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Standing, Cooper talks to George, excited enough to ignore the fact that he hates people.

“Well that’s different,” Ethan murmurs. “Let’s go look at beds next.”

Riley sits up with me with a smirk. “You just want to get us into bed.”

“No, I don’t want anyone to sleep on the floor,” Ethan retorts. “I also don’t want to be the one who has to sleep there. I got lucky last night when I got the bed with Nina.”

Riley snorts as we get up and begin to walk through the store toward the bedroom sets. As we do, I see a section that appears to be nests as well, and I can feel my lips parting in surprise.

Am I allowed to drool over this?

“This is a full service furniture store,” Riley murmurs in my ear. “They have fabrics here, and everything you could everwant for a nest. We’re in no hurry or rush for anything today, Nina. We can design your nest if you want and take our time.”

“Holy shit,” I whisper, blinking rapidly.

I will not cry over this.Except, it means so much because I’ve never had a nest before. It comes with the territory of having had a mother who controlled everything.

Abbott called Riley earlier to confirm that the fire had been extinguished, and my mother was found in the basement. The fire burned so hot down there that they only found her ashed remains. He also mentioned that it was ruled out to be a freak fire incident.

The water heater of all things exploded, and ignited a fire. I can tell the entire thing is fabricated. I should feel guilt or shame that an entire group of people came together to not only kill my mother but also cover it all up.

Right?

Except, I don’t. I feel light and free, as if the tether that chained me to her is finally cut. I think there’s only so many different times you can kick someone to keep them down before they get sick of it.

“We’ll come back to the nest,” Riley says, lifting my chin to kiss my lips. “I know you already know where you want to put it.”

I do. When I saw the attic with its low ceiling, I knew that’s where I wanted it. It’s the perfect size for a nest, and Cooper told me he’d install any lighting that I may want. Apparently, he used to enjoy do it yourself projects until he married my mother.

She wasn’t a fan of his creativity or anyone else’s.

“I may have been really vocal when I saw the attic,” I admit with a dreamy smile.

“I love seeing you excited,” Riley says, tugging me into motion. Ethan is ahead of us, already checking out the different bedroom set options.

“Are they going to have?—”

My words cut off as I see the huge pack bedroom sets that they have available.

“Woah,” I rasp.

“See? Full service,” Riley teases me. “We could drive all over Savannah to find what we need, but even I know Cooper doesn’t have that kind of patience. If we can find everything under one roof, so much the better.”

Numbly, I nod as I look around. There are mattresses that are pallets meant to lay on the ground, as well as giant bedroom sets that will allow us all to sleep spread out if we want.

“There’s so many choices,” I say, not knowing where to look next.

Together, we get lost in the possibilities, and Cooper finds us laid on a bed to see if we can touch each other’s hands while laying out spread eagle.

“Well, that’s one way to try out a bed,” he says, amused. “George said everything will be delivered by tonight.”

“Do I even want to know how that happened?” Riley asks, brow raised as he sits up.

“Nope. I have my ways,” Cooper smirks. “Someone give me the highlights on this bed, other than it’s really fucking big.”

“It’ll charge all of our appliances,” I say. “I also really like the fact that the top allows for fabric to go over it and curtains.”

Cooper crawls up onto the bed, and we barely have to move to make room for him since the bed really is ginormous. Flopping onto his back, he looks up at the wood panels over the bed.