13. Canterbury Bells – Meaning Thinking of You
13
CANTERBURY BELLS
(BELL FLOWER)
MEANING: THINKING OF YOU
CAMERON
________
A knock on the doorframe to my office distracted me from the metric ton of photos I was going through for the new Cheria ad campaign. Mostly a formality, but being hands on with the details of all our companies was what had gotten us this far.
I looked up to find Raina standing in the doorway.
“Oh god. What. If you’re here with me instead of with Everett, something must have gone terribly wrong. Especially on a weekend.”
She wore a raspberry colored suit from one of our lines, and it highlighted her dark skin perfectly. Grinning, she sat down across from me. “May I point out that you’re here on a weekend, too? And why does something have to be wrong for me to come see you?”
“Because you’re holding a file,” I said. “And because it usually is.”
Laughing, she inclined her head. “I guess that’s fair. But it’s not too bad, promise.”
Raina crashed into our lives a decade ago as a model. She was using the money to put herself through law school, and Micah noticed her studying on set. She was brilliant and had a mind for numbers that’s pretty much unrivaled, despite her choice of law. As soon as she graduated and passed the bar, we hired her, and a few years after that, when she was running circles around everyone in the company, we made her Chief Financial Officer. Her background made her a unique fit for the job.
Which meant she was practically our boss now. Which she gleefully reminded us of at every opportunity.
“Hit me with it.”
She leaned forward and handed the folder across my desk. “Just need you to sign off on everything for Firefly. You’re the last of the trio there, and I’ll tell you the same thing I told the others about the McCabe deal. It’s probably not worth what you’re putting into it.”
I scribbled my signature on the Firefly paperwork. “We know.”
“That’s what the others said as well. So why are we doing it?”
“They didn’t tell you?”
Raina shrugged. “They probably would have, but I caught them at bad times.”
Leaning back in my chair, I took a deep breath and thought about how much to tell her. This wasn’t a secret, but there were certain things we were keeping to ourselves. Like the fact that we were Ocean’s scent match.
I fucking loved it and wanted to shout it from the rooftops. But no one deserved to know before Ocean did. So I opted for as much honesty as I could. “The board meeting.”
She winced. “Sorry I couldn’t be there.”
“It was better you weren’t,” I tell her honestly. “They wanted us alone. And they wanted to strong-arm us. We still don’t know why. But because of the Firefly deal, they’re pointing to our PR presence and saying we need to become more family friendly. They threatened to resign and make public statements about why if we don’t get married.”
Raina’s face went deadly still. “Excuse me?”
“That’s about the same reaction we had.” I chuckled. “So if you can find out why Joseph, Bill, and the others want us married so badly, please let us know.”
“I will…” Her brow furrowed. “That doesn’t explain McCabe.”
My eyes flicked over the images on my screen. All thin and cut models in the lingerie. Beautiful, but they didn’t hold a candle to Ocean. I made a mental note to make sure we hired some more models with different body types. All our lines were size inclusive, but our advertising wasn’t always. And the thought of seeing Ocean in our lingerie had me reciting ad statistics in my head to keep my body under control.
“There are a few things I can’t tell you, and I hope that as our friend, you’ll trust us until we can. But McCabe has a niece. Ocean Elise Correa Caldwell. On Friday, we will marry her.”
I could count on one hand the number of times I’d seen Raina truly shocked, and this was one of them. “You’re bowing to the threat?”
“They weren’t posturing, Raina. Every one of them came prepared to walk out of the room right then. So yes, we are. And Ocean…”
There was no way for me to talk casually about her. If I said we only wanted her to fulfill the board’s stipulation, it would be an utter lie. It was so much more than that. We wanted every piece of her. And I, for one, couldn’t wait to get her away from her bitch of an aunt. On the surface things seemed fine, if tense, but we knew better than most how things could be different than they appeared.
“We want her to be our wife,” I finished quietly.
Raina studied me. She was an Alpha with her own pack. A male Omega and a female Beta. They were sickeningly cute, and I knew Ocean would love them once she met them. Which she would.
“This is one of the things I need to trust you on?”
I nodded.
“Well, I do trust the three of you. Fuck knows why. But the deal is still iffy.”
“We’re getting a better bargain than McCabe is.”
“That’s for damn sure.” She stood, and I handed her the signed papers. “I’ll keep you posted.”
A sudden thought came into my head, and I knew the others wouldn’t mind. “Would you officiate?”
Her eyebrows rose. “You want me to officiate your wedding?”
“Sure. You’ve done it before. You’re our friend, and we would want you to be there anyway.”
She chuckled. “All right. Let me know the dress code and the details, and the three of us will be there.”
“Looking forward to it.”
On the way out, she passed Micah coming in. I sighed. “I’m never going to finish proofing these images today, am I?”
“Ocean called.”
That perked me up. I grinned. “Did she say what she wanted for a ring?”
“Unfortunately, no. She was out with friends and a photographer took her picture.” His mouth quirked. “She was concerned about it leaking before we were ready. And that the first image of her connected to us would be of her eating cake.”
“God.” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “You can’t say things like that or I’m going to spend the rest of the day imagining eating cake off her.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing since she called? But it’s that asshole Markus from Sunset Daily. Can you reach out and make sure we have assurances nothing goes out before we’re ready?”
“They’re going to want an exclusive or something along with that promise. But I’ll keep it small. They make stories out of nothing anyway, so it should be easy for them.”
He laughed. “You’re not wrong.”
I picked up the phone as he walked away. Sooner than later was always better with the press. It was the weekend, but there would still be someone I could talk to.
“Raina’s going to officiate,” I called after him.
Micah looked back and smiled. “That’s perfect. Now we just need it to be Friday.” So we could get our hands on our Omega.
Fuck, I needed time to speed up and go faster. We hadn’t wanted to get married, and now it couldn’t come fast enough.