Page 87 of Remade

Alex flipped her hair over her shoulder and got seated. “I’m a freaking angel.”

“Like Lucifer,” I muttered under my breath. “Where are my birthday presents?”

“Oh!” Alex widened her eyes, then bolted out of the kitchen. Presumably to get something special for me in her room.

Leighton leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Here’s your main gift.” He held out a small box, and then he brought out his wallet. “And here’s to the future.” He held up two folded fifties and popped them into our sparkly pink piggy bank in the window.

I smiled.

We’d get our house one day, but the three of us had a much more important goal first. We wanted an RV that we could travel the country in. So, our new tradition was to add some funds to the piggy bank every time we celebrated something. Alex donated a dollar of every allowance, and Leighton and I had become pros at celebrating everything from major holidays and birthdays to National Beer Day and World Nerd Day.

Give me a handful of assignments, and I’d throw in some savings and buy the RV hopefully before Leighton’s next birthday. There wasn’t a chance in hell I could wait until we had enough money in approximately forty-seven piggy banks, but it was a cute idea. If nothing else, we’d have the money to buy extra comfort for the RV. Alex had big plans for a purple nook where boys weren’t allowed.

I took a swig of my coffee before I unwrapped my gift from Leighton, and I grinned when I saw what it was. Hell, that boy knew me well. A gift card so I could buy my own smoker, a new wristband for my watch ’cause the old one broke, and…but thiswas sweet. It was a token from when we’d visited Mount Rainier last winter.

“I want us to collect them,” he admitted. “I ordered it online—two of them—and since it was the first park we went to together, I was thinking we could use them as good-luck charms during assignments. They won’t reveal anything about us.”

I nodded, loving the idea; plus, it was a nice tribute to his mom.

“It’s perfect, pup.” I dropped the token into one of my side pockets. “Inspired by your mom?”

“Sort of…? I do wanna keep visiting parks because of what she and I did, but the token was mostly because of the bottle cap Ryan and Darius sent me.” He pulled it out from his pocket and flipped it in his hand. “I kinda like little tokens like this.”

I smiled and cut into my bacon. I liked those tokens too. When we couldn’t show our affiliations in a more official manner, at least at work, it was nice to carry something that was special to us. The bottle cap from an Irish beer was a Quinn thing, I’d heard.

“By the way, I was thinking you could keep the smoker at your mom’s place,” he added.

Yeah, definitely. She had a backyard. And Ma would like it. We had Sunday dinners there when we could, and I wouldn’t mind trading her dry pork chops for brisket.

“Okay, I’m ready, Uncle Bo!” Alex came running back into the kitchen, holding a larger box wrapped in pink paper with a bunch of balloons illustrated on it. “Nugget helped me buy it, and he promised we’d get the junior version soon so I can play too.”

Junior version?

I accepted the box and shook it a little?—

“Eeeep!” Alex beamed excitedly behind her hands. “It’s theJeopardygame!”

My eyebrows shot up.

“Aw, Lemon!” Leighton groaned a laugh. “You’re not supposed to say it!”

“I couldn’t help it!” she giggled.

Wait, so they’d bought the board game forJeopardy? Fuck me, that was awesome. Leighton had made me discover a game show nerd within me, and I fucking lived for that shit. We’d get heated and everything in front of the TV.

“We’re playing as soon as we get back,” I told him. “We’ll invite Danny and Em too. Not the Tenleys—River knows too much.”

Or he could be the host. Reese and Shay could play.

Alex was about to say something, but someone rang the doorbell, which meant Ma was here.

“That’s Grandma, mouse,” I said, holding up my gift. “Thank you for this. We’ll have a game night when Leighton and I come home, okay?”

“Yes! With junior questions for me,” she said, sprinting out of the kitchen to get the door.

“I think you mean answers!” I called after her.

“What!” She didn’t get it. But then she was busy. “Hi, Grandma! I’m almost ready. Come say happy birthday to Uncle Bo. You didn’t forget, did you?”

---