She doesn’t look away from it as she inspects it quietly. “I remember this day.”
“I do, too,” Devon says.
She moves to the next photo.
“No way! Where did you find it? I searched for that photo for a year!”
I clear my throat. “It fell down behind your desk. I hope you don’t mind?”
“No, I just, I never thought I’d see it again.”
Mack and Sofia at fifteen smile at the camera with the ocean behind them. He has his arm around her, and she’s leaning in, they are both beaming.
“This was just after you asked me out, remember?” Mack nudges her.
“How could I forget?”
She turns to the last photo. It’s our first kiss. Literally as it began. It’s dark, and the light is slightly overexposed, but it’s clearly us, in all our awkwardness, before we realise the door to the closest has been yanked open. That closest is now our walk-in pantry. I made sure that Mack preserved the door and the space.
“What?” she utters in disbelief.
“Do you remember a beta name Rainey?” I ask.
She nods.
“She took this photo. I did the catering for her mother’s eightieth birthday, and she gave it to me as a thank you.”
“My goodness…I had no idea there was even a photo.” She reaches out and touches the glass.
Devon clears his throat, and she turns away, blinking quickly.
“This is the room we’d give to an omega. This is where we’d have your heat if you wanted it.” My nerves are shot, was it too much? Was having the photos there over the line?
Mack swings the door open.
She steps inside and goes slowly into the middle of the room. The room is similar colours, but richer and warmer. It’s been filled with pillows, blankets, and things we’ve collected. I’ve actually glued shells to the top of the ceiling because I thought she would like it. It almost looks too much. The bed takes up most of the space, but there is a bathroom that she disappears into. The tantalizing smell of her being in the room is doing all sorts of things to my head.
What if we blew it? What if she thinks this nest is horrible?
“She hates it,” I mutter and pace to the doorway, ready to tear the whole room apart.
“She doesn’t hate it; give her a minute,” Devon murmurs.
She comes out, and her face is pale, but her eyes are huge, illuminating the brown like amber in the light. “This is the most beautiful nest I’ve ever seen.”
I slump against the door, almost missing it, but there’s something in her expression that makes me think this is bittersweet. Still, the overwhelming relief overshadows my concerns. It’s almost visceral.
When she gets close, the unease her words gave me returns. I stop her and cup her cheeks. “Talk to me. We can change anything you want.”
“Anything?”
“If you hate it, I will rip it out and replace every scrap of material,” I say vehemently.
She grabs my shirt, fisting it, and leans towards me. “Don’t you dare; this nest is perfect.”
“Then why are you so sad?”
“I just…it’s so generous, even to let me borrow it feels like I don’t deserve it.”
