Page 65 of Packed Up In Vegas

He slurped down some water and recovered himself. “I’ll do my absolute best not to die. We have one more stop to make today.”

“Where?”

“Furniture shopping. Unless you’d rather live in Diego’s room forever?”

I frowned. “I’m totally hogging his space.”

“Do not feel bad at all for that. He’s been so fucking smug that you picked his room to nest in. I think he’d rather light himself on fire than ever ask you to move out of it. But I figure at a certain point living with us, you’ll want a space that’s exclusively yours. We’re all totally down for sharing and you can sleep in any bed you want at any time, but you deserve your own space, too.”

My bottom lip wobbled, emotion clogging my throat. “I’ve never actually had my own space before. I shared a room with my sister growing up, I had roommates in the college dorms, and then I shared a room with Jerry. I mean, I had the nest at the apartment, but that was my office too since Jerry didn’t like my work stuff around the apartment, and he kind of went in and out as he pleased, and he didn’t like me to spend too long in there or have too much stuff.”

“All the more reason we need to outfit you with the perfect space. We’ll get you a lock on the door so you can kick us out, get whatever furniture you want, any decorations. This will be coming out of the pack joint account so we’re all in on it. I promise we have enough to cover anything you might need, so don’t be afraid to point out anything that catches your fancy.”

I sniffled, trying to wrap my head around the fact that these alphas really did want to take care of me, wanted to give me the world. I could already feel the tears working themselves up and I was desperately trying to hold them back.

“You’re sitting too far away.” My voice shook. Kai dragged his chair over until the edges of it were touching mine, and I locked my fingers in his shirt, curling my legs over his.

“Come here, little dove.” He scooped me all the way onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me. The sweetness of the gesture had tears streaking down my cheeks. I’d expected him to tell me to stop being a baby in public, the way too many others had told me in the past, but he just purred softly and said, “Cry all you need.”

Was I going to question their kindness forever? I was only starting to see the damage Jerry had done to me, and I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to shake it, if I even could.

I had lived so long in that state of complacency and I had to relearn myself in this new context.

Kai continued to hold me until my tears had dried themselves out, his purr carefully untangling the knots of my stress until I could breathe easy. “If you’re not feeling up to shopping, I can take you home.”

Home. It really was starting to feel that way.

“I’m okay,” I promised.

“If you’re sure.” He kissed the top of my head. “Are you done with your food?”

“I’m stuffed.”

“How about a nice lemonade for the road? It’ll keep you cool enough you won’t melt when we step outside.”

I nuzzled the underside of his chin. “I like lemonade.”

After dealing with the remnants of lunch, we got a pair of drinks and headed off to the furniture store.

An absolutely gorgeous sleigh bed caught my eye the moment we stepped inside. It was easily big enough for the whole pack and I ran my fingers over the glossy wood. It had optional steps and a railing that could be brought up on both sides to turn it into a proper nest.

“Want me to ask if it’s in stock?”

“It’s so much.”

“Anything that fits a pack is going to be expensive, but it’s an investment. We need enough space for you to be comfortable regardless of how many of us you have in there with you.”

I chewed my lip. I really did love it, but I still wasn’t used to anyone wanting to spend money on me. Kai worked me around to it, and once we learned they had one bed left in that style it hadn’t taken much more to push me over the edge to say yes to the bed.

“It’s going to be so weird having a fresh bed. I need to get all of you rolling around on the sheets ASAP.”

Kai laughed, drawing me close and tipping up my chin so he could kiss me. Jerry hadn’t kissed me in public since the days of college parties, and here Kai was, broadcasting to the whole world in this store that we were together. Like he was proud to be seen with me…

Apparently I was just going to be all up in my feelings today. Kai kept his arm wrapped around my shoulders as we checked out more items in the store. Diego had stocked me up on a lot of nesting supplies, but I picked out some sheet sets that would fit the new bed, and Kai and I sprawled out on half a dozen mattresses to test if I liked them before I settled on one that felt like rolling on a cloud.

I would have to wait for everything to be delivered, but each piece we ordered, even though I wasn’t very good at accepting how much money they were spending on me, definitely helped me feel more grounded.

They really were investing in me. I didn’t get the sense that any of them would twist it around into me owing them like Jerry had done anytime he actually bought me some kind of gift.

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