Page 123 of She Wolf

I make my way into the kitchen and then shout ‘okay’ at the top of my voice. We may have gone a little overboard this year, but with Gunner being a part of us now, he was eager to celebrate.

The majority of the house is open plan so I’m able to capture the way Jack’s face lights up when he sees the teal, silver and white ‘Happy Birthday’ banners and balloons we had custom-made for him and then it lights up even more when he spots his presents from us. The wrapping paper picked to match the banners too.

“Wow, I can’t believe all this. It’s amazing. Look, Kate, it’s the Wolves colors!” His excitement has reached one hundred percent already.

“Jack, do you want breakfast first or presents first?”

“Presents!” he hops as he heads over to the kitchen table.

“Which shall I open first?” It’s not a question because he goes for the smallest one. He’s done it since he was little.

“So who are these from?” he asks, turning serious.

“Both of us. Some I chose, some your mom chose and some we bought together,” Gunner says with pride and love.

He opens them one by one without an ounce of finesse. Just tears the paper off as quickly as possible.

“Cool LEGO’s, thank you. Can we make it up today?” he asks Gunner excitedly.

“We have a pretty packed day already, why don’t we leave it until tomorrow?” Gunner reasons.

“Okay good idea.”

“I have one for you too Jack,” Kate says as she produces a present from behind her back. He stares at it in bewilderment.

“You do?”

“Of course. It’s just a little something to say thank you for being so cool about me staying with you.”

When he rips into the paper, a Wolves pen that can change ink color falls out while he holds up a teal, bound notebook with a giant ‘J’ embossed into the cover.

“For when I need to un-jumble?” he asks, eyes wide, big smile on his face.

“Exactly that,” she says with a wink and a smile and honestly, it's touching to watch their exchange. He hasn’t known her for very long, but they seem to be forming a tight bond. It makes me wonder what kinds of conversations they’ve been having when it’s just the two of them.

Kate makes us all pose for photos and then I place the extra special birthday doughnuts in the middle of the table along with the juice and the coffee for Gunner, Kate and me.

At just that moment my brothers and Anna let themselves in to a chorus of Stevie Wonders ‘Happy Birthday’, Knox leading the vocals as ever. If he didn’t want to play hockey so badly, he could make it as a singer and musician that's for sure. Jack dances around the table in his jammies.

Jack graciously accepts their gifts with an enthusiastic thank you, although the wrapping paper suffers the same fate ours did.

Once he’s shown everyone all of his presents and gets Anna and Kate to help him ‘display’ his hoard they join us at Gunner’s table and start in on the doughnuts, because of course, I bought enough to feed the entire hockey team.

“So how does it feel to be eight? You feeling that extra year yet?” Casey asks him.

“I grew,” Jack says matter of factly, rubbing his mouth along his arm.

“You did?” Casey feigns shock.

“Yep, I’m taller.” Casey laughs and ruffles his hair.

“He’ll be bigger than us all by the time he’s done,” Knox says not bothering to wait until his mouthful is finished.

And the morning continues just like this. Kate snaps away on her phone and I’m grateful she’s capturing it for us. The rest of our friends stop by to shower Jack with attention and wishes and then it quietens down for a short while.

“I think this was the second best morning of my life. It’s definitely the second best morning this house has ever seen. Pretty crazy in here for a while huh?” Gunner says when we’re by ourselves.

“It was the best. So, what was number one?”

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