Nina insisted on opening presents next before doing the whole cake thing, and I was happy I only had three items to unwrap. The first present was from Nina—a lotion and body soap set that smelled like vanilla sugar from some fancy store. Next was a joint gift from Nina and Beau, a gift certificate to Cartwright’s bookstore, which they claimed was very important thanks to all the overpriced textbooks I’d need.

Mom had included her own handful of presents for me in the gift exchange—a birthday card along with a gift certificate to a clothing store for my new college wardrobe and the boxed set of all the seasons of my favorite TV show. Even more touching was that Connor had pooled together his allowance to buy us a new notebook and a booklet of Marvel stickers to decorate it with.

My last present was a book that was not surprisingly from Beau, and I had the feeling it was from his personal collection. I was by no means the avid reader Beau was, and yet I was still very touched by the battered copy of Jane Eyre I now held in my hands.

I inspected the old book, flipping through the yellowing pages. This wasn’t a first edition, but it was definitely dated, with old-fashioned illustrations depicting scenes from the novel.

Tucked between the first few pages was an envelope that held a simple blue card with the words Happy Birthday written across the front in Beau’s untidy handwriting. Inside there was a small note addressed to me that read:

I haven’t seen you with many books before, but you’ll have to tell me what you think of this one. You might find you have a thing or two in common with the main character.

Written underneath that was a quote from the novel.

“I am no bird, and no net ensnares me.”

I tucked the card back into its envelope, slid it back between the pages, and carefully set the book on the table. When I finally turned to look at Beau I wasn’t surprised to see him watching me intently, trying to gauge my reaction to his present.

It seemed ridiculous to only sign, THANK YOU, but that was all I could manage in that moment with Beau’s green eyes fixed on me the way they were.

YOU LIKE? he signed quickly.

LOVE, I signed back honestly, resting my hand on the book.

Beau gave a tiny sigh of relief and signed, GOOD. HAPPY.

If it weren’t for Nina stepping in, signing that it was time for cake now, I think Beau and I might’ve sunk even further into the moment.

I kept repeating those words from the book to myself as I cut into my slice of cake.

I am no bird, and no net ensnares me.