Page 63 of Stella

“So why do you still have that?” I pointed at the dolly and kept the alphas in my peripheral vision. They glanced at me and Ember, and I forced myself to ignore them.

I wanted some more annuals for the back cottages, but I didn’t need them right now. They could wait.

“Because we’re at the nursery with the company credit card.” Ember flashed me a grin. “And you’ve had a long week.”

I blew a piece of hair out of my mouth. Not long by some people’s standards. I loved planning the gardens on the resort, but it required talking with a lot of the staff and it sapped my ability to people.

It was time to recharge.

With plants.

I wandered around the front area, checking out the aster and fescue. There were some ferns I wanted for the south cottages. There was a dense cover of trees on that part of the property and ferns would make it feel timeless.

Ember skipped around me, dropping flowers, herbs, and plants on our dolly. It was my job to figure out where to plant them, but that was why Ember was fun to bring. She was like a chaos fairy, bouncing around and bringing me plants as the mood took her.

“Have you seen your sexy alpha around?” Ember dropped a giant pot of lavender on the dolly. I didn’t know what obsession my cousin had with lavender, but she was always buying it or stealing mine.

I shot her a glare. “He’s not mine.”

Ember nodded. “Sure. You giggle over flowers every time he’s around, but he’s basically a stranger.”

My face flushed. Halos had worked at the nursery for years and was one of the few alphas that didn’t make me want to hide.

Ember picked up another pot of lavender. What she was planning to do with it, I didn’t know. No one needed that much lavender. “Even if he’s quiet, he’s an alpha. His instincts should be telling him to drag you back to his lair. But no. He’s respectful and polite, like one of those British period dramas.”

I scoffed. “Just because I’m an omega doesn’t mean he automatically wants to bond me.”

My cousin ignored me. “You’re the shy and reserved daughter of the earl, and Halos is an impoverished nobleman down on his luck working as a groundskeeper on the estate.”

I made a face. “Pretty sure they didn’t let impoverished noblemen become groundskeepers.”

Ember added a scrawny looking mint to her lavender army. “The estates always have funky names too, you notice that? South Northwestwiddershire. MacGuffin Park.”

I laughed, failing to avoid being pulled into Ember’s ridiculous commentary. “A MacGuffin is a storytelling device. Something that’s important for the plot, but not important itself, like a stolen letter or diamond.”

“Halos is the first son of Duke Whittleby, but his younger brother, Lawrence, framed him for stealing the family crest.”

“Ember, we’re not in a period drama.” I added some ferns to the dolly. It was a good thing too. Omegas had next to no rights for a long time, and it was up to the family alphas to choose who they bonded.

“Your father, the Earl, made a bad investment in petticoats.”

“Petticoats.” I laughed. “That should have been a sound investment.”

“You know those fast fashions from France.” Ember waved a hand. “Anyway, now your family is forced to downsize to the third largest estate in the county, like peasants.”

“Am I taking the gardener with me? To this smaller estate with only ten bedrooms?” I glanced around, wondering if Halos was working today. And ignoring the little jump in my heart at the idea of seeing him.

“Of course.” Ember mused over a cactus. She loved the idea of them but was always bringing them to me to save. “You’ll be forced to take a smaller staff, but you can’t be expected to tend your own estate.”

“But I will. I’m an earl’s daughter who secretly gardens at night.”

“The scandal.” Ember mockingly clasped her hands together. “A lady of good breeding would never.”

It was a silly game Ember and I had played since we were kids. She was only three years older than me, with Terran between us in age.

After she was in the plane crash, my cousin was stuck in the hospital for weeks, first with recovery and then with physical therapy. I’d made up stories with her every day. It kept our minds off losing my parents, and the worry about her recovery.

Ember made it, but it hadn’t been a good time in our lives.

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