And there inside the box was one of his amazing, perfect, hand-carved animals.
“It’s a wolverine,” Holden declared. “Bellamy said you love them,” he added, making a laugh bubble up and burst out of me as I ran my hand over the back of the animal I’d made too big a deal about in Montana.
“It is absolutely amazing. Thank you so much, Holden,” I said, meaning it, beaming at him because a part of me couldn’t believe he’d made me one. Not everyone got one of his creations. I counted myself very lucky to have been gifted one.
“Okay. My turn,” Bellamy declared, hopping up, then grabbing a big pile of presents and setting them before me.
“This is too much,” I told him.
“Shush. Open them.”
I went for the smallest one first, finding inside something completely unexpected.
A Tamagotchi.
The second one had Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
And the final, well, that was my Easy Bake Oven.
That was what did it, what cracked the control I’d managed to keep over myself and my overwhelming emotions.
Because not only did Bellamy create the kind of Christmas I’d dreamed about all those sad, lonely years as a child. But he’d gone out and he’d gotten all the presents I’d told him I once dreamed about getting from Santa as a kid.
“Santa always thought you were a good kid, love,” Bellamy said, clearly not understanding that I literally couldn’t take anything else right that moment. “He just got a little lost for a couple years,” he added.
The sob that burst out of me had everyone in the living room jolting.
Because anyone who’d ever met me knew that I was not someone who cried.
And I damn sure never sobbed.
But that was exactly what I did right then, bending forward, pressing my face into my head, and just sobbing.
I was vaguely aware of everyone getting up and leaving the room, giving us our privacy, before Bellamy went down on his knees in front of me, pulling me into his arms, and holding me against him as I purged all those years of sadness and disappointment, as that little girl inside me finally had all her hopes and dreams come true, had her little broken heart mended.
“I love you,” I whispered into his neck when I finally stopped crying what felt like a lifetime later.
“I love you too,” he told me, giving me a tight squeeze. “And I’m expecting some lightbulb cakes and cookies in payment for my amazingness,” he told me, making a laugh escape me as I pulled back, rubbing at my wet cheeks with my sleeves.
“You’ll have to wait like seven hours or something,” I told him, reaching for the box for the oven, and ripping it open.
“I’ll be here,” he told me.
And he would.
If I had my way, forever.
Even if I wasn’t quite ready to say that to him yet.
I spent the next few hours mixing batters to cook in the little oven, learning how to keep my Tamagotchi alive, playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots with Nasir and Velle and even Holden.
It wasn’t until the other men went to gather wood as my aunt, Velle’s mom, and Bob got to work on dinner that I spotted my purse over near the front door.
“Did you happen to take anything out of my purse?” I asked, looking over at Bellamy who was diligently trying to work through the metal brain teaser puzzle that my cousin had given him.
“No. Why?”
“Nothing,” I said, hopping up and rushing toward it, knowing I’d had his Christmas present inside it since I got them back just a couple days before.
I’d had to pay an exorbitant amount of money to get it done so last minute, but Bellamy deserved all the frantic planning and half my savings.
“You didn’t have to get me anything, love,” Bellamy said, giving me a soft smile as I pressed the box into his hands. I didn’t have a chance to wrap it, so I grabbed a bow out of the pile of spent wrapping paper, and stuck it on the top.
“Technically, I didn’t get it. I made it. With some help,” I added.
Intrigued, Bellamy reached to open the lid, finding my gift inside.
The watch I’d designed specifically for him.
“Those numbers,” I explained when I saw him looking at him, “are coordinates. To Adams’s house, your villa in the Maldives, and the cabin in Montana,” I told him, watching as his eyes went even softer. “And the stones at twelve, three, six, and nine?” I said, moving closer to point at them. “That is your birthstone and mine,” I told him.
“Oh, love,” he said, pressing the side of his head to mine. “This is the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”
“I know that feeling,” I said, leaning up to press my lips to his.
Bellamy - 1.5 years
I spent the entire flight worrying that she knew what I was up to.