Stephanie had everything flown in to Greenville for the big day. She knew it would be hard to pull off a big surprise so she didn’t tell anyone — not even the girls — until that morning.
The four of them boarded the plane in the early morning hours and landed while breakfast was still being served at most fast food restaurants. A driver helped them unload the large gift and the suitcases, asking what it was that was so gosh darn heavy.
"JonDean’s presents," Vaughn answered with a toothy grin. She’d taken to calling him that after watching her mother make the mistake backstage. It soon became the special name the girls called him and as such, was a part of his gift package.
All cards were addressed to ‘JonDean’ and inside one of the gift boxes he’d find a ‘work shirt’ with that name stitched onto it. The name of the ‘autoshop’ they picked was ‘Mox’s.’ On the sleeve, he’d find ‘samv?’ to represent all four…plus one. Inside the shirt when he undid the buttons he’d find drawings of himself. Aurora’s was of him giving a noogie to ‘ColSeth,’ Murphy had the two of them jumping into a pool and Vaughn said hers was the two of them backstage with Mommy.
Steph drew a picture of them too, but this time of them out their first date at the batting cage. She signed it:
"To my hitting coach, You always make me want to swing for the fences. I love you always. Stephanie.”
When he was done with all of this, the older woman would present him with his final gift: A watch.
"Happy birthday sweetheart," she murmured while he opened the box.
He smiled at the gifts, careful to take his time admiring each and every one of them before he held the one from Steph. With a laugh, he looked up at her and shook his head.
But then he was set to open the final gift and an eyebrow rose in curiosity as he held it.
Eyes settled upon the watch widely, not sure how to even go about thanking her. He hadn't expected anything like it and he was more than sure it probably cost her a pretty penny. But he didn't fuss over that. Regardless of his need for gifts, he loved it and quickly moved to put in on his wrist.
"It's perfect." He grinned, showing it off to her and the kids before he stood and brought her in for a hug. "Thank you, baby."