A Bundle of Mannies

by Lorelei M. Hart

  “Do I have time to discuss it with my alpha?” Because, when in doubt, buy more time.

  “I need to book tickets for Atlanta within the hour if you are to leave by morning.”

  “Morning?”

  “I told you at your last evaluation you were going to be traveling more. If this is too much, just tell me so I can focus my attention elsewhere.” Code for so you will never see a promotion again as long as you are with the company.

  “Email me the ticket and itinerary.” I caved. Just like he knew I would. I both loved and hated the man. Mostly the latter at this moment.

  “Will do. Why don’t you head on home and get ready.” He didn’t even pretend it was a question.

  “Yes, sir.” I got up from my seat and walked out, giving Betty my best side-eye as I did.

  I ended up walking into the house just as the children were eating lunch or, from the looks of it, brunch. Lincoln, who was scheduled for the overnight shift, was making coffee, and Pace was finishing up an omelet on the stove. It all looked too domestic, and my mind wandered back to the very thing I’d worked so hard to push down—Pace as a significant other and not as an employee. Ugg.

  “Hello, everyone. Did I miss the yums?” I put on my happy face.

  “Not at all. We spent extra time at the splash pad this morning and came home to Pace baking bread.” It went unspoken it was from scratch. No wonder the house smelled so amazing.

  “You are not here to cook for us,” I reminded Pace, actively working on not licking my lips at the delicious food.

  “Best eggs ever, Papa,” Penny chimed in.

  “Cheese?” Pace asked, holding up a plate piled with grated cheddar.

  “Please.”

  “Just no mushrooms,” Lincoln added his two cents. “Those are all for me.”

  “Probably why I married you. You save me from the fungi.”

  “You are both fun,” Penny pointed out, and we all chuckled. Okay, maybe we could do this without me being weird and awkward.

  Chapter Eight

  Lincoln

  There was a spring in my step. It hadn’t been there in weeks. I’d had a full eight hours’ sleep, followed by an omelet to die for.

  It was as though the entire atmosphere of our home had changed in a second. Pace spoke to the children in a calm and soothing tone—one that had the entire family less tense and more loving. Penny and Beau were answered with slow and methodical words with no sign of frustration in sight, despite the millions of questions they bombarded him with.

  He was a breath of fresh air in our home.

  So, by the time I got to work, I was also a new man.

  “Doctor, the patient in room 1082 is demanding to see you,” the charge nurse for the shift, Amanda, said, startling me from my task of entering notes into the computer system.

  “Do they need me?” Sometimes patients needed a doctor over a nurse, sometimes they preferred it, and sometimes they were just lonely. I had time in any case. I just needed to know.

  “Probably not, but he’s a nice guy, and you are in the land of the boring, so I figured maybe.” She half smiled. Amanda was one of the good ones, thinking about the patients as whole people and not as their diagnosis.

  “Sounds good.” I finished my entry and headed over to the room, both the door and the curtain wide open for me, the patient sitting in the recliner with a huge smile on his face.

  “Doctor Graves, I wasn’t sure you’d come. No offense, but you guys don’t always show up.” I had nothing to say in response. He probably was spot-on, and while I understood why some doctors made choices I would not, I had no excuse for them. “Have a seat.”

  “Nurse Amanda says you need me, Mr. Banks.” I sat across from him. It looked like a loneliness call and, given the slowness of the night, that I could do.

  “You see, the thing is…I need your help.”

  “And that is why I’m here,” I reassured him. Mr. Banks was recovering from a staph infection, and, given his advanced age, he was probably going to be in the hospital a bit longer than he’d like, but he was going to walk out of here okay. Or rather be wheeled out, due to regulations, but same thing.

  “My friend, my former partner, he is not doing well.” He sighed.

  “And he needs a doctor?” Maybe I wasn’t the one for this job. Maybe he needed the hospital social worker. They did wonders finding people the services they needed.

