God, Lydia thought, with a heartache that felt like it would kill her,it’s going to be hard to give you up when you need to leave. I need to enjoy whatever time you can give me, because I’m never going to meet anybody like you again.
“That sounds good to me,” Lydia said, swallowing down all her emotions. “Just tell me where to drive.”
Case had to quiz her a little about what Mountainview even had to offer, since he hadn’t exactly gotten to see much of it so far, but once they had all that straightened out, he asked for the village’s vintage clothing store.
It wasn’t going to put Dolce & Gabbana out of business, Lydia had to warn him, and it probably didn’t even belong in the same company as some fashionable, superbly cultivated shop in New York, with rack after rack of pristine 1950s dresses and secondhand designer suits. Its owner, Jen Howe, admitted that it was more or less a thrift store, and she only called it a vintage clothing shop because it sounded a little fancier that way.
Case didn’t seem too disappointed by this.
“I like thrift stores,” he said with a shrug. “You can come across some interesting stuff. I like—this is going to sound ridiculous.”
“No, tell me.” It was bafflingly cute to watch him get carried away.
“You can find old books at thrift stores sometimes, ones where people have lost the dust jacket over the years. All you can see is the title and the author, and if you don’t recognize either one, you have no idea what kind of story’s going to be inside. You get to go in without any preconceived ideas about what you’re getting. It’s kind of fun—like a grab bag. Don’t get me wrong, you get some duds, but you also get some winners.”
Lydia indulged in a little daydream about wandering through a thrift store with Case and watching him gravitate towards a stack of slightly dusty books. They could place little bets. WasSummer Lightninga thriller or a steamy romance? (Or a romantic thriller, for a cross between the two?)All Bets Are Off: could that be a casino heist novel?
It was so easy to imagine a life with him. She didn’t care too much about losing the possibility of some picture-perfect wedding that had never really been on the table in the firstplace, but she already minded losing those afternoons browsing through unknown books.
This drove homeyet againthat every minute she spent with Case was going to be a problem later on down the line, because every minute made it easier to see how much and how easily she could love their life together.
But that was her problem, so she would have to deal with it.
Or she was going to lose her mind and ask him to be less adorable. That wouldn’t be weird at all.
When they got to Maddy’s, Case said, “I don’t mind the flannel, but it seemed like maybe you did. So if you see something you’d rather wear, grab it. If not, then that’s fine too. I want to see if I can find something vaguely tux-shaped.”
Lydia had a hard time imagining that he would get lucky on that front, but she let him carefully inspect the men’s section. Even from across the shop, she could see that cute, thoughtful crease between his eyebrows as he did his best to hunt down a wedding ensemble.
She leafed through the store’s collection of dresses, considering them carefully. When she’d hit on the idea of a marriage of desperation, it had never even occurred to her that she might want a wedding dress. With anyone else, she probably wouldn’t have. She would have always done her best to make the marriage work in the long run—if therewasa long run—but she wouldn’t have come close to getting romantic. Not this early. She would’ve had too many other things on her mind.
All those things were still there, but Case had a way of making them feel manageable, somehow. He made her into someone who knew that even if she didn’t have time to go to a bridal store and pick out something with a train and veil, she had time to acknowledge that today was special.
And she had time to notice that he wanted it to be special too. He didn’t care whether or not she wore flannel, buthewanted a change of clothes.
She wished he could somehow stumble across a tuxedo here that would be a perfect fit. He deserved all the nice things the world could give him.
She waited for her wolf to tell her that she was acting like a sentimental idiot, because it had absolutely pointed that out to her back when she had fawned over middle school crushes. But it was silent. She actually had to prod it.
Well?
Well, what?
Well, aren’t you going to tell me that all this swoony human romance stuff is too much?
It studied her, a curious expression on its face.
It doesn’t seem like too much this time, it said finally.He saved our life. He’s helping us save our pack. He protects dogs, and he smells nice.
All of that was true, and Lydia guessed it made sense that her wolf was as impressed by it as she was. But it was still unusual.
What do you think of the dresses?she asked, just to see if her wolf was going to start having opinions about all kinds of new things now.
Apparently not, because it rolled its eyes at her and hunkered down to take a nap.Humans wear too many clothes.
When Case was around, Lydia found herself agreeing with that. But to be fair, her wolf probably meant that it would be a lot more practical if they all grew fur instead, like sensible creatures.
The dresses she was looking at were all blending into a rainbow blur of “not quite right.” She felt like when it came to a wedding dress, even an unconventional one, she should knowit when she saw it. There should be a magicalclickand some certainty that yes, this was the one.
