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“That’s right. Just be careful you don’t rip what’s in there, though.”
As soon as it landed, Avril went to work. Plying at one of the corners, she discovered he’d triple-wrapped whatever he’d hidden within. Her following efforts were far more enthusiastic than deft. As bits of colorful paper fluttered to the ground like ash after a volcanic eruption, he now heard Anna sigh.
Finishing up her mince job, Avril had created the wallet she’d asked him if he’d gotten her out of the wrapping paper. It was somewhat fitting, given what dwelled inside. Sticking two fingers into the long slit that she’d made, she separated them so she could peer inside. Her smirk turned off like someone had hit a light switch.
Confusion, an altogether unusual emotion on her beautiful features, swooped in to replace it. As soon as she pinched her fingers together, withdrew the objects within, and showed everyone else what she’d already seen, it transmitted to the other women.
“Cash?”
It was Tess who voiced the question for the four confused women. Compared to the ballcap and shirt he’d gotten her, a folded wad of twenties seemed a strange final present for him to give to the maverick redhead. And why in the world would someone give Avril Knight, who had so cavalierly flashed how flush with spending money she was yesterday, money?
She was the only one among them who had a chance of figuring that out. Staring at the folded twenty-dollar bills—twelve of them—understanding gradually coalesced within her eyes. Once it had, her lovely verdant eyes restored to their impressive brilliance, she stuck her tongue against the inside of one cheek.
“Okay, I see how it is,” she snorted.
“I’m glad you do. Now, stick those with your other gifts. I’m not allowing any returned gifts this year.”
“Cheeky boy.”
He shrugged unapologetically, which reignited Avril’s enticing smirk. If it’d just been the two of them in the room, he wondered how things might have gone—what would have happened next.
However, they wereanythingbut alone. It was Tess who again spoke for the group. Clearing her throat insistently, she reminded him and Avril that there were others in the room.
“I feel as though a few of us are missing some context behind this specific gift,” she pointed out. “Would either of you care to bring us into the fold?”
He and Avril shared a look, after which the latter nodded. “Sure, I can do that. Sooo, I wasn’t going to bring this up, but I guess I’ve gotta.” She turned her attention back to him, where it remained as she detailed the rest. “I actually paid for everything on our little shopping extravaganza. At first, Liam argued about it, but he ultimately let me have my way. Which I get now is because he must have concocted this little scheme of his while we were still at the mall. Am I right?”
“Pretty much,” he admitted. “Arguing with you is like telling a river to flow the other way.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” Victoria said.
“Quiet in the peanut gallery!” Avril said, thrusting a finger at the usually taciturn professor. With her other hand, she fluttered the cash between her fingers. “I knew I shouldn’t have left the receipts in the bags.”
“I’m capable of keeping up with the price tags of five items, especially when three of them were the same thing, Miss Bellmore.”
At the reminder of some other events that had occurred yesterday, Avril scrunched her nose distastefully, though it wasn’t enough to diminish her amusement at the scheme he’d pulled off.
“I amsonot going to be sorry about what I got you,” she said.
“This hammer, you mean?”
“Why don’t you open it and find out?”
For a third and final time, Tess reminded them that it wasn’t just the two of them here. “We have a few more presents over here to open before… whatever antics you have planned can play out. I have a feeling that it’ll be for the best if you open Avril’s gift to you last, Liam.”
It was a hard point to argue, especially with the maverick malevolence that Avril now perforated him with. So, agreeing to Tess’s suggestion, he waited for the rest of them to open their gifts before he touched the final one sitting in front of him.
Anna’s gifts for her college professors were the following gifts to be unwrapped. For the stern and severe ecology professor, a harvest basket for use in her home garden once spring came back around. For the tender but firm ethics professor, a two-pound bag of high-quality coffee beans.
“And won’t that go great with your new self-heating mug!” Avril cheerily pointed out.
“It seems it will,” Tess replied. “Thank you, Anna.”
“You’re welcome,” the polite heiress said.
Clearing her throat, Avril beckoned at him. “All right, now get to unwrapping. It’s time for the main event.”
Is that what this is?he wondered.
