Setting the book aside, I reached into the box and pulled out the next item. This one was a little square mirror. I held it up and looked into it. What the heck? My finger must have hit something because the mirror screen changed to an image of Rayne and me cuddling on the couch a few months ago. My eyes burned and I quickly put the picture away.
Wynn’s gift was the most obvious and probably the most embarrassing. A pair of silk underwear that I knew I’d seen him wear on more than one occasion. He was so full of himself. Like I needed a pair of his underwear to remember him by. Still, I tucked the silk fabric underneath one of my legs and tried to control my raging hormones.
I wasn’t sure what Marcus would send me. He wasn’t exactly the gift type. Marcus was more of the spending time with you, watching you do your work, and then railing you into the mattress type. Just thinking about it was getting me all worked up. Not that it was hard nowadays.
Being pregnant was not all fun and babies. Half the time I was crying and then the other half, I was hornier than a rabbit in mating season. Several times I’d woken up orgasming just from some dream I had. It was really embarrassing and a bit annoying. Because when I woke up, I was even more hot and bothered and then there was no one there to help me out with it. I certainly wasn’t going to ask Tuma or Agnes to help me out with something. I’d rather die.
Thankfully, all that Marcus sent me was a red bouncy ball. Those kinds that you spend fifty cents on and get out of a crank machine at restaurants. I wasn’t sure about the symbolism in that but figured he was trying to help me from being bored.
The last thing in the box had to be from Darren. This was a plain piece of paper with eight words on it.
Remember that day on the beach in Seabrick?
Yeah. I did remember that day.
Darren and I had been hiding from the hunter’s guild for a while by then and we had just started to see each other in a different light. I’d just had a shitty day at work and was frustrated by the lack of communications from the others when Darren surprised me with a picnic on the beach.
It was so beautiful that day. The sun was setting and the waves were gently crashing on the shore. It was off season so there weren’t that many people on the beach. Darren and I sat there eating and laughing and just talking about nothing. Then he took me home and made love to me until we both passed out in each other’s arms.
Out of all the days in hiding, that was one of the best nights of my life.
I carefully folded the note and sniffed, placing it back in the box and started to put back the others. “Uh...thanks Tuma. These are really great. They helped me so much.”
Tuma watched me carefully as if he couldn’t quite figure me out. “You really do love them, don’t you?”
I blinked at him, swiping at the tears on my face. “Why do you ask that?”
Tuma shook his head and stood. “I just realized that until now I didn’t really believe you loved them all the way you said you did. But seeing your face as you picked up each item, it made me realize that maybe we aren’t the monsters we think we are after all.”
I peered up at him. “You don’t have to be. It’s a choice. One that the Durands have done very well with.”
Tuma bobbed his head and walked to the door. He paused in the doorway. “I will consider letting one of your men visit you. Only one. Decide which one it will be and let me know.”