Chapter 0416

When mom tries to come over with more presents, I give her a little frown and shake my head, mouthing “give us a minute.” When she sees my reason why I think it takes mom every bit of strength she’s got to not come rushing to Jackson’s side and fuss over him.

But, knowing that would be too much, she moves away to fuss over someone else.

After about a minute, Jackson raises his head and nods solidly. “Okay,” he says, his voice steely like a soldier about to go on a mission. “Where do I start?”

“Right there at the corner,” I say, pointing to where the paper is loose. “Just…rip away, McClintock. Really show it what you’re made of.”

Jacks nods seriously and then does as I say, ripping into his gifts. After a joyful couple of hours of mom going around delivering more and more gifts to every single member of her family, and then Cora doing the same, and then Grandpa, Jackson and I sit cozy by the fire absolutely surrounded by our loot.

It’s mostly clothes, of course – mom can’t resist – but Jackson also got a gym bag from Rafe, a very fancy set of water bottles from Jesse, a stack of romance novels from Juniper, a set of colored pencils from Mark (though the reason behind that one’s a mystery to me). My gift is coming to him later, but the real coup is a stuffed tiger gifted from Seraphina.