His father fiddled in his chair a little. Kyle could sense the nervousness flooding into the room from his poor old man.
Their dad sunk back in his chair and was obviously fiddling and squinting at his ancient, dusty flip phone. “We can talk about all of that later. Right now son, I need to go and get. Blasted iced tea shot straight through me. I won’t be long.” The squat farmer rose with a grunt and made his way to the bathroom, clearly more interested in something on the phone’s spinach-coloured screen than relieving himself.
“I’ll be here dad,” Kyle called playfully as he swirled the iced tea in his cup. The ice clinked in a pleasing way. Pulling out his own phone he tabbed over to WebMD and pulled up a listing of some of the more concerning complications that menopausal women might face. He began casually memorizing some of the more serious-sounding Latinate medical terms.
“What are you watching? Is it that video with the farting baby scares the dog?” Jess swept in from seemingly out of nowhere.
Kyle was completely caught off guard and nearly dropped his phone. “Uh, no, I was just…”
“Menopause, eh? So, what’s going on here?”
He ran his hands along the bridge of his nose and exhaled. “Okay, so I’m fairly certain that dad’s lying about his heart attack. I completely tanked the rest of my lieu time for the year, and had to call in at least three serious favours. Any idea what’s wrong with him, or why I’m here?”
Jess nodded slowly a few times but didn’t seem to be as angry as Kyle had hoped she would be. “What’s wrong with him – what’s wrong with you? Even if this was just to get you to come home, he’s probably just lonely. No crime in that.”
Kyle flushed at his sister. “You’re not even mad that there’s a 99% chance that he lied to you? Don’t you remember balling at the gas station?” Kyle was almost more mad that she took everything that life threw at her. Twins or not, he knew that there was no way that he could ever be so passive.
She slung a damp washcloth over her shoulder. “Am I upset? Of course. He and I will have a chat about it. But you can’t get upset at him for not knowing how to talk to his hot-headed, big-city son. Beyond family, dad’s other interests are like what? Farming, smokes, farming, and the weather? Of course he misses you, he just doesn’t know how to say it.” She poked his chest for emphasis.
Kyle began to feel guilt lapping against his conscience. This was the first time that he’d been home in over a year. “I guess… that I could’ve been more understanding. I kind of lost track of time after I moved away for school.”
It had been seven years since mom had passed. His father was old and tough and Kyle could remember all of two times that he’d seen his dad cry. Two of those were for when the family dog Gretsky, had to be put down. The other was the day that his mother died. Sometimes he’d still speak about her as if she were still around. On wild, starry nights in July, he’d sit on the back porch with Cromwell. The heat would bring sweat and paint the darkness with fireflies, but his father didn’t seem to care. These were the times that he “had a chat with your mother,” he explained. He’d sip iced tea, and meander through his day. He’d light a smoke, but on that porch he rarely took a drag. Kyle knew that his father was sad at times, but not as much as he used to be. It was just dad’s way of processing things, the Omega reminded himself.
Jess plugged the kettle in to boil some more water for tea. Checking the freezer, she frowned and wrote ‘ice’ on the dry erase board on the kitchen wall.
Kyle was about to settle into his thoughts when the creaking stairs and a parade of grunts, groans, and mutterings ensured that everyone was aware that their father was returning to the kitchen.
Acting as if nothing unusual had happened, his father returned to the table with some carefully memorized heart attack symptoms from the Internet. But Kyle had given up that chase.
“Hey dad, earlier Jess and I were saying how we were planning on heading into town for some supplies. You want anything, old timer?” Kyle rose to help his sister cut some lemons for the next pitcher of iced tea when he recognized that his father was far more fidgety than usual.
“Eh? Me, nope. Nothing comes to mind. But speaking of goin’ to town, guess who I bumped into at Casey’s Game & Feed?”
Kyle shrugged his shoulders and marveled at the oddity of the question, or how rapidly his father seemed to forget that they were just talking about his heart health.
