Depends On Who's Asking (SWAT Generation 2.0 12)

Being butted up to some extensive hay fields at our backs, that meant that we had quite a few field mice finding their way into our places.

Now that the cats were there, they’d been doing a good job at keeping them contained.

“There was a litter of Maine coons that I rescued,” I said. “There’re a couple of big gray ones that weigh about thirty pounds, and three black ones that are bigger yet. They are around thirty-five pounds each. They’re all rather large-boned, I’ve heard, for Maine coons. But they’re fuckin’ beautiful.”

“All right, Carolina, the present whisperer,” Clayton said. “How about you start openin’ some of those. When you get to the normal amount that we have, then we’ll start.”

Carolina rolled her eyes but nonetheless started to dig into her presents.

The first one she opened was from something that I’d tried to help her with when we were about a week into quarantine.

She wanted to learn how to snatch which is a CrossFit move involving throwing a weight up over your head, and she’d said ‘oh, I should get some lifters.’ I’d gotten the special CrossFit shoes for lifting weights for her that day once I’d found out what shoe size she was.

I’d intended to give them to her if they arrived, but they’d taken longer to do that thanks to the holidays. So, when they finally did come in, I decided to wrap them myself. Or, more importantly, I had the lady at the pack and mail place do it for me since I had no supplies save for scissors to wrap with.

She opened up the box and her eyes went huge.

“I can’t wait to use these to see if they make a difference!” She clapped them together, causing a resounding smack to go through the room.

“I can’t believe that you’re actually getting her to work out and enjoy it,” Michael mused. “Do you know how boring of a kid she was? No football. No soccer. No volleyball. Not even golf. I forced her to play a sport her freshman year, and you would’ve thought that I asked her to commit the murder of her favorite pet.”

“Well,” Carolina said. “I’m not very good at it. I don’t have any hand-eye coordination. However, lifting doesn’t require that. It’s all skill set.”

Michael’s eyes were amused. “You could’ve joined the weight-lifting team in high school.”

“The weight-lifting team in high school were all boys,” she said. “There was no way in hell I would’ve done that.”

Carolina went back to opening presents, but, unlike what Clayton had planned, he waited until Carolina was completely depleted of presents because, like me, he enjoyed her reaction to everything, as well as the stories behind each present.

Her final present was something that I’d give her later. Something that I would have to ask her father for permission before I did.CHAPTER 21Cry me a river and drown in it, bitch.-T-shirtCAROLINA“What’s that about?” I asked as I watched Dad and Saint walk out of the room and out onto the front porch.

“I asked your daddy to start the grill,” she hedged.

She’d done no such thing.

What she had done was play interference so that I wouldn’t follow them outside.

I didn’t like the look of Clayton and Connor following them out.

More importantly, I didn’t like that they were outside while I was inside wondering what was going on.

“Just let it be for now, baby,” my mother ordered.

I sighed and went back to peeling potatoes.

“I’m nervous because I don’t want them to say anything to make him leave,” I admitted. “I enjoy being here, and I’m having a really good day after some really shitty ones. I want to be with my family, and I want him to be here, too.”

She looked at me with a grin on her face.

“When he asks you to marry him, you’ll say yes?” she teased.

I scoffed. “In a heartbeat.”

“You love him?” she asked, turning to face me now that she’d washed her hands free of meat juices.

“I love him,” I confirmed. “I’ve loved him for a while, I think. But the quarantine only served to magnify it. I didn’t realize that I would like him as much as I do. He’s smart, kind, and funny. He’s also very quiet and unsure because of how he was raised. Do you know that when he was ten, he started this whole thing with the presidential run? Look at this picture. I found it when I googled him.”

She leaned in close and I showed her a photo of him on Christmas Eve standing in front of some Christmas trees on the lawn of the governor’s mansion in Little Rock.

“The only people around him are his security details,” I said. “In almost every single picture, it’s just him. He’s walking by himself, ten paces behind his parents. When his parents are in the picture, it’s the security detail that he’s closer to, not them. It’s just… he’s so used to being alone. I don’t want to overwhelm him.”