23. Horse Chestnut – Meaning Luxury
23
HORSE CHESTNUT
(ALSO: BUCKEYE, CONKER TREE)
MEANING: LUXURY
OCEAN
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“ I have always wanted to come here,” Trinity said, picking up a fuzzy pillow and squishing it to her chest. “It’s like the treasure trove of everything you could ever want.”
“Why haven’t you?”
“Have you seen this place? I’d want to buy everything. My apartment would be so stuffed to the gills I wouldn’t be able to move, and I don’t even have a nest.”
I laughed, stroking my hand over a different pillow. “That makes sense. I’m already overwhelmed.”
Isolde had her phone in her hand. “The nest at our house is great. The guys were worried that I wouldn’t like it, but I do. Still, I’m asking if they care about me grabbing a few things while I’m here.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t come with you and buy everything themselves,” I said. “They worship the ground you walk on.”
She smirked. “At least I’m not the only one who can say that anymore.”
Without even trying, I looked back toward my husbands. The word still felt strange in my mind. Husbands. They were my husbands, and the way they stood together, casually speaking, made me want to go back and find out what they were saying. As a pack, they were so easy with each other, and I wanted that. I didn’t want to feel like I was stumbling all over myself in every conversation.
Hopefully that would come with time.
“They’re being really nice,” I said quietly.
“Nice doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Trinity muttered. She pulled me deeper into the store, into a section that was literally just swatches of fabrics everywhere. They could be used for almost anything, from cushions to blankets. What the hell did I want in a nest?
When Trinity glanced behind us, I knew something was up. “So?” She asked, glancing between me and Isolde. “How was the wedding night?”
“It was good. We had some food and watched a movie. Ended up falling asleep on the couch.”
Trinity stares at me. “That’s it?”
“Should there be more?”
“Yeah, you should be fucking their brains out.”
I cleared my throat. “There’s a good reason we didn’t.” Then I told them what happened, even though it still felt strange to tell them and say it out loud. I’d been pushing down Frank and Laura’s cruelty for so long it still felt… illicit for it to be out in the open.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Isolde asked. “Your aunt better pray she never sees me again or I might smack her. More than smack her.”
I cracked into a smile. “I’d like to see that, but I also don’t want you to get arrested. Your pack needs you, and so do I.”
Trinity was typing furiously on her phone. “Rin?”
“I’ve got some people who work for me on cases. We’ll find something on your uncle and then I’ll take him down with an article.”
“I—” I stopped. “You would do that for me?”
“I am doing this for you.”
I reached out and grabbed her hand. “No, you’re not. I wish I could let you, but he’s still the only one who can sign over the trust. He’s never going to do that if he’s in jail.”
Her fingers looked like they were about to crack her phone, but she relented. “Fine. But after you get the trust, can I have him?”
“Be my guest.”
“Good. Now let’s spend some money.”
I didn’t even know where to start. There were so many choices . Textures. Colors. Shapes. Even as a person who regularly designed, there was almost too much to comprehend.
The sweet, tangy scent of lemons wrapped around me, along with that crisp edge of sugary baked pastry. My mouth watered as Cameron stepped up behind me. “Made any progress?”
“Not yet. It’s overwhelming.”
“Why?” It wasn’t an accusation or a veiled question about what was taking me so long. It was simple curiosity.
Micah had said that he wouldn’t lie, and I guessed the others would agree. So I decided to be honest. “It’s so permanent. If I make the choice, then I can’t make another one, you know? With flowers, it’s easy. They only live so long, so you have to make the choices so you can enjoy them before they’re gone.”
My friends didn’t even try to pretend they weren’t watching the two of us with utter glee. And I saw Isolde hide her smile with her hand when Cam slid his arm around my waist. “You’re not following the rules, sweetheart,” he whispered. “You’re not supposed to think about whether or not you need something.”
“It’s not that,” I insisted. “More like decision paralysis.”
“If you want to change it later, then we’ll change it later. Pick what you want right now.”
“But—”
“No.” He was speaking so quietly now that the others couldn’t hear him. And my whole body broke out into shivers when his lips touched the shell of my ear. “No buts. Make your nest exactly the way you want to make it. And if the day after tomorrow you wake up and hate everything about it? Then we’ll come back and get a whole different style.”
I swallowed. “Just like that?”
His purr rumbled against my back. “Just like that.”
No longer caring that Iz and Rin were watching, I turned around and hugged him. Tucked my face into his chest. It might be needy and clingy and desperate and a hundred other things I’d been told I was, but I didn’t care. I needed to feel him closer. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
“For being nice.”
One hand came up and cradled my head against his chest. I inhaled the zesty scent of lemon, both sweeter and sharper this close. “The fact that you think that’s something you need to thank us for makes me so fucking angry,” he said.
I was too happy to be angry.
“Now,” he pulled back and winked. “Go spend some money. Please.”
I managed to keep my smile as I rolled my eyes. “If I have to.”
“You do.”
Isolde grabbed my hand as I came back. “By the way, I need to see this .”
