Page 104 of Never Bet Against A Hockey Player

“Why don’t we just walk around and you tell us what speaks to you?” Conrad suggested.

I let out a breath through my nose before forcing myself to move. I walked ahead of them, going down the aisles slowly. My fingers brushed over the soft fabrics as I took in all of the random decorations and bedding. I’d never seen so many colors and textures of blankets, pillows, and sheets in my life.

They’d done such a good job with the nest that the basics were already done. I had plenty of bedding, sheer fabric over the walls, and twinkle lights that warmed the room to just the right level of dimness that my omega craved.

All it was missing was my touches.

We kept going past the bedding and into the random decorations. Maybe starting with the accents in the room would make it a bit easier to pin down the things that called out to me.

How pathetic was it that I didn’t even know if I really had a favorite color or if I liked cute or practical things?

The stress was climbing by the minute until finally August put a hand up to stop us.

“This isn’t working, and I’m not going to let this turn into a stressful mess. Let’s go check out the pre-done nests. You can look around and tell us any of the aspects you like, even if it’s one thing from every single one of them or nothing from any of them.”

“Okay,” I agreed easily because he was right. This was not how I wanted to spend my time.

The pre-made nests were adorable. They were little alcoves decorated to look like miniature nests. Some had sunset and ocean themes, others had night skies. There were several that were done by color and a couple more with cute gothic aesthetics.

My eyes scanned over each one meticulously, taking in every detail, but nothing so far had jumped out at me.

“I think I really like earth tones and green,” I managed, pointing over to a boho-themed one. I liked the macramé, hanging plants, and gauzy fabrics. They were soft and light, and they just looked so serene and inviting.

“Okay... I really like this one,” I said again, a little louder this time, standing in front of it and taking in all the aspects.

“We may have painted the nest too dark for this. We should probably pick out a new paint color,” Conrad said.

But I shook my head quickly.

“No, no. I like the color. Everything about the nest is perfect. I just think I’d like to add some of these elements in.”

I didn’t want a picture-perfect nest. I wanted something that meant something. The fact that the guys had created that for me and had given me a base to go off of was everything. I wouldn’t change a single detail, but I also wanted to make it mine.

In the end, we found darker versions of all the boho things I liked instead of the whites and creams. It was black and dark greens, and I loved them so much that I could feel my omega practically bursting with excitement.

“I’m so proud of you,” Conrad said, leaning in and pressing a kiss to my forehead.

My eyes watered, and I couldn’t really explain why other than the fact that it felt so intimate and caring.

These men proved every single day that I’d made the right choice by letting them in. They’d kept every promise they’d made me so far, and I knew they would do anything in their power to keep doing just that.

Lachlan

“Are there any genres you like?” I asked as we started walking through the store. “What system do you want to start with?”

“I... I don’t really know,” Gavin stuttered over the words.

“No big deal. I think my favorite one to play on is the PlayStation. How do you feel about that?”

“That’s good,” he said, almost relieved to have a direction.

“Do you think you’d like something with exploration or fighting or something casual?”

He shrugged, glancing over the titles carefully. He was taking this seriously, but I also knew damn well that this kid wasn’t going to go over the top. He was afraid of taking too much already, especially after the gear.

“Well, why don’t we pick out a few different ones? If you don’t end up liking them, one of the other three of us will,” I reassured him quickly, hoping that would help alleviate some of the guilt that I didn’t want him to feel in the first place.

We looked around quietly for a while before he froze and turned to me.