31. Quin

31

QUIN

I close the back doors of the van with a flourish. All the bread and cookies are now delivered, Chime is petting kittens with her alpha dad, and I have no obligations for the next few hours.

I take off my apron and get into driver’s seat. Aunt Emerald pulls a wad of cash out of her purse and fans herself with it. “Should we go shopping?”

“Oh my God, you look like a bank robber or something,” I tease.

“You mean I look rich, because I am. I have four thousand dollars here. That’s a lot of crystal goblets.” She sings the last few words, shaking the money again for emphasis.

She’s such a goofball. I’m so excited that I get to do this with her.

Someone knocks on the window of the van. I startle before looking over and seeing my omega mom.

“Right on time,” Aunt Emerald says.

“You told my mom?” I ask.

“Of course! It’s tradition.” Aunt Emerald waves at Mom. To my surprise, Aunt Chrystal and Uncle Dagger appear next to her.

I roll down my window. “What is happening right now?”

Aunt Chrystal grins at Mom. “We’re going shopping for shiny stuff.”

“But I…” I look at Mom, worried what she’ll think, now that my bond with Slade is truly taking hold.

“If you want us to go, we will,” Mom says.

“Speak for yourself,” Uncle Dagger says. “Quin’s collecting fancy goblets. That means we get to go to a bunch of antique shops.”

“Is there room for us in the back?” Aunt Chrystal asks.

They’re all smiling, like we’re about to go to Vegas or something. Their joy is infectious. Even if I’m a little nervous about what Mom thinks, I want them here.

“There are only bread racks in the back,” I say.

“Then we’re taking the camper,” Uncle Dagger announces.

Aunt Chrystal and Aunt Emerald glance at each other meaningfully.

“No, we’re not. There’s enough room for us in my car.” Mom says.

“That camper smells like mothballs.”

“It does not,” Uncle Dagger insists.

“Yes, it does.” Aunt Emerald tells him. “You’re just used to it.” She gets out of the van and starts walking with Mom and the others toward my mom’s car.

I can’t believe they’re here. Uncle Dagger and Aunt Chrystal both live hours away. Aunt Emerald must have planned this after she saw my goblets last night. It’s rare that I get to see them all at once, and I’ve never spent time with them like this without my brothers and their kids.

It’s tradition , Aunt Emerald said.

I get out of my van and follow them into Mom’s car. I have to squeeze into the back seat with Aunt Chrystal and Aunt Emerald.

“If you’re wondering when the time is to get an excessive amount of body piercings, this is it,” Aunt Chrystal says.

“Or not,” Uncle Dagger argues. “Raccoon shifter guys aren’t always into jewelry, you know. Sometimes we like the finer things in life, like antiques.”

Everyone laughs. Uncle Dagger owns his own antique shop.

“Jewelry has no gender,” Mom reminds him.

“I know, I know. Jesus. Just let him decide for himself without pressuring him into anything, okay?” he says.

I love the many earrings and bangles my mom wears, but it has always felt like a female raccoon shifter thing to me. Maybe that’s because of how sparse Uncle Dagger’s jewelry is. He only wears a locket with a simple silver chain around his neck.

“Let’s gather the money first, so he can know what he’s working with,” Aunt Chrystal suggests. She holds out a stack of twenty dollar bills. Has she been saving money for my collection too?

My mom opens the glove box and grabs an even larger stack. Between the two of them, they must have thousands of dollars on top of what Aunt Emerald has already offered me. Uncle Dagger leans forward and reaches into his back pocket for a smaller collection of bills.

“This is all for me? I don’t think I need?—”

“Yes, you do,” he says. “If you’re collecting goblets, you’ll need every cent. It’s the display cases that will get ya. Those things are pricey.”

“Yeah. Not all of us collect picture frames that we can just hang on the wall,” Chrystal says to Mom.

She smiles back at me. “It’s nice to have a beautiful display for you and your mate. It will make Slade happy to see your love glittering all over your house. It will make me and your alpha mom happy to see it too.”

“Okay,” I agree. “Thank you. Where should we go first?”

They all look at each other.

“Magic paw jewelry?” Aunt Emerald suggests.

“Absolutely. We have to start there,” Aunt Chrystal says.

“For fuck’s sake. He isn’t getting a bunch of earrings. The man needs curios from a quality antique shop.”

They argue about the inherent manliness of curios all the way to the jewelry shop, where much to his dismay, I do get a few piercings.

It’s tradition, or so my aunts claim. They even remind him that he got a piercing on his collection day. But he wouldn’t tell me where it was. I think I don’t want to know.

There are some things in life that should probably remain a mystery.