AllFreeNovel
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I tap my bottom lip. “There’s still the pants section, but I wasn’t sure of your size.”
“I have enough pants.” He eyes the stack balanced on the chair next to the fitting room. “And we’re not buying all of those.”
Gasping in shock, I press my hands against my lips. “But they look so good that I just want to cuddle you all day.”
He hesitates. “I know you’re playing me.”
I widen my eyes at him.
A sigh of defeat leaves his lips. “Fine.”
I pump my arm in victory as he disappears back into the dressing room, then raise my voice. “Hillary!”
She pops out of the back room, a smile on her face. “Yes?”
I gesture to the stack. “We’ll take all of these.”
Her eyes widen, and she hurries over to gather them up. “That’s quite the haul.”
“We’re doing a closet makeover,” I inform her.
“No, we’re not.” Haut shoves back the curtain and adds the brown sweater to the stack. “You are not touching my closet.”
“But…” I clasp my hands and widen my eyes at him again. “Button ups aren’t snuggly.”
“That trick only works once a week.” He grips my shoulder and steers me toward the women’s side of the store. “Now, it’s your turn to be the dress up doll.”
Haut’s obviously never shopped for a petite woman under five feet tall. While I didn’t appreciate Hillary’s comment about only carrying adult sizes, she wasn’t wrong. There’s a reason most of my clothes come from the kid’s section.
Haut holds up various jackets and scarves, his eyes scrutinizing each one. I try on a couple to humor him, but they’re all too big. It’s sweet that he wanted to get me something nice, but the department store would have been safer.
With a frustrated growl, he wraps a long, red scarf around my neck, his fingers brushing against my skin. “At least this fits.”
I touch the soft material, which feels nicer than anything I’ve ever owned. “You don’t think the red clashes with my hair?”
He adjusts it to sit higher on my neck and shakes his head. “You look beautiful.”
Startled by the compliment, I squint up at him. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
He finds a matching hat and pulls it down over my ears. “Am I not allowed?”
I push the hat high enough to see him. “No, you’re allowed. It’s just weird.”
He picks up a pair of gloves, then sets them down with a huff of annoyance at their size. “I’m trying to court you.”
Bewildered, I tug the hat off. “But… Why?”
He picks up, then sets down a deep green scarf. “Because it’s what I should have done when I realized you were my mate.”
Regret fills his eyes when they meet mine. “If I had treated you as a human and courted you properly instead of relying on our mate bond to make you fall in love with me, things could have been different between us. Maybe you wouldn’t have run.”
Oh, so we’re talking about this. I thought we were just leaving it in the past. “When I ran, it wasn’t because our bond scared me. I ran because you attacked Tris and Owen.”
The muscles in his jaw tick as he nods. “I know, and I’ve never apologized for that.”
I cock my head to the side. “You still haven’t.”
He turns to face me fully. “I’m sorry.”
