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“Yeah, I did,” he confirmed.
With it now in her lap, it hid most of her torso from view. As she began to work on opening it in her usual efficient manner, Tess and Victoria each leaned in a little, sharing a dose of curiosity toward what he’d gotten Anna for Christmas.
Starting at the top of the wrapping paper, she soon showed them. Within a matter of seconds, she gave Sam the Sloth his first chance at oxygen in almost twenty-four hours. Before long, she’d freed him entirely, hefting the weighted plush as Tess took the wrapping paper, compressed it, and shoved it into the trash bag with the rest.
“Thank you, Liam,” Anna said, blushing slightly due to the attention on her and the stuffed animal held in her arms.
For once, Avril didn’t have a witty comment to toss into the ring. Neither Tess nor Victoria, each wearing differing expressions of intrigue, stepped up and filled the silence. So, that left it up to him.
“I’m glad you like it. They were really popular, as far as I could tell. And I hope it helps.”
“Helps?” Tess asked, looking between them both.
Liam almost winced, realizing that he might have just put his foot in his mouth, but Anna swooped in and saved him from his concern.
“I’ve been having difficulty sleeping recently,” she explained. “But I’ve discovered that holding onto something when I’m in bed has been helpful for me, and I’ve heard many people say these are particularly helpful.”
“Oh, I see,” Tess said, mild concern mottling her lovely expression. “I hope it will help, then. I’m sorry you’ve been struggling to sleep.”
“You know, I’m only a room over,” Avril chimed in. “And I’measilyas cuddly as Sammy here.”
Anna smiled but shook her head. “I need something that won’t kick me in the shin or elbow me in the side while I try to sleep.”
“I don’t do that!”
An unexpected voice supported Anna’s claim. “Yes, you do. You steal the covers when you do, too.”
Glaring at Victoria for her remarks, Avril folded her arms and grumbled under her breath. All the while, Anna kept holding onto Sam. In fact, he didn’t leave her lap for the rest of her time on the couch.
“Am I next?” Tess asked, next in line, if they were moving down the line sequentially.
“If you want to be,” Liam said, stymieing Avril before she could devise some ploy that would embarrass him or Tess.
For one obvious reason—glass—he’d treated the box that held her candles as though he were holding the Ark of the Covenant. He’d warned Tess to be just as careful once it’d ended up in her pile.
Gingerly picking it up, Tess placed the wrapped shoebox on her coffee table. While not quite on Anna’s level, her nails soon vivisected tape from the gift wrap. Once she’d found the box’s lid, she lifted it. This time around, it was Victoria and Anna who leaned in curiously.
Tess hadn’t expected three candles; he could tell that much immediately. Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she spotted her gifts, which he’d elected to leave unwrapped, ignoring Avril when she’d suggested that he really ought to make it a little harder on Tess.
Tess’s surprise faded. Lifting her head, she smiled warmly at him as she began removing the three identical candles from their makeshift manger. Watching her expression closely, he felt a rousing collision of relief and elation within his chest as her smile grew as she finished placing all three families of cacti on the table. Removing one’s lid and then lifting it for a smell, she beamed at him a moment later.
“They’re wonderful. Thank you.”
A moment after that, however, she seemed to realize something concerning.
“They weren’t too expensive, were they? I remember them being pretty costly.”
“Rather expensive,” Victoria agreed. Her attention also sat upon him. Unlike Tess, her thoughts remained an impenetrable wall of ice. Liam’s gut churned because of it.
“Getting one felt kind of underdone,” he explained, resisting the urge to glance at Avril. He hadn’t really explained that she’d paid for them at the mall, and he didn’t really want to. Not yet, anyway.
“Yeah, and they weren’tthatexpensive,” Avril said, for once coming to his aid rather than igniting further fires under his heels.
“And what would you know about what is and isn’t expensive?” Victoria said, gesticulating at the piles of presents around most of them.
“If you want to return your gifts and give that money to Liam, no one’s stopping you. You can even do it with your present from him, which you still need to open.”
Deftly, she’d saved him from further scrutiny, at least for now. As the room's attention fell upon a flatter box than the shoebox where he’d stowed Tess’s gifts, the costliness of the candles was, for now, forgotten. “For now” seemed to be the operative words.
