“I do. And you’ll have lifetimes together to get to the point where you finish each other’s sentences.” Reilly thought about the gun that she’d purchased at the gun and ammo store that Lauren had stopped at. “He’ll love having his own weapon instead of using one of Lauren’s. She has a great many of them, and I even understand the need for her to have them. But Boyd will like having his own, I promise you. What else have you gotten him?”
“A watch, because Mac told me that his has a cracked glass. I asked her if it was something sentimental, and she assured me that it wasn’t, that he hadn’t had the time to go get himself one.” She looked around for something that would tell her she should slow down in her purchases. “I didn’t know what to get Lauren and Colin. They’re very difficult to buy for—I mean, on such a short time of knowing them.”
The two men with them had been very accommodating in keeping all their purchases taken to the car. The problem was now she couldn’t tell if she’d been overspending by looking at bags. That was a good indicator to her. If she had too many to carry, then she was done. With someone taking them away, she wasn’t sure how well she’d done. She voiced her concerns to Bea.
“Are you having fun?” She said that she was. “Did Boyd put a limit on who to buy for or how much you should spend on any of them?”
“No, he’d never do that. He told me that we have a great deal of money.” Billions. And that wasn’t an exaggeration either. Boyd had sat her down and showed her deeds to property that they owned, the stock portfolio that Larson had been working on since Boyd had earned his first pay check. They were very wealthy. “But there is no reason to put him in the poor house for one holiday.”
“No, there is that. But if you were asked, even though you keep looking for the purchases that you’ve made, I’m betting that you can tell me just how much you’ve spent today, as well as how much on each person.” Her face heated up to be found out. “Just as I thought. You’re generous, but you’re also very thrifty. Boyd is like that too. And the watch that is broken? Mac is right, it’s just a cheap one that he picked up when he needed it. And I’m betting that if you asked him about it, he’d say that he can still read the time on it, so why replace it?”
She laughed with her future mother-in-law. Bea was the kindest person she’d met, yet she was scary firm when she wanted something. All the women in this family seemed to not only have their shit together but wouldn’t take it from anyone either. She thought of the store that they’d been in earlier, and Reese’s encounter with a bully of a woman and her poor son.
“What are you doing?” The woman, Beth was her name they found out later, told her to mind her own business. And with that, she cuffed the young man in the head again. “He’s my son to keep in line, and I’d appreciate it if you would keep your nose out of things that don’t concern you.”
“No, that’s not going to happen. I’m making it my business, and if you hit him again, I’m going to knock the shit out of you and walk on your body when I’m done.” The woman was so shocked that she didn’t say anything but stared at her with an open mouth. “He’s been trying to tell you for over an hour, that’s just how long I’ve been here, that he’s hungry. Now you stop in your pursuit to buy up every god awful ugly pair of fuzzy lounge pants and pay attention to your son.”
“You have no right to talk to me that way.” She hit the young boy again, all the while looking at Reese. “See that? I can knock him to the floor and stomp on his head too, and there is shit you can do about it.”
Reilly had started to go after the woman to lend support to Reese when Lauren told her to wait. As they stood there, Reilly trembling in anger, Reese put out her hand for the young man and asked him if he wanted to go get a burger with her. He only hesitated a moment before he not only took her hand into his, but hid behind her when his mother reached for him. It was then that he screamed.
Reese knelt down to the boy’s level and asked him what had happened. He didn’t just tell them that his mom had beaten him with a belt before coming here, but he showed her as well. Mac looked at the wounds too and pulled out her cell. Reilly thought it was to take pictures, but it was to call the police. They were there in less time than she’d ever seen police show up for someone. But she had a feeling that it was due mostly to Lauren having a good connection to them.
“I want him taken to the hospital and pictures taken.” The officer didn’t so much as hesitate when he told Mac that he’d do that for her. “I would also like for you to make sure that he doesn’t go home tonight.”
“I gotta go home so they can eat.” Mac asked Brian, the little boy, what he meant. “I got me some sisters there. I was allowed to go out today on account a I did the dishes last night without breaking none. But my sisters, they’ll need to be having food. Momma tied them to the chairs when we left, and I told them that I’d bring them something nice and warm to eat. That’s why I wanted to have something to eat, so I could save it for them.”
Lauren sent three men to the house with cameras. The mother was detained until it could be checked out. Whatever the officers had seen at the home when they got there, Reilly didn’t know, but Lauren had Beth arrested on an arm long list of things. One of them being child endangerment.
Beth had tied the three little girls, one of them only about a year old, to chairs without sitters so she could go out and “snag” her something for Christmas. There hadn’t been a single item in the cart, nor the house, she’d been told, for the children.
Afterward they had spent over an hour buying gifts for the four children; all of them were going to make sure that they were well cared for after this. They’d spend the next few days in the hospital, Mac told them, then they’d go into a home that would care for them. After that, they’d have to see. Lauren had asked her if she would do a search on the children’s father when they got home and see if he was aware of what was happening to them. Reilly said she’d be happy to do it. Now they were shopping for the family again.
