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She’s gone quiet now and has stopped replying, so I’m assuming that she’s fallen asleep.
We pull into a parking spot along the main road, which is the only road that has any stores on it.
“Well, it’s smaller than it seemed when we drove through before,” Cash says as we all get out of the cars. “We’ll definitely have time to shop and then head to the plane within plenty of time.”
“Come on,” I say, bouncing in place. “Let’s go, let's go.”
“Excited much?” Luc asks with a smile, with Wyn sitting at his feet, and waiting happily.
Surprisingly, we managed to find a collar this morning so that no one would mistake her for a stray, but there was no lead in sight. We can’t leave her in the car. It’s too hot, and she’s too little, and we couldn’t leave her back at the safehouse because we’re heading straight to the airport after this, and no one wanted to leave her for hours on her own.
Everyone is on puppy watch in case she decides to run, but I think it’s very unlikely. She’s incredibly well-behaved. In fact, despite how young she is, she didn’t have an accident inside at all. I’m almost certain that she must have had some sort of training.
I was very impressed.
Jensen grabs my hand in his and pulls me down the road. He’s just as excited as I am.
“Wait a second,” Rafe calls after us, and we both reluctantly pause and turn back to face the others.
“Yes, Big Guy?”
He smiles. “I think since all of the stores here are small boutique kind of places and the fact that we’re short on time, we should probably split up and visit the stores in small groups so we don’t panic or overwhelm the locals. We’re within shouting distance if something does happen and we need the others.”
Trick nods in agreement and replies, “Good idea. We’ll meet back here in an hour. That should give us enough time to get to the airport without pushing it.”
“Deal, bye,” I say excitedly as I pull Jensen’s arm and turn us back around to head where we were originally going. I yell back, “Love you.”
Jensen chuckles from beside me. “I love it when you’re like this. Where do you want to go first?”
I slow down as I glance around at all the unique and interesting stores. “I actually don’t want to rush too much. Can we just window shop and then go in if something catches our eye?”
“A mini date, I love it,” he replies, wriggling his eyebrows and making me giggle. His eyes move to our left, and he says, “Oh look.”
We’ve only walked past two stores, and he’s already stopped, but I see why, and I can’t say that I blame him at all. It’s an antique store, and not one of those highly organized antique stores, but the complete opposite. It’s overflowing with curiosities. The window is so full of so many different things that I can’t see the rest of the store behind it.
It looks absolutely magical, and I desperately want to go inside.
I look up at Jensen and warn, “If we go in there, I will happily spend the entire hour that we have in there.”
He looks down at me, his expression full of the same wonder that’s in mine, and he grins, “I’m good with that.”
“God, I love you,” I reply, and move up on my tiptoes to kiss him.
We push through the door, the bell tinkling to signal our arrival.
You don’t get that much anymore, and having heard it now, I think it’s a shame that you don’t. I’m going to tell Lucien when we get home that since he’s the mayor and surely has the power to do so, he should tell all the stores in town that they now need to have little tinkle bells on their doors.
Admittedly, that may be a little dictatorial, but I’m sure Lucien could phrase it in a way that doesn’t seem like that.
Of course, he has just had a baby, so that’s a way in the future conversation.
For fuck sake I’m so excited my brain is making ridiculous demands.
“Hello,” an incredibly wonderfully flamboyantly dressed man says with a slightly surprised smile.
I immediately think that we’ve come in when we weren’t supposed to.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you not open?” I apologize with a smile that I hope doesn’t convey just how disappointed I am that they’re closed.