“Jake Fournier. Ran into that feller getting a box of shells. Still a firefighter, by trade. Doing quite well, I’d say.” His father inspected his coveralls casually, not a clue in the world as to what his words were doing to his son.
Jess sensed her brother’s pain. “Uh, hey dad! That reminds me! Did you want to order out for the Silver Wok tonight? My treat. I found some old pay-cheques in the laundry…” she desperately tried to throw her dad off.
“You two were such good friends. Do you still talk? Boy I tell you, harvest time sure came easy when he and Ty-” his father paused briefly.
“No. I don’t see Jake,” Kyle replied flatly.
“Well, I remember them crops sure came easy when your Alpha pals were around. Strong as hell, and you could work ‘em all day long with no complaints! And heck, that Jake comes from a good, strong bloodline too…”
Kyle’s voice was flat. He chose his words carefully and thoughtfully. “I’m only here to make sure that you’re both okay. Then I leave.”
Lesser informed onlookers may have thought that the battle was over, but not Jess. She was too well aware of the aggressive dance that her brother and father engaged in when building up to an argument. Jess glanced over from stirring the pitcher of tea and knew that something was up. Her father was fiddling endlessly with his favourite old rusty lighter, a sure sign that he was far from done speaking his mind.
“Shoot son, I never went to university so I’m no good with talkin’ like you are,” he spoke as he gazed at the smooth steel lines of his lighter. “I suppose what I’m trying to say is that maybe you should think about patching things up with Jake? He’s more than a decent sort.”
The room fell still and silent, barring the occasional tinkle of the rain upon the roof. It had tried and failed to fall for the past few days.
Kyle scrunched up his mouth tightly. Jess could tell that he was biting his tongue, or at least trying to. She was about to mouth a ‘thank you’ when to her surprise Kyle addressed their father.
“You wouldn’t lie to me dad, would you?” Kyle asked, unable to look at his father.
“Not never son, nope.” His father replied without glancing once at him, intensely fixated upon the lighter.
“What are the chances that were I to check your browser history on your phone that you’ll have pulled up a bunch of WebMD pages on cardiac arrest?”
His father said nothing and fiddled rapidly with his lighter, as if considering the question from all angles.
Kyle glared.
Jess’ eyes went wide with disbelief. There weren’t enough pitchers of iced tea in the damned household to put out this fire. She acted as if nothing were happening and busied herself with cleaning the kitchen. When her brother and father fought, her role would be to tend the emotionally wounded with hot grilled cheese.
“Dad? If I checked your phone would I see some calls to Doc Thornton right around the same time that you brushed up on cardiac –“
“WELL so goddamned what?!” His father rapped his hand across the dinner table. “Is it really the worst crime in the world for a father to want to see his kin happy? You pissed off outta the den ‘bout as fast as your legs could carry you, and with your mother gone…” He shook his head angrily. Within seconds a lit smoke was glowing as it hung from his lip.
“…one of these days, when you’re a father to a bright pack of pups, you’ll know what I’ve been driving at all these years.”
It was about the four-hundredth time that Kyle had heard those words. He’d gotten pretty good at acting like it didn’t st
ing each and every time. He was about to speak but knew that he’d just say something out of anger. Instead he buried his face against his hands and waited for his father to continue.
His father was painting the air with a blue plume of smoke. “I just hate to sees all of you so upset. I mean, go and do what’s good and natural. Come home to your den and patch things up with Jake, because that’s what Omegas do.”
Sincerity or not, his father’s choice of words was a big mistake. Kyle’s temper flared.
“OH! I forgot that just because I was been born this way, I’m the one who’s supposed to forgive and forget? I’m the one supposed to stop feeling how I do and accept whatever the big, strong, handsome Alpha tells me?”
“No son, I didn’t…” his father was clearly flustered. “I didn’t say that, I just meant that you’re only bound to find misery goin’ against your nature. You can’t change what you are.”
“…a doormat? Is that what you mean?” Kyle began to wind up.