“Do you do this often? Come to the mall on Christmas Eve to shop?” Bea shook her head and said that she’d not had daughters before. “I don’t understand. Why would having us make a difference?”
“You’re my daughters—maybe not by blood, but I love you all as if you were. And when I got the idea to go shopping with all of you, everything that could go wrong did. Today was the first time that we could all get together and have some fun. But I have to tell you, we might have to make this a tradition. This is the most fun I’ve had in years.” It was fun for all of them as well.
When the last package was taken to the car, Reilly wondered where they were going to ride. Surely there were enough bags and packages in the limo to not have any room for them. But Bea assured them that there was plenty of room and that all the gifts were wrapped.
“You got them wrapped? How on earth did you manage that one?” She laughed and said it was easy if you had the right people to call. “What did you do? And is that why you had us write on each gift who it was for?”
“Of course I did. And perhaps next year we won’t buy as much last minute as you’ve had to do this year, but we’ll still have fun and we’ll have more time to wrap our gifts. Or not. The pack was very happy to do this for us. I think they enjoyed it more than we did buying them.” She asked what they were getting from this. “An education. Each of the ten seniors that are graduating this coming school year will get money in the form of helping pay for college. It is a nice tradition that we’ve started this year too.”
They were about done when she realized that her feet hurt, she’d had way more fun than she thought she would, and she was starving. Reilly was glad now that they’d had snack breaks during their raid on the stores. But she wanted some real food, and she wanted it now. Laughing as they made their way to the restaurant, she could not wait until in the morning to see what everyone had gotten from each other. Reilly was happy, too, that her dad was going to be there with them, but he’d have to be careful. Life was full
for her at the moment, and she was happy to be sharing all this with her dad.
The restaurant was packed, but as soon as they entered as a group, they were taken right to a table where the men were already seated and enjoying some appetizers. Reilly sat down with Boyd as she grabbed one of his wings and popped it into her mouth. She regretted it the moment that it touched her tongue.
“I tried to tell you.” Her mouth wasn’t on fire, it was burning out of control. Boyd didn’t let her have the glass of water that was right there in front of her but handed her a slice of bread from the basket. As soon as she bit down on the soft warm bread, the heat in her mouth cooled considerably. “I love hot and spicy wings. It’s the only way I eat them, and as I said, I did try to tell you, but you were just too fast.”
Tears were in her eyes; the wings were still so hot, even though they were cooling. As she talked around her second slice of bread, she told Boyd that she’d have to get him back. They were laughing so hard with the rest of the family, she kissed him. But on the cheek. Reilly was sure that even his lips would tear her up again.
When they were finished eating, having all ordered something different then sharing what they had, Reilly was falling asleep when they were about halfway home. But as soon as they pulled up in the driveway, she woke up to see her home ablaze with Christmas lights and decorations. Bear was just putting the last of the lights around the garage when she got out and hugged him. It was going to be wonderful having him around all the time.
Chapter 11
Christmas morning seemed to take forever in getting there. That wasn’t quite true. He’d been awake for hours, before the sun rose up, but Reilly was still sleeping. He had to laugh at himself a little. This was worse than when he’d been a kid, waiting for his parents to wake so he could open his gifts with them there.
The family had decided to have a large breakfast together, and he and Reilly were going there first thing. But right now, he had his own gifts that he wanted her to have. And while he had thought to give them to her last night, he thought that today, in their bed, was the best place to ask her to be his wife.
Watching her sleep had been a pastime that he had never thought that he’d enjoy. The way her lips were slightly open, as if she was giving him the scent of her all through the night. The gown that she had put on after they’d made love was sparkling in the morning light. And he loved the way her hair spread out on the pillow made him think of silk sliding over his own body.
When she stretched out more and opened her eyes, Boyd leaned down to kiss her. She smiled when he lifted his head, and she wished him a very Merry Christmas. He told her how much he loved her.
“This is our first of many Christmas mornings, and I wanted this one to be very special for us.” She smiled again and told him being with him was special. “And for me to be with you as well, my love.”
“When we have children, we’ll never get to sleep this late on this day, will we?” He smiled again. “What time do we have to be at your mom and dad’s this morning?”
“We have time. I wanted to talk to you about something.” She looked so serious that he didn’t want to make her frown. Rubbing her forehead, he continued. “I love you, so very much. And even though you have been using my name for a little while now, I wanted to know if you’d like to make it official and become my wife.”
“That wasn’t very romantic, was it?” She was laughing hard as he felt his face heat up. “How about I do this? I’ve been wanting to ask you for a while now.”
When she sat up in the bed, then onto her knees in front of him, he did the same. Facing each other, she reached under her pillow and brought out a box that was wrapped in pretty red and green paper. As she handed it to him, he reached under his own pillow and handed her his gift. They were laughing that they’d both picked out the same paper to wrap them in.
The watch was something that he had been looking at for some time now. It wasn’t state of the art, but more of an old fashioned one. The hands were there on the analog face, and he loved that all the numbers were there instead of the normal three, six, nine, and twelve. He was just putting it on his wrist when she said his name.
