Page 12 of Talk About… Trouble

I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to make her look this scared.

“No worries. I just wanted you to know I put out a snack if you’re hungry. Any empty boxes you don’t want to keep, just setthem by the door. We can break them down and take them to the recycling room later. I can show you around the building.”

She relaxed at that and gave me a smile. It wasn’t a true smile, it didn’t reach her eyes, barely stretching across her face, but I was going to count it for now.

Just like I knew she would be, she was even more beautiful when she smiled.

I couldn’t wait to see her come out of her shell.

“Actually, I’m starving,” she admitted, putting down the book she was stacking.

I pointed to them. “Are you a reader?”

“Honestly, I didn’t used to be,” she admitted. “I feel like I always had something to do, somewhere to go, and then…” She trailed off. “We’ll just say things changed, and I lost myself in the pages and never looked back.”

“If you’re new to town like I suspect you are, you have to let me take you to this new bookshop that just opened up. It’s romance-specific, and it’s everything. They even serve book-themed mocktails and coffees.”

Some of the shadows chased away from her eyes at that, and she lit up—just barely. It was enough to give me a hint of her inner personality that was locked away. I was already hooked.

Right then and there, I made it my mission to bring that out of her more, to help her find herself again.

Maybe I’d hire a witch to curse whoever put that look on her face. Cover all my bases. It couldn’t hurt.

“Come on, let’s go grab a snack,” I offered, turning around and walking away, praying that she would follow behind me.

Her soft footfalls were barely audible, but I was so in tune with her that I clocked them, pleased that she was actually coming.

She may not trust us yet, but I hoped she would eventually.

“It’s nice to have someone else here. This apartment was way too big for just me.”

“How long have you been here?” she asked as she sat at the kitchen island, settling into the stool and taking in the board I made. “This is gorgeous, Devon. Back in the city, people would pay hundreds for boards like this. You did this just for us?”

“Was it too much?” I winced. “I didn’t want to go over the top, but I wanted to do something to celebrate us all being here.”

“No,” she said, waving me off. “Definitely not too much. It’s perfect. I’m just saying, you should make a business out of this. It looks like art.”

“The amount of videos I watched to be able to cut the fruit that way… well, we won’t talk about that,” I joked, pulling out two plates from the cupboard.

Every apartment was given the basics, from plain white linens to the stools she was sitting on, and filled with necessities. We had enough cups, plates, bowls, and utensils to get by. Even a few simple pots and pants. They wanted omegas to be able to take shelter here and not stress about finding simple things right from the start.

I doubted any of the units kept it for long. We all knew omegas couldn’t stand all this white.

Wren pulled her phone out of her pocket and took a picture of the board before she started piling up her plate. I sat on the stool next to her, doing the same.

“What about Grace?” she asked.

“She was on the phone when I went to check on her. We can try again in a few minutes.”

“She mentioned calling her sister. Hailey works at The Omega Network. I met her when I signed up for the apartment.”

“Oh yeah, she was great,” I said, shocked that the two were sisters. “Grace seems nice, too. She’s just the right amount of peppy.”

Wren smiled. “I thought the same thing. Maybe she can rub off on me a bit.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I poured us each a glass of water from the pitcher I set out and took a sip.

Sitting right next to her, all I could do was breathe in her scent. It was still subtle, but my mouth watered.

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