  “He has a bucket full of those, Doc. He just needs help learning to listen to them.” And then he went on and on about his friend’s medical condition and the things the doctors told him to do and how he refused most of them because he wanted to be able to leave something to his son. It was a heart-wrenching story, and all I could really offer was an ear and some possible contacts. Like Gillian.

  “I really wish I had more advice for you. But I can for sure get you some names.” The way people had to choose things like mortgage payments or their children’s futures or medical care was something I’d never accept. “I’m sure his son would rather he live than get a house, so maybe that would be the route to go.”

  “His son is not local, or I would try and find him. He’s a good boy, or was. Haven’t seen him in a long time. Roger worked so hard all those years, I kind of get why he doesn’t want it gone, but I want him to be around—ya know? We spent years standing side by side, our hands greasy, brows sweaty.” He loved the man, possibly was in love with him, and he wore his pain on his face.

  “Maybe call him when the hour is better?”

  “He doesn’t own a phone. Says the newfangled technology is too much for him. I’ll see him when I get out tomorrow?”

  “Nice try, Mr. Banks. You have at least two more days here. And if you start getting some good sleep instead of staying up all night worrying about your buddies, maybe you could squeak out early.” I stood and pointed to the bed.

  “You know hospitals are the worst place to sleep. I close my eyes, and someone needs to squeeze my arm. I close them again, they need me to take meds. Close them again—oops, a sensor fell off.” He pushed himself up, and I watched carefully, happy to note he was more stable on his feet than the last time I saw him. “But I will go to bed and do what I can. I’ve been itchin’ to play cribbage, and there’s nobody here who knows how.”

  “I know how and maybe…if you sleep well, I can sneak in a game before I leave in the morning.”

  “Done.” He walked probably faster than he should’ve and climbed into bed as I closed his curtain. “Night, Doc, and thanks.”

  “Anytime. Good sleep.”

  I spent the rest of my free moments that night finding some people who might be able to help Mr. Banks and his friend and, true to my word, played a quick game of cribbage, in which he creamed me, just after my shift ended.

  I couldn’t wait to get home.

  Chapter Nine

  Pace

  I’d settled into the house and the new family better than anticipated. Certainly, I had made changes to my usual routine to accommodate theirs, the same as I would have in any household. And the Royal had been adamant we were not to be snobs just because we’d been trained well enough to serve in a palace. No family was more deserving of excellent service by a manny than another—although it was true few working class folks could afford the salary we commanded. And I didn’t want Lincoln and Adam to know that the rate they paid was not what I’d have usually requested. For the right job, in the right location, a little less money was a fair trade-off.

  Plus, I couldn’t find two sweeter children than these. Penny was smart and helpful, always running to grab something I needed, ready to sing her little brother to sleep or act out a story for his entertainment. And Beau…the boy was destined to be a standup comedian. I’d never known someone so little to be so funny! If I hadn’t been so worried about Dad and so distracted by the hotness of my employers, it would be paradise.

  But the second part—that made it unlikely I’d be here long enough to see Penny and Beau grow u
p. At the Royal, they made quite the point of telling the students not to get involved with the parents, even single parents. Much less a happily established couple. Perhaps this was just a temporary infatuation.

  But as I sat on the living room floor building a Duplo castle with Beau, my bosses were in the kitchen preparing Sunday lunch, and the breaks in conversation were kissing. I knew this because Miss Penny had been in there several times and returned with reports. I wanted her to stop—but I was doing nothing to make that happen.

  “Daddy and Papa keep kissing.” Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “They didn’t even stop when I told them I want some juice please.” She gave me her most winning grin, the one that bared all her teeth and convinced nobody. “And I said please twice. Could you go get me some juice, Pace?”

  “Want juice,” piped in my co-builder, swiping an arm through our construction and sending the oversized bricks flying. “Want juiiiccceee.”

  I tsked. “See what you did?”

  I immediately regretted my tone when her face clouded up. “It’s not my fault he has to copy me all the time.” The sweet girl who adored her brother presented her flip side, sticking her tongue out at Beau. “Big baby copycat!”

