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“The shave kit looks familiar, too. The place that had all the last minute gifts for dads, right?”
“Maybe, but—”
Nathan snickers. “Did you buy all of his presents there?”
“Shut up.”
“Sienna, language.”
“Mom!”
Nathan is howling.
I grab a ball of used wrapping paper from the floor and wing it at his head. “Nobody asked you.”
Jacob watches all of this, then turns to my dad and says, “Did you know that there are four state capitals that are not directly connected to the interstate system?”
My dad blinks. “I did not.”
Nana grins. “I did.”
Jacob wraps his arm around me and tugs me into his side. “Love the book,” he murmurs.
I snuggle in tight.
“Ready to open your present from me?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t buy it.” He gives me a funny look. “Maybe lower your expectations.”
Except I know there’s a ring upstairs, so why would he say that? I don’t expect him to buy me anything, anyway.
I take the package. It’s the soft one I found in his suitcase yesterday. Inside the wrapping paper, I find his beloved Harvard Law sweatshirt. It’s faded and worn, and it smells like him.
In the last two years, I haven’t allowed myself to openly covet Jacob. I kept my feelings mostly on lock, letting him think I was just a flirt and a tease.
But on weekends when we had to work for a few hours and he showed up in this sweatshirt, that’s when I was at my weakest. When I would let myself touch him. Squeeze his arm, his shoulder. Rub his back, just a little.
And every time, I’d pretend it was about my love for this sweatshirt.
I picture him panic packing and trying to find something for me in his house. Wrapping this sweatshirt, and then getting to the Portland airport and panic buying a ring.
The two gifts couldn’t be more diametrically opposite, but they both tell me as clear as day that this man loves me. When he was up against the wall and needed to find something to show how much he understands me, he grabbed the one thing that allowed us some intimacy.
I hold it up, then press it to my face, not caring if anyone thinks it’s weird that I’m inhaling my gift.
He chuckles, and I burrow back into his side. “I love it,” I whisper.
“Put it on, if you want.”
I stand up and tug it on over my PJs.
That’s when I realize everyone is quiet. They’re looking at me, and Jacob, and everyone except for Nana has the same weird look on their face.
Nana is nose deep in my Dad’s copy of the interstate highway book.
“What?” I look at my sister first, because my brother was a dick about the presents I bought Jacob, so I don’t care about his hot take on the sweatshirt.