“I think what dad means is that we’ve all got to search out our happiness, wherever it may be?” Jess inserted herself between her warring family members. Her plum-faced dad was about to correct her interpretation of his words when she gently gave his arm a squeeze. “And how about we stop playing Dr. Phil, and maybe just enjoy our time together? Hmm?”
Realizing that he was outgunned, her father nodded. Another smoke lit.
The silence crawled past until the farmer’s son extended an olive branch.
“I can live with that.”
Kyle pulled the smoke from his father’s mouth and butted it out against the plate in front of him. He swallowed his pride and tried not to grit his teeth too much. “Dad… these are no good for you. How about after Jess and I get back from the city, we figure out how your vaporizer works? We’ll even write out the instructions. Get a copy for the tractor too.”
“We even got the oil that smells just like your brand,” his sister chimed in hopefully.
The elder Daniels grumbled for a good while.
“My own children!” he fumed. “That smoke isn’t… I just… it’s like going from fine steak to shoe-leather, mark my words.”
Kyle pulled from a cool glass of iced tea. “Oh, and while we’re gone, no smoking.” A fresh wave of protest sputtered forth.
“Nice acting dad,” Jess waved an unopened carton of Camels over her father’s shoulder. “Duct-taped to the creepy crawlspace under the stairs? I’ve known about your secret stash for weeks.”
“Son of a gun!” The old farmer thumped the table with his hand. Betrayed and defeated, he reached for another glass of iced tea and smiled. It was good to be with his pack again.
The trio sat around the table and talked for what seemed like the first time in ages. The crisis was averted and order was restored, at least for now.
Four
Kyle remembered why he always hated driving with his sister barely twenty five seconds after they’d pulled out of the driveway. She was dutiful and observant, except when her phone was involved.
“Are you sure you don’t want to pull over and let me drive?” Kyle asked for the third time in as many minutes.
“I’m good.” His sister’s reply was terse – her attention evenly divided between the road and her phone.
“So hey, Parson’s Funeral Homes is having a two-for-one deal! So when you wrap dad’s ride around a tree, I guess dad will save big when…”
“I’m seriously fine, piss-face,” Jess frowned. She ever so casually attempted check her phone as they rounded another turn. “I just…”
“Yes?”
He waited for a reply, but nothing came. Kyle waited until her eyes were back on the road and quickly snapped Jess’ phone away from her.
“Probably safer this way,” he reflexively raised his arm to stop her from grabbing it back. “Need I remind you of the perils of distracted driving?”
“You’re such a dink sometimes.”
“Ah, perhaps. But an alive dink, who loves his equally alive sister.”
“Yeah, yeah, just don’t…”
“What? See which of your gentleman suitors has been literally endangering my life by sexting you?” Kyle smiled as he unlocked her phone – she never cleaned the screen, so he simply mimicked the pattern. Jess was in the midst of some pretty flirty banter with at least three different men.
“What the crap?! Gimme back my phone!” his sister exploded in protest.
“Eyes on the road or else I tell the legion of loverboys that you’ve got some serious diarrhea and can’t play this weekend.”
Jess’ balled fist dinged the steering wheel as her mouth pursed with seething fury. “Fine.”
Kyle swiped past some of the conversation that his twin was having with the handsome lads. The chat logs were weighed down with suggestive images.
“Handsome lad… Mama’s boy… Gross… Oooh, he’s cute...”
Kyle placed the phone on his knee and went silent.
“What?” Jess frowned as she carefully observed the rules of the road. “What is it?”
“Well, to be honest, I never would’ve thought that little Eric Davis would be hung so heavily. I mean, his damn cock’s like a nightstick growing out of an orange.” He laughed. “He was the shortest, chubbiest kid in grade seven. But now? He gets excited and he could punch a hole in a barn door big enough for a raccoon to crawl through!”
“No, no, nooo! Shut up! Stop being so goddamned gross!” his sister shrieked uncomfortably as she tried her best to hold back hysterical giggles. Kyle always could make her laugh. She missed this dearly.