  Thunder clouds gathered in her brother’s face, eyes blinking rapidly and lips trembling. I had to cut this off before their parents had to intervene. Both men had worked crazy hours over the past week plus travel for Adam, and they deserved better than chaos in their home.

  They hired me mostly to prevent chaos in their home. All parents did.

  I pushed to my feet and clapped my hands. “We all like juice. My favorite is cranberry.”

  “I like strawberry-pineapple,” chimed in Penny. “And Beau likes orange.”

  He bobbed his head, happy his older sister was once again on Team Beau, handling his needs and desires.

  “Okay, so, after lunch, we can see if we have all our favorites…maybe even make a juicy-smoothie for dessert if you clean your plates.” I reached out and tugged Beau to his feet then scooted them both toward the bathroom. “Wash up very well if you want the juicy-smoothie.”

  Cheers replaced the impending storm, and Penny and Beau ran off, chanting, “Juicy-smoothie. Juicy-smoothie.”

  As they disappeared into the hallway, a slow clapping replaced their footfalls, and I turned to find my employers standing in the doorway to the kitchen. “Bravo,” Lincoln said.

  “Fine work,” added Adam. “This is why you get the big bucks.”

  Medium bucks. But so worth it. If they looked handsome heading off to work, their casual Sunday attire made them scrumptious. Lincoln wore a pale-blue button down, only half buttoned up, and gray shorts. Adam was clad in a green polo and jeans clinging to his muscular thighs. The only thing better than looking at them in clothes would be slowly stripping them off.

  Shit. Not just a crush. I had it bad. Erotic fantasies every night in bed were spilling over into the day job. My day job. Which was taking care of their children, not providing clothing removal services.

  They were staring at me, and I realized I’d stood there too long, so I took a bow. “For my next act, I will put them to bed tonight after reading less than two dozen books and with only three trips to the bathroom and two for water.”

  “That I have to see,” Adam said, resting his head on Lincoln’s shoulder. “We have a regular floor show around here.”

  “We do,” Lincoln said, a laugh in his voice. “But it’s several hours from now, so let’s have lunch. Do you like quiche?”

  “Uhhh…” I did, retro food was great, but the twinkle in his eye made me wary. “Sure.”

  “Then you’re going to hate the paninis!” He chortled, turning to face the kitchen.

  “Ignore him!” Adam shook his head and waved me ahead of him. “He thinks he’s funny, a real comic.”

  I entered the kitchen, followed by Adam. “So that’s where Beau gets it.”

  Lincoln held a spatula and stood in front of a panini press, but he turned toward me. “Beau? What do you mean?”

  Was it possible they didn’t know how funny their son was? “Beau…a real stitch.”

  They looked at each other then me. Adam frowned. “He is?”

  “Yeah, he’s hilarious. A laugh a minute. Just, whatever you do, don’t—”

  The kids came tumbling into the room and scrambled into their chairs.

  Lincoln dropped to one knee and spoke to his little son. “Beau, want to tell us a joke?”

  Penny and I chorused, “Nooo…”

  But it was too late. Beau was off and babbling, telling his version of a “joke.” An hour later, as we were doing the dishes, Lincoln leaned close to me. “What did you intend to tell us not to do?”

  “Ask him to tell a joke. He’s funny, but his language skills and sense of verbal humor are still two years old. Never ask him to tell a joke.” And if the sixty minute “joke” he’d just told us didn’t teach them that, there was no hope for them.

  Chapter Ten

  Adam

  “I don’t want you to go again. Does that make me awful?” Lincoln asked, his finger tracing a pattern over my bare chest as he spooned me.

  I was about to head out of town for the fourth time in two months, and I was tired of it, too. Not only did I hate the work I was doing, but it gave me stomachaches just thinking about how a wrong move on my part could mean one more person losing their job.

