Page 119 of The Villain

“I want to see Shade’s face when he opens the boxes. He’s going to lose his mind and I want to see him try to hide it.”

“Easy enough,” I walk away to find him. If this stops the tears I’ll win on two fronts.

He and Max are still sitting at the table. Shade is refusing to speak and pissing him off.

“Shade,” I say and his head whips around to see me.

“You’re fucking trained,” Max chuckles at the abrupt move.

“Living room.”

He stands and walks away with me as Max starts guffawing.

When Shade sees the boxes he says, “What’s happening right now?”

“Christmas,” I push him forward.

Tera gets her phone ready as Shade tries to balk.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you get to geek out with Southie,” Tera laughs.

I lean close to whisper in his ear. “Leave the top shelf empty when you put them where you want. That one’s yours.”

He shakes his head and sits down, cross-legged, in front of the boxes.

I sit behind him bracketing his legs with mine and prop my chin on his shoulder.

“This is a little over the top, don’t you think?” he mutters as he pulls a box to him.

I smirk and wait.

The lid gets tossed aside easily and he digs in.

“Holy shit,” he mutters when he finds the collector’s items.

“Half yours,” I remind him.

He glances at me to see my grin.

“Did you find the pajamas?”

He starts laughing and then he’s a mess, wading through them all and figuring out where he wants to put them. I let him have free reign, watching him with a smile.

Everyone jokes around and has fun with it. Little things. Family things. All in all, I’m pleased.

When Tera starts yawning, Shade is the one that notices first.

“Party’s over,” he tells her as he sets another figurine up.

“Nu-uh,” Tera denies. Her head is resting on Asher’s shoulder as her eyelids flutter.

“There’s always tomorrow,” I point out.

Shade gives me a glare for that.

“Nah. We’ve got a surprise for her tomorrow,” Max says with a grin.

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