Page 10 of Mating Her Dragon

"This one," Garrett said.

Sydney blinked. "You're serious."

"Completely."

"You spent forty-five minutes accusing it of attempted murder."

"It passed inspection." He straightened, running his hand along the door frame one more time. "This one."

The truck took considerably longer, mostly because Garrett had, by his own admission, developed opinions.

"You have been in the twenty-first century for approximately five minutes," Sydney informed him, standing in a dealership lot while he read towing capacity specs off a window sticker with the focus of a man deciphering enemy troop movements. "Please explain how you have already become a truck guy?"

He didn’t answer. He had to share the specs he was reading. "The towing capacity on the diesel is…"

"Oh, Great Goddess. You are a truck guy."

He ended up with something enormous, black, and diesel. It had a towing capacity that comfortably exceeded anything the Airstream would ever ask of it. Plus, it had a margin of error he insisted on for reasons involving several worst-case scenarios he declined to elaborate on in front of the salesman.

Sydney circled it once, eyebrows raised. "Compensating for something?"

Garrett looked down at his own six-foot-four frame. Then back at her, raising his eyebrows for added effect.

"...Yeah, okay," Sydney said. "Bad joke."

Packing took most of an afternoon, mostly because their priorities didn't overlap in any meaningful way. Garrett had packed for long-term missions. Sydney, well, she had other ideas.

Her list included: coffee, in a quantity Garrett privately considered a fire hazard. Clothes–more than he thought necessary. Snacks, several categories thereof that she insisted were all important for a truly ‘amazing and noteworthy’, her word, not his– road trip. Her Kindle, loaded with no less than two hundred books and, inexplicably, three physical books as backup in case the Kindle failed, the truck failed, and civilization itself failed simultaneously. Oh, and how could he forget the plethora of hair products, which, in Garrett's estimation, meant his Mate could survive a nuclear winter.

His own list ran somewhat differently. Weapons– appropriately concealed. A full first-aid kit, and a second, smaller one for the truck's cab specifically. Tools. Emergency equipment. Physical maps, in case satellite navigation failed. Water. Backup water. A filtration system in case the backup water also failed.

"We're going to California," Sydney said, watching him load a third case into the Airstream's storage bay, "not invading it."

"Those are not mutually exclusive states of preparedness."

Kara, for her part, announced she needed absolutely nothing for the journey. The Dragon Queen went on to explain that, being an ancient, immortal presence unbound by such petty mortal concerns as luggage, she would be an excellent traveling companion.

His Dragon King, Han, said he concurred. Then Kara added eleven things to Sydney's list before they left the driveway, and Han grumbled something about the ‘fairer sex’ that Garrett did not ask him to repeat.

Bonnie Sue came out onto the porch when the truck was finally loaded, wiping her hands on her apron. He heard Maggie's voice calling from somewhere behind her about the coffee cart that nobody outside acknowledged.

The She-Wolf hugged Sydney hard, the kind of hug that came from a lifetime of knowing somebody's whole family. Then, she turned that same fierce, no-nonsense warmth on Garrett.

"You bring our girl back in one piece, you hear me?"

"Excuse me?" Sydney said.

"Yes, ma'am," Garrett said.

"I hate both of you," Sydney announced to no one in particular, climbing up into the passenger seat while Bonnie laughed like she'd heard that exact complaint a hundred times before and expected to hear it a hundred more.

Garrett settled behind the wheel. He adjusted the mirrors out of habit and sat for a moment with his hands resting on top of it, looking out through the windshield at the open road ahead.

“It’s a good thing you took that driving course, isn’t it?” Sydney chuckled.

“Yes, my love, it is a good thing you made me take that driving course and get my license.”

“Because…” She smiled sweetly with mischief bright in her eyes.