  And that was the only reason I kept going to work—my mission, per se. It was my goal to have no one leaving the company due to the merger unless it was by their choice. No longer was I working to move up, although I had a feeling the more jobs I saved the less of a shot I had anyway. The higher ups were calling for blood—at least those making their desires known to the team. Oddly enough, it was from the other company, the one being absorbed. I just didn’t get people.

  “It doesn’t make you awful.” I sighed. “I miss being home with you and the kids. Even if my hours were long, I still got to see you guys every day at least for a second.” I rolled in his arms until we were face to face. “It should be over soon, and then maybe we should talk.”

  My anxiety over this conversation had been brewing inside of me since my third trip, the one that lasted two-and-a-half weeks. I’d fought so hard to succeed in my career, and, until recently, I’d loved it—at least what it was supposed to be. But this? This was too much. It was killing me slowly on the inside.

  “Sounds ominous.” He kissed the tip of my nose, worry glinting in his eyes.

  “It’s just…I hate my job.” My snooze button started blaring again, and I contorted myself to grab it without leaving Linc’s arms.

  “You want to come home…done.”

  “Things are so good here. The kids are thriving. And, let’s be honest, he might not be our mate, but the house looks four thousand times better with him taking care of so many things for us.”

  “Then, what are you proposing in the negative three minutes you have?” Lincoln always mocked me for my snooze habit. He was an alarm goes off and I am out of bed kind of guy. Before I met him, I assumed that was a myth.

  “I don’t know. Maybe start job hunting and look for something less stressful.” I’d been lucky and scored my first job out after staying home with the kids. And I’d done well, too. Probably too well since it put me in the predicament I was in now, but still.

  “Which would mean less room for advancement.” Linc was a fact man. He wasn’t judging me, just putting it all out on the table. Which was why I should’ve come to him earlier and not when I was crunched for time with a five a.m. flight looming over me.

  “And if advancement means I don’t get to see my family ever, people lose their jobs if I play the game of mergers wrong, and I’m doing nothing I went to school for…then I vote that.” And suddenly, a huge weight was lifted with the confession, the confession I needed to make to myself. I tried never to hide things from Linc, but I was a pro at hiding things from myself.

  “We might
not be able to afford Pace.” He was a good chunk of our budget and so completely worth it. Still…a big investment, and we needed to take that fact into our decision-making. “I know that is not how to make life choices, but it is a reality to consider.”

  My alarm buzzed again.

  “I just wanted to tell you is all. We don’t need to make any decisions today or even tomorrow. I have to see this merger through.” If I didn’t, I’d never forgive myself. Which was ironic, given that no part of me wanted the job in the first place.

  “To save families and their livelihood.” He rubbed his thumb over my cheek, looking at me so reverently. I wish I could see myself through his eyes.

  “Something like that.”

  “You are a good man, Adam.” He kissed me far too briefly. “I am so lucky to be mated to you.”

  “Even though I’m gone all the time, and you have more time with your right hand than inside me.” It didn’t stop us from making up for lost time as soon as we could manage to be alone, but it still sucked going three-to-seven days depending on the trip, without so much as a kiss. Blue balls were real.

  “I seem to remember quite enjoying being inside you last night.”

  My cheeks burned. I loved that he could still make me blush. I loved it even more that his comment brought to the forefront our time together, me bent over the side of the bed as he rode me hard and fast, exactly what I needed after the call last night saying they’d booked an unexpected flight for me for today.

  “I need to take a shower now.” I caught my phone before the alarm went off yet again, then reached down and gave his already hard cock a stroke so as to not leave any room for misinterpretation what I meant. I needed him again before I left. “I’m sure we can figure out a way to make that happen again.” I gave his ass a playful pat.

  “Hmmm, I’m not sure you have time for a proper knotting.” He gave a wink and licked his lips. I loved how we were on page. What did my favorite author say, something about there was always time for a BJ?

  “I was thinking more along the lines of swallowing you whole, but if you want to stick with your plan…”