Page 84 of Packed Up In Vegas

Her cheeks flushed the prettiest shade of pink. “At least that’s not one-sided. What are we doing today?”

“Important things first. I really want you to stay, and the only way that’s going to work is if you feel at home here. Might take us a few hours, but I’m pretty sure by the end of the day you’ll be a lot closer to that.”

She looked at me curiously, but I didn’t elaborate.

The first stop was the dreaded DMV, but I had made an appointment and greased a few palms so we could get Callie an updated license. She would have to get a new one anyway since she was no longer living at her old apartment.

“Are you serious?” she asked.

“As a funeral,” I replied.

The whole affair was blessedly short thanks to my preparations. Most of the tasks today were tedious—getting her photos taken for a passport application so we could travel if we wanted to, stocking her up on any missing essentials, getting her signed up with the best omega clinic in the city that would handle all her medical needs, taking her for a trim and blowout at the salon Kai frequented to see if she liked it, and finally stopping by the local library so I could get her a card.

I watched her soften through each task, and she scanned the city with greedy eyes as she started to learn her way around it.

“I can’t believe you thought of all this,” she said between sips of the enormous sweet tea in her hands.

“The only way for a place to feel like home is to make it one. This way you have a bunch of services you’re familiar with.”

“It’s not very date-like,” she said, “and even though I am exhausted from people-ing, I actually really loved today. I think it’s probably the first time I’ve felt normal for weeks.”

“I’m glad. I know we won’t be in the ‘getting to know you’ honeymoon phase forever, and I want you to feel comfortable with the city. I hope it takes at least a few things off your plate.”

She laced her fingers with mine. “It absolutely does. A lot of it was things I was dreading doing by myself, but it was actually a little bit fun having company for it.”

“Well, I hope the rest of the evening is much closer to date territory for you.”

“What’s next?”

I turned into a parking lot, pulling to a stop in front of an enormous bookstore. “Next we spend as much time here as you want. I’ll buy you as many books as I can carry.”

Callie gave me an excitable kiss. “You guys really don’t play around with this courting thing, do you?”

“Absolutely not. If I could buy you the entire store I would, but we’ll start small and work our way up.”

Watching her move reverently through the aisles was a rare treat. She gravitated toward the fantasy, romance, and travel sections, flipping through pages and tracing her fingers down the spines. It took her a while to actually pick anything out, and I started adding anything she touched to the pile before she finally got with the program and added a few series to the stack. It was a damn good thing I worked out so often, because hauling that many books around was like clutching a bag of bricks.

“Do you have a top favorite of all time?” I asked.

“Not really. I’ve loved lots over the years, but I feel like my answer changes depending on what phase of life I’m in. Do you have a favorite?”

“I read one series as a kid about a little girl in an all-omega family who wanted to be a knight. I loved that one.”

“Oh, I read that one. I don’t think I ever finished the whole series, but I’m pretty sure it got, like, twenty books long by the time it was done.”

“It definitely did. I still read every single one. I used to stop by the bookstore on allowance day every week and see if there was anything new yet. I still have all of them in storage at my parents’ place.”

“That’s so cute.”

We talked while she perused, discussing different books we had both read when we passed the shelves containing them, or sitting on the floor in the travel section and looking at photos of places we both wanted to go. A lot of today had been mundane, but a lot of days in our future would be, and I liked knowing we could be just as happy on those days as the ones filled with excitement.

When we had traversed the store twice over, we finally made our exit with a grand total of twenty-three books. Before I took her home, we grabbed some drive-thru and drove to the outskirts of the city to watch the sun disappear behind the mountains, chatting and eating in the air-conditioning.

“You know, I was kind of skeptical about this place ever feeling like home. It’s just so sensationalized that I sometimes forget people actually live here.” She pulled me close, kissing me slow and deep as sunset gave way to night. “Thank you for today, for helping me put down some roots.”

“You’re more than welcome, precious.”

I would help her lay down all the roots in the world if it meant that she would stay with us.

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