“There has to be more to this than you handing me a box.” He said that there was and took it from her. “Boyd, I love you.”
“And I love you with all my heart, my dear.” Turning the box to her, he thought about the things that he’d wanted to say to her when asking her to be his wife. How he’d come to find this ring in the big barn that was his brother’s. Larson had given it to him and said that it was perfect for Reilly. Pulling it out of the open box, he took her left hand into his. “The other afternoon, I went to see my brother about something for Christmas. I was just standing there, talking to him, when I saw something sparkle under the pallets that the boxes had been put on. When I bent to get it, I could see that it was a ring. But it was the design that had me shocked.”
He pulled the necklace that had matched the ring from under the pillow as well. It looked as if they’d been made by the same fine hand, the same quality of work. Boyd put it around her neck, watching the way the diamonds sparkled in the room. But it was the single paw print that drew the attention from the gems. It looked as if it had been made from an actual cat, it was so perfect in its tininess. And it had too; his grandfather had had it put into the design just for Grandma.
“This would have been my grandmother’s if she had lived. My grandda had a great eye for design, but his execution was off. So he had this made. Grandma would have loved you, all the women in this family, and been right there with you guys on every trip that you made.” He looked down at her bare hand. “My grandda had the necklace made a few weeks before they both passed on. My grandmother had been in a horrific accident, and my grandda, not able to stand it without her, went to sleep one night and didn’t wake.”
“Oh, what a lovely story. Sad too, but so wonderful in their love for each other.” Reilly put her hand on the paw print and smiled at him. “I’m assuming that this is his paw print on this. It’s beautiful.” He told her that it was.
The ring had yet to be taken from the box, so he did that now. When he slipped it onto her left-hand ring finger, it fit like he knew it would. The ring had been made over a hundred years ago, and it looked like it had been made just for her hand.
“Oh Boyd, it’s so gorgeous.” The band was wide, wider than he’d ever seen a ring before. And all around it were footprints of a cat. Even as old as it was, he knew that someone had taken their time in creating it, and he wondered why and how it had come to be. “You said that you found it in the barn? I wonder what other treasures your brother has found there.”
“We’ll go and see it when it’s warmer. Mom and Dad had the cradle and rocker that were out there redone for Virginia. And some of the other items are being added to the house almost daily.” She looked at the ring that was now on her finger. “I love you, Reilly. Will you please be my wife?”
“Yes, I will.” She smiled at him, and he felt his heart take a tumble toward being more in love with her. When she looked at his watch, she squealed and jumped off the bed. “You’ve distracted me enough. We have to go now.”
They rushed around the bedroom getting ready. When they came flying down the stairs, Bear was there with the keys to the car, and told them that he’d packed up the rest of the gifts last night. Having this man around was paying off better than he thought it would.
Going to his parents’ house had been something that they’d been doing for years for Christmas. But this year, he knew, like his brothers, was going to be special. There were children in the house now. And soon to be adding more. His parents had been so overjoyed by everyone, they had said that they’d gone overboard on their gifts. So had he, he knew. Not just for Reilly, but his family as well. Last night had been so much fun seeing the look on Reilly’s face with each gift that she opened.
Breakfast was just as it always was—loud with laughter and fun. Boyd had never taken much no
tice of it until now. It was just the way things were done, and how they’d been doing it for years before they had wives. But they were just as loud as the men were, and he had to laugh as his dad watched Lauren and Reilly arguing over something like he was watching a good game of tennis.
Lauren wanted Reilly to work for her. Reilly didn’t want to be working with a pig-headed woman that settled things with a gun, as she described Lauren. And as usual, Lauren thought of it as a compliment. He thought that was a good description, but decided that it was the holidays and he’d not point that out. The argument went on for the rest of the morning. Then Colin stepped in to help.
“You are the best researcher that we know.” Reilly asked him where he’d heard that. “Jarvis told me. And so did Joseph Dander when he spoke to me a week ago about you. He told me that he was only a good lawyer because of the work that you’d put into each case that he had.”
“I just look hard for things. It’s no big deal.” Colin said that it could mean the life or death of someone if they had the wrong information. Mac snorted. Reilly had heard about the trouble that Mac had been in with Lauren, and what she’d said to her about research. “If they have a computer and time, I’m sure that anyone could do it.”
“But we don’t even know where to start.” Reilly looked at Boyd as Lauren continued pleading her case. “I have two cases right now that are cold cases for the police department. One is a man that died in his home with no gun or any other means of being shot. There was no residue on his hands to indicate that he’d done it to himself. There was no apparent break in, and his family all have air tight alibies. As I said, no guns in the house, nor do we have any reason to believe that he was in trouble with anyone. He was shot and killed, and there is no closure for it.”
“And the other one? Is it a murder too?” She said it was a missing child. He’d been gone for nearly ten years, and his parents had never given up hope of finding him alive. “That’s so unfair. You know how I feel about children. I love all kids.”
Boyd_McCullough’s Jamboree_Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance Page 13