“Here.” Justin squeezed my hand and I opened my eyes, realizing that we were finally in the air, and I blew out a breath. He pulled down my tray for me and started laying out sandwich bags. “My mom made us some snacks for the trip.”
I lifted a brow, grabbing a chocolate chip cookie that he’d set on a napkin. “Hey, I would’ve made them myself but my mom’s kind of on a baking spree. It gave her something to do.”
“I didn’t expect you to bake for me, let alone actually think you needed to bring snacks. I really didn’t expect any of this.”
“Good.” He grinned, leaning over to take a bite of my cookie, and I swiped my finger across his lips to brush away the crumbs. “That’s what I was going for.”
“So, how’s your mom doing?”
I listened as he told me about his mom and how he and his brothers were trying to keep her occupied. I was glad that they seemed so worried about her because I couldn’t imagine how she was doing having lost Dan. They had raised the Parker boys right because they were stepping up.
It had to be hard. I could see plenty of pain in Justin still just when he talked about it. I wished that I could take all of that away, but maybe just by being with him I could help him forget a little.
Justin yawned loudly, standing up to stretch his arms over his head, showing just a sliver of his stomach when his shirt lifted up, making me squirm in my seat just at the sight. He saw it too because he shot me a crooked grin. “You sure you don’t want to join me?” He tilted his head back toward the bathroom, and I rolled my eyes before shutting them, thinking that I could take a little nap. I had a feeling I was going to need as much sleep as I could get. Once we got to Vegas, I knew there would be so much to do. Neither Justin nor I had been there before.
I felt Justin sit back down beside me and I snuggled against him, letting myself fall asleep with his warmth surrounding me.
“We’re here,” someone whispered in my ear, and it took me a second to realize where here actually was. I slowly peeled my eyes open and Justin stood up, holding a hand out to me.
Once we were off the plane, we skipped straight past baggage claim since we only brought carry-ons, and went in search of the area where the millions of taxis waited. I headed toward the bathroom while Justin handled that, and when I came back, he was holding the door open of a fancy-looking town car, a wide grin plastered on his face. “What’s that smile for?”
“Relax, you’ll find out soon enough.” He patted the driver on the back who had just finished loading our bags into the trunk.
“Are you sure you should be spending all of this money?” I asked as the driver pulled the car to a stop in front of The Venetian. Sure, I had never been to Vegas before, but I definitely heard of this place. I knew it was expensive. “Maybe we should split a room. Or go find somewhere cheaper.”
“Nope.” He came around to my side of the car, and grasped my hand. “Only the best for you this weekend. And always.”
I smiled as we walked through the lobby, amazed at how grand it was. I stayed in expensive hotels before, but this was completely different. This was an experience within itself.
Once we were all checked in, we headed out to explore the hotel and then the strip itself. It felt so comfortable to be with Justin this way, as if nothing had ever changed between us. Starting fresh wasn’t really something we could do, I realized, because we had so much history. I think the break really only made our relationship stronger.
“Thanks for the best first date ever.” I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck, pulling his head down close so I could fully taste his lips.
“No problem,” he said against my mouth before nudging me slightly. “It’s our turn.”
I cautiously stepped into the gondola with Justin’s hand on my back the whole time, and took a seat, not believing that we were actually doing this. It felt like a dream.
The whole weekend did, really. We crammed as much as possible into those two days. I tried out a casino for the first time, and only lasted about ten minutes before I got bored, learning that it really wasn’t my thing. We hit up the Stratosphere, riding the roller coaster on top of the roof that was so high, I still have no idea how I didn’t toss my cookies afterward, and then went off to play arcade games. I think that was my favorite part. It reminded me of the time Justin took me on another little trip, our first one together, which was also our first time together. It seemed like so much time had passed since then and I think both of us had grown up a lot, too.
This weekend was different, though. Justin kept true to his word about this being a first date and we both somehow managed to keep our hands to ourselves, even though we slept wrapped in each other’s arms both nights. While I would’ve been ready to jump his bones any minute, I was secretly happy about the fact that he didn’t try anything. It spoke volumes of his desire to make things better in our relationship.