I had barely looked at my rings up close. They really were beautiful. Like they’d picked the image out of my brain and had it made. Not to mention they fit my fingers and weren’t too tight. So many rings weren’t even made in my size. I love that these worked so well.
And that color…
The reason I picked it was because it was my favorite. And that’s how simple I needed to keep it. Plus, the lack of permanence gave me the same kind of freedom arranging flowers did.
All the fabrics were arranged by color. So I went to the cooler tones and started feeling the textures. There was no way to explain how I knew what was right, but I did.
Omega instincts were beyond logic. So I let those instincts lead, picking fabrics for the inside of the nest and the cozy glass porch. Isolde picked out some cushions for her nest too, but based on the texts I saw over her shoulder, she and her pack would be making a trip here sooner than later.
Blankets were next. There were too many that I wanted, but I stopped myself every time I was going to say it was too much. In no small part because my husbands were following at a distance, watching with interest.
I watched them too, cataloging their differences and how they reacted to things. But also because I wanted to watch them. For the time, they were mine, and they were gorgeous.
Cameron’s easy grace was fun to watch. Always smiling or winking when he caught me staring. Everett was a predator. Smooth and dangerous. But he softened for me. And yet, still hard enough to make me feel like he’d rip apart my enemies with his bare hands, and I didn’t hate that.
Finally, Micah was somewhere in between. Reserved but warm. He was watchful, checking in if I needed anything while we wandered through the store. I knew without saying he was watching to see if I was tired or in pain. He didn’t like that he’d missed it at the wedding. It didn’t matter that I’d done everything in my power to hide it.
“O, what about these?” Rin asked, holding up some sheer blue curtains that were also iridescent. They shimmered like water with rainbows scattered across them.
“Oooh. I love them. But I don’t think I have anywhere for curtains.”
“Sure we do,” Micah said.
I frowned. “In the nest?”
“We never said everything had to be for the nest, princess.”
“Yeah, you’re getting these,” Rin said, taking the choice out of my hands. “I’ve literally never seen anything that’s more you in my life.”
“I guess I could use them in my bedroom,” I said. “I’ll have to think about what else could go in there.”
“You can get it all right now,” Micah said. “We don’t mind.”
I picked up a hanging, sparkly thing I thought would be perfect on the porch and glanced at them. “I need more time to think about that. Not that I don’t want to, I just want to plan it more.”
“Fair enough.”
Isolde looped her hand through mine and walked me toward the section of pillows we’d abandoned at the beginning. We’d nearly made a full circuit of the store now. “He calls you princess,” she said. “And let me just tell you, I fucking melt when Cade calls me that.”
“I probably shouldn’t like it as much as I do,” I told her. “Because yes. I love it.”
“Revel in it. You deserve it, O.”
Approximately a million pillows later, I was done. And even if I wasn’t done, I was tired.
Isolde glanced at her phone and grinned. “I should get back. They’re competing through text to see which one of them can get me the most riled up. Not that it takes much with them.”
“I’ve been ignoring my notifications while we’ve been here,” Rin said with a sigh. “Which means I probably have crises lined up to take care of. Can we have lunch sometime this week?”
“I’d love that.”
She threw her arms around my neck. “And I fully expect details next time. I’ve gotta live vicariously through you both somehow.”
Hugging her back, I leaned into it. “It’ll happen, Rin. It will.”
“We’ll see.” The words were chipper, but I saw the shadows in her eyes. Of the three of us, Trinity had always been the one who wanted a pack. A partner. Someone. She pretended she wasn’t lonely, but she was. Her dad thought he was an adventurer and was always going off on crazy expeditions. He’d been doing it since she was little.
Trinity had spent more time alone than an Omega should. “Text me,” I called after her.
She waved, but already had her head buried in her phone, likely fielding the urgent questions from her magazine staff.
“Do you need a ride, Iz?” I asked. “Didn’t Rin pick you up?”
“I’m good. The guys will be here soon.” She hugged me. “Have too much fun.” The opposite of the usual warning.
“I’ll try.”
Cameron tucked me into his side. “You need anything else?”
“I think I am officially shopped out,” I said.
“Well, they’ll deliver and install everything tomorrow,” Everett said. “That, and one other thing.”
“What’s that?”
“A greenhouse. It’s not large, but we want you to have a place to move some of your flowers and work on them until we can get a proper one built. Think of it as a transitional greenhouse.”
Micah disappeared to get the car, and I could only stare at Everett. “You bought me a greenhouse?”
“I bought you other things too, from this store. But the greenhouse is from all of us. We thought your employee could bring you some of the plants you wanted tomorrow, so you don’t have to see your aunt and uncle.”
There were no words I could say. Because they’d done it without me even asking. No prompting, just thinking about what I would need and want.
Like he knew, he pulled me in front of him, lining his chest up with my back. Everett was tall enough that he could rest his head on the top of mine, and he did while we waited for the car.
I wasn’t going to go see Frank and Laura, because fuck them. But the tiniest part of me wanted to, if only to tell Laura that this didn’t feel like being disposable.
Not at all.