked over to the socks and stole them, causing Ford to groan.
“Hey!” Ford cried out.
“I could really use some new socks,” Samuel admitted. “Like for real.”
Ford grumbled his way up to the table again and picked up another present. He ripped it open and looked at the pink box with disgust.
“Umm,” he said as he stared. “What the fuck?”
“It’s a Shave with Me Barbie.” Louis grinned like a motherfucker. “Way actually shaved some of my leg hair to use on her legs. You’re welcome.”
Everyone burst out laughing when Louis explained.
The next to go was Louis.
He stood up and walked to the table, picking the one that had to be the absolutely smallest on the table.
Louis opened the small package and read the label.
That was when he burst out laughing and tossed the gift in Carolina’s direction.
She caught the small package and looked at it, eyes narrowing.
On the package that was shrink-wrapped to hell and back said, ‘Emergency Underpants.’
I couldn’t help it.
I laughed.
She glared at me hard. “This is not funny.”
My brows rose. “Come on,” I said, pulling the pack from her hands and reading the label myself. “You know it is.”
Her lips twitched, obviously agreeing with me. “Whatever.”
“I feel like I’ve been dropped into the middle of a conversation,” Calloway admitted. “And I have no idea what’s going on.”
Louis patted his wife’s head.
“It’s okay, honey. You can just sit there and look pretty. You’re good at it,” Louis teased, his eyes pure mischief.
Calloway gasped in outrage and launched herself out of the seat.
She hit her husband like a battering ram—well, as well as a battering ram who was pregnant and didn’t really want to hurt her baby could do—and started taking aim for his nipples.
“Caro, help me!” Calloway urged.
Carolina stood up and kicked off her killer shoes, tossing me a look.
One that clearly said, ‘Hold my beer.’
Ares was next to move, followed shortly by Sierra.
The last to get up was Rowen. She handed off her infant son to Dax and then walked over, too.
Once they were all close enough, Calloway said, “Ready?”
“No,” Louis said, shaking his head as he tried to hold in his laughter. “Please don’t. I’ll stop. I’ll never say ugly stuff to you again, Way. I promise.”
“Ready,” echoed from the other ladies’ mouths.
I looked at the group around me, wondering what in the hell was going on.
It seemed like everyone was split into two distinct groups. Those that were part of the SWAT team kids, and those that weren’t.
One group knew what was about to happen and wore wide smiles on their faces. And the other group, who had no fuckin’ clue what was about to take place, looked curious and confused.
“Go!” Calloway cried.
Then all the ladies were crowding in and pressing loud, smacking, slobbery kisses to Louis’ face.
“This is something that they used to do until we decided we liked girls,” Booth mused as he watched the happenings in front of him. He wrapped his arm around his wife and pulled her in close before taking a sip of his beer. “For some reason, when we were ten, this was the worst form of torture.”
I could see how it would be.
At least, when I was ten.
Now? Well, Louis definitely wasn’t hating it, that was for sure.