Page 83 of This Mate Thing

Simon, on the other hand, looks confused.His gaze jumps between the presents and me, and a small crease forms between his brows."Boris?"

"Yes, love."

"Where did all the presents come from?"

I give Ira a wide-eyed look, then blink with one eye."Must be the letters we sent to Santa."

Ira giggles.

"The letters we sent to Santa?"

"Yeah, you remember, the ones Ira brought to his teacher."

Simon looks at Ira, his eyes narrowing.

"Now, are we gonna open them, or are we heading to Mom's first?"

"Open!"Ira bounces up and down on the couch.

Simon sends me a look that promises retribution.I only grin.He can try to intimidate me all hewants, but we both know who'll win in the end.

"I guess we may as well open them since it's gonna be late when we get back."Simon sounds way too reluctant.It's presents.Who doesn't love presents?

Ira rushes over to the tree and reads one of the tags."Simon."

He hands the present over to Simon, who looks at me."Do I open it, or do we hand them all out?"

I shrug."How do you normally do it?"

"Open."Ira gestures at him, beaming.

Simon peels off the tape and unfolds the paper.Then he looks down at the three rolls of duct tape we got him."Oh, duct tape."

"Did you ask Santa for duct tape?"My voice is a little too excited.

"You know I did.You claimed I stole the idea from you."

I grunt."And he gave it to you."

Ira giggles and grabs another present."For me."He tears it open."Glow-in-the-dark pens!"

"You're both stealing things off my list!"

Ira laughs and lunches for another present."Simon."

Simon gives me another look, and I grin.He opens it, and inside are socks.

"Socks, really?Did you ask Santa for socks?"

Simon pokes his tongue out and throws a pair of them at me.I catch them and put them on the floor.

The next present, Ira doesn't lift.Instead, he pushes it over the floor to Simon.I know what's inside, of course, but I do my best to keep a straight face.

When he pushes the paper off the box and looks at it, he makes a sound, then he stares at me."A Ninja blender."

"Would you look at that.I didn't know you asked Santa for one of those."

"Boris."Ira holds up a present for me, and I do nothing to hide my surprise.I hadn't expected to get any presents.