Noaz (Van Doren #2)

29. Noaz

29

NOAZ

I stare at the shed for a minute and wonder how difficult it would be to turn it into a boxing, uh… gym. Is that what they’re called? I want to hang a bag, lay down mats, and fill the space with things that would support Briar’s boxing.

There isn’t a space for a permanent boxing bag at the gym in the business center. Jalon said we could figure it out, but I’m not sure how often Briar would use it. He hasn’t mentioned wanting to use one, but he and Haze were talking about it the other day and I thought that if Briar had somewhere to train, he might.

Opening the shed, I stare at the contents. There are a handful of totes, some of which are Christmas decorations. Others are… I don’t even know. But they can go into the attic.

Is the space big enough? How much room do you need around the bag? It’s not a large shed, but it’s not tiny, either.

Oh, hell. I could just get rid of this one and have a bigger one built right here. It’s a pity there aren’t basements out West like there are in the East. I could build him an entire home gym to his specifications in a nice, large basement.

Shutting the shed door, I head back inside. Stopping to wash my hands, I make my way up to the nursery.

The nursery is now filled with boxes and bags and piles of stuff. This is where everything has sat since our baby shower last week. It took eight vehicles packed to the gills to get it all home. This entire week, even more gifts were delivered from people who couldn’t make it.

Today is the first day I’ve started to pick away at it and I’m doing so out of necessity. The chaos is giving me anxiety. Besides, in just three short weeks, we’re heading to Colorado until our baby arrives. We don’t want to come back with a newborn and a house bursting at the seams with unopened packages.

I think if there were even a little bit of ground to walk on, I’d feel less like pulling my hair out. How do you organize a space you can’t move in?

“Okay,” I murmur, “I need a game plan.”

Step one: make room to move. I spend an hour stacking shit on top of each other and creating six big mounds. While they’re even more intimidating than the entire floor and every surface being covered, I can now get to the closet and every piece of furniture. This should make it easier to put things away.

Next, I need to think about what kinds of piles I’ll be making. Every article of clothing and blanket and whatever needs to be washed, so I’ll need a laundry basket.

The cute one in the closet is likely not going to work. Heading into our closet, I dump our laundry from the big basket and bring it into the baby’s room. Okay, good. Now a trash can to get rid of all the tags. And scissors so I don’t rip anything.

“Good,” I tell myself. “One thing at a time. Let’s go. ”

I choose the very first bag and start pulling things out. Cute booties, headbands, mittens, washcloths. I carefully take the tags off everything and toss it all in the basket. The bag goes into the hallway and the tissue paper…

Already I have taken a break to retrieve a trash bag for filler.

Okay, now I’m ready. Back on track.

I’ve been at this for another hour when Briar gets home. I hear him call upstairs, asking for me to come down. When I stand and look around, I nearly sob when it doesn’t look like I’ve made any progress at all except filling up the laundry basket.

Maybe I can convince Honey Bee to do this for me. She studiously took notes of who gifted us what for thank you cards and that book is sitting on Briar’s desk, where it won’t get lost.

Picking up the two infant car seats—one for each of our cars—in the hall, I decide to bring those down with me to allow us to at least move around upstairs. I only make it a couple steps down the stairs before I slam one into the wall. I cringe. Did I just put a hole into the drywall? Fuck’s sake.

Briar appears at the bottom of the stairs and then climbs them to meet me. He takes them from my hands. “What’re you doing, love?”

“Remodeling, I guess.”

He chuckles and noticeably doesn’t hit the wall on his way down. “I’ll patch it if need be. No big deal.”

“You know how to drywall?”

“Nope, but online videos do.”

I grin as he sets the car seats by the door. Then turns to kiss me. His kisses always make me weak in the knees. Thankfully, my man is strong and can hold me up .

“Come here. I have something for you.”

He brings me into the kitchen where there’s a box of chocolates on the counter. He picks one up and offers it to me, bringing it to my lips. Smiling, I open for him and he sets it on my tongue. As I close my mouth around his finger, giving him a quick, playful suck, he pops one into his mouth.

When he’s removed his finger from between my teeth, I bite into the small piece of chocolate that’s melting in my mouth. There’s liquid inside that bursts on my tongue, making me quickly put my hand up to make sure I don’t drip any as I make a startled sound. The richness of the boozy liquid on the inside is a rich dance mixed with the smooth chocolate and creamy caramel. I find I’m humming as I finish it.

“Where did you get these?” I ask, looking into the box where there’s a dozen more.

“At that damn café in the business center,” he says, shaking his head. “I don’t know how people work there and not weigh four hundred pounds.”

“That’s why I never step inside the café. It’s kryptonite to anyone with a sweet tooth.”

Briar grins and kisses my lips. “What were you up to, beautiful?”

“Trying to make my way through the baby gifts,” I say, feeling my shoulders sag.

He grins, wrapping his arm around my waist. “Let’s have lunch and then we’ll tackle it together. Okay?”

“Yep. Sounds good. I worked for an hour, but you’d never know it. Oh. I should put a load of baby laundry in the wash.”

Briar kisses me again. “How about you get out the leftovers and I’ll run upstairs to get the laundry? ”

I nod. He kisses me again before heading for the stairs. I really hope he never stops kissing me like that. Constantly. Every time we leave each other, even if it’s just for a different room in the house. I love those moments.

I have leftovers heating when Briar returns from starting the laundry. “I put it on quick wash and with baby soap.”

“Sounds good.”

We finish preparing lunch together and sit at the table in the kitchen to eat.

“Everything okay at the office?” I ask.

Briar grins. He was only hanging out with Levis for a bit after he went to the gym. “Yes. Kairo’s there. Apparently, he’s been hanging around this last week. Levis thinks he’s staying until our baby’s home.”

I frown. “Really?” There’s no hiding the skepticism in my voice.

He chuckles. “Apparently, that’s what Myro and Jalon think. He’s just repeating their opinions. Levis says he doesn’t know Kairo enough to form an opinion, though the few encounters he’s had with your brother aren’t leaving him with rosy thoughts.”

Snorting, I shake my head.

“I’m not sure what to think,” I admit. “The quilt… I would never have thought he would create a gift like it.” My other three brothers and nephews have each looked at the quilt and we’ve all claimed a square or three. What’s more, there are squares from blankets of Kairo’s too. His possessions. Including the one he clung to for years until it was too ratty. I’d assumed it had been thrown out, but the little character going down the slide and the words ‘ Zesiro loves going down—weeeee ’ say otherwise.

“Have you talked to him since the baby shower? ”

I shake my head, sighing. “I know him well enough to know that if I bring it up, it’s only going to turn out with him being nastier than usual. Like he has to balance out any kind act he does with his assholery.”

“So we assume he’s kinder than he appears?”

“I guess.”

“Or his assholery is his armor, hiding vulnerability he doesn’t want to share.”

I might not have agreed with that had he not gifted us the most thoughtful, touching gift for our new baby. This wasn’t something he put together in a couple days. This must have taken time. He would have had to track down these items throughout the house, in storage. He made sure we were all represented. Then he hired someone to create it.

“I think I might believe that,” I concede. “But unless he wants to let us in, we’re never going to be privy to why he protects himself the way he does.”

We spend the rest of the afternoon going through the presents together. We don’t make it through them all before Briar decides we need a break for the day. So we clean the hall of the piles of boxes, gift bags, and the bag of tissue paper, then relax on the couch to watch a movie while halfheartedly tossing around more baby names.