“Hey, hey, watch the road!” Kyle retorted as she swatted at him through a fit of laughter.
“He’s a nice guy. I mean, he talks a big game at McRorie’s but he’s totally different when we chat.”
“Be still my heart,” Kyle rolled his eyes. “His fantastic bod aside, he kinda seems like a meat-head.”
“Well, he’s…” Jess paused briefly, trying to counter her brother’s negativity. “He’s rustic. He appreciates life’s simple pleasures.”
“Ah, so he gets to go to deer camp and drain kegs with his boys, while you’re stuck at home with his rowdy litter? You sure you want an Alpha like that in the driver’s seat?”
“Hey now,” Jess softly protested. “Sure, he’s got his issues, but I mean, so do I. And for your information, he only drinks because he’s lonely. Besides, what if I wanted to be home with a litter?”
Kyle nodded sagely. “Hmm. I didn’t know that you’d given it much thought.”
“Well, I’m not pup-crazy like Natalie – she and Richard are expecting again, by the way. I swear, that girl’s somehow always in heat.”
He listened silently, sensing that it was something that Jess needed to get out.
“But anyway, me having a litter… it’s weird, right? Remember how against it I used to be? The battles that I’d have with mom and dad? I dunno. I guess things changed when I got to chill with Nat and her pups while Richard was running trucks back and forth at the quarry. Their two smallest had pretty bad colic, so she was up all night and needed help. At first I’d swing by and clean up, or let her have a quick nap…”
Kyle thoughtfully stroked his beard, unaware that his sister had ever considered becoming a den mother.
“…so yeah, one morning Nat and I are watching The Price is Right, and before I knew it I was the only one awake in the room. Her smallest had fallen asleep in my arms and I like, looked down and saw her, that little smile, those sweet eyes, her darling curls. And this voice in my head was like ‘yeah, this is fucking awesome.’ I just said to myself, ‘I totally want a baby someday.’ I said it out loud too! I dunno, it’s weird, it just felt so right.”
“I had no idea.”
“I know, right? I didn’t either. And I think I’m ready for the screaming, crying, poopy diapers, tiger stripes across my belly, the sadness of shitty weight and height charts, snotty noses, saggy boobs, and how they rip your-”
Kyle loudly cleared his throat. “Yes they do, but we don’t need to talk about that.”
She briefly glanced over at him with a grin. “…anyhow, I think that I’m ready for something like that. Well, not that last stuff. That scares the shit out of me. But, like, when it’s all done, I definitely want to have been a den mother.”
Of all of the things that Kyle could’ve said in protest against giving up her life of independence to become some meat-head’s baby-mama, Jess seemed genuinely happy at the thought of raising her own little pack.
The next ten minutes passed in idle banter, but Kyle couldn’t help but notice how at peace his sister seemed with the idea of giving up everything that she was in order to become a mother. He didn’t know what was more unsettling: that this one-time, hard-drinking party gal seemed to be caving into her Omega roots, or that one day in the not too distant future, a similar fate may befall him too.
After a few impressively rough spurts of force, the rains that had been threatening to pour for the past few days wore themselves out in under four minutes. The landscape was bathed in a balmy, grey humidity. Rounding a bend, they recognized the white, blue, and yellow of an Alberta Highway Patrol car parked in the driver’s lane. Its four-ways blinked ominously in the dim light. Two partitions had been set up to corral cars closely past the car. Tall and gruff, an officer stepped out of his vehicle. An Alpha, he straightened his ball cap and began to saunter over to intercept them. He points at the ground and Jess’ car stops just short as she noses it up.
“Charming fellow,” Kyle tersely observes.
“I think that we’ll be just fine.” Jess smiled and teased at her hair.
The two of them watched the massive Alpha make his way around to her side of the car. Kyle estimated that the patrolman’s belt buckle alone was four pounds. A meaty fist rapped twice on the glass. Jess began to struggle winding the window down as she continued to smirk.
His Prairie Omega Box Set Page 2