Cael (Were Zoo Book 11) by R. Butler (best e reader for academics .txt) 📗

I want you to be safe, and it sounds like living at the park is a great place for that to happen. Will I miss you? One hundred percent. Would I try to guilt you into staying here? Absolutely not.”

“I heard that one of the apartments is available if you’d like to take it,” Cael said.

“Aren’t they for employees?”

“Yes, but it’s a new complex so they’re not taken yet, and my boss said we could offer it to you.”

Lori looked suspicious, and then said, “I’ll think about it.”

Novi nodded, hugged her mom once more, then said, “Come for dinner Friday night.”

“Sounds good, honey. I’ll be there with bells on.”

Novi drove her car, following Cael in the SUV back to the park. He didn’t think Lori was going to want to move into the apartment; her “I’ll think about it” sounded a lot like “no.” But maybe she’d change her mind and see the value of being in such a protected place. With the security patrols, tall walls, and perimeter videos and alarms, no one got into the park that didn’t belong there.

He hoped she’d see what a good idea it was, but in the meantime, he had his sweetheart moving into his place, and that’s what mattered. He would do anything to keep Novi safe and with him. She was his everything.

Chapter Thirteen

Novi adjusted the towels in the apartment bathroom and then turned to the counter, setting a cup with two toothbrushes and a tube of toothpaste on one side of the sink and a hand soap dispenser on the other.

She heard the front door open and flicked off the light. She found Cael balancing a large box under one arm and several grocery sacks hanging from his other arm.

“Need a hand?” she asked.

“Nope, I’m perfectly balanced,” he said with a smile, kicking the door shut and heading into the kitchen.

“That’s a lot of food,” she said.

He put the box on the kitchen table and set the bags on the counter. “Well, we need it to look like we moved in here for one, and for another I thought since we’re going to this much trouble to make it look like we’re living here that we could stay for the weekend. Like a mini vacation.”

“A mini vacation where we still have to go to work,” she said.

“Well, yeah,” he said, laughing. “But we’ll have the complex to ourselves. It’ll be nice to sleep with the windows open and get some fresh air, maybe go for a walk after dark and look at the stars.”

She went onto her toes and kissed him. “You’re so romantic, I love both those ideas.”

“Have you heard from your mom?”

“Yep. She texted to say she got home from work and was taking a shower, and then she’d be here. Should be about forty-five minutes, give or take.”

He nodded and began to unpack the box.

Novi had only worked a half day at the thrift store, stopped at her mom’s place to pick up a few things she’d forgotten to pack, and then spent the afternoon with Cael attempting to make the apartment look lived-in. One of the first things she’d said was that they needed to stock the fridge and cabinets. The apartment—like the others in the complex—was sparsely furnished in the family room, kitchen, and bedroom, but the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom were empty as was the fridge. She’d brought a set of dishes, cups, and silverware from the thrift store and washed them before setting the table for dinner and organizing the bathroom.

“It’s a nice apartment,” she said. He’d picked up dinner from the market for them. The special of the day was beef stew with a side of cornbread. She opened the container of stew and inhaled. “Holy crap this smells good.”

“Right?” he said. “They make killer cornbread too.”

“I can’t wait.”

“So what were you saying about the apartment?” He straightened from where he’d put away the groceries in the fridge and shut the door.

“That it’s nice.”

“It is.”

“I was just thinking about when my mom moves, that I think we’ll be happy here too.”

“I’d be happy anywhere as long as you and I are together.”

“Me too.”

He looked around the kitchen and then down at her. “But I agree about this place. They did a good job designing it, it’s really comfortable.”

“You sure you won’t mind living up here when my mom moves in?”

“I promise. Home is wherever you are, and it really doesn’t matter to me if it’s here or underground or anywhere else.”

She grinned. He said the sweetest things. She was really lucky to have him in her life. They finished putting away the groceries and tidied up, and by the time the stew was bubbling away on the stove and had filled the apartment with its delicious smells, her mom texted to say she’d reached the gate at the back of the park and had accidentally deleted the text with the security code.

Novi texted it to her again and headed out to stand on the walkway and wave her mom up.

“This is nice,” her mom said as she walked up the stairs and down the short walkway.

Novi gave her a hug. “It is. Very secure.”

Her mom rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to keep saying that.”

“Well, it’s true. The park has high stone walls that are equipped with security cameras and alarms and they have patrols too.”

Her mom said nothing, just gave her the old “mom eye.”

Novi sighed. “Okay, I won’t bring it up again. So long as you’re thinking about it.”

“I am.”

“All right, come and see the inside, it’s really cute.”

She gave her mom the tour of the two-bedroom apartment and ended in the kitchen, where Cael gave her mom a hug. “Dinner’s ready,” he said, “I just