He nodded.
“Well. Hmm. I guess all my friends are from business now. Do you remember Ethan and Aiden?”
Miles cocked his head, trying to place the names.
“They were at our table at the gala. In college, they lived down the hall from me, roommates. Well, they run a dietary supplement company now. Some kind of super shake mix. We grab drinks occasionally. I handle their overseas manufacturing.”
“That’s… sad.”
“How so?”
“Don’t you ever… not work?”
“I’m not working right now.” But his words disturbed me. When was the last time I had done anything that wasn’t work, that wasn’t looking for my brother? Even when hanging out with my business friends, it was always with the expectation that at some point in the night, business would be discussed.
Miles shot me a look of annoyance. “Other than this?”
“I guess… not really, no. There’s always something to do.”
I could tell by Miles’s expression that I’d done something wrong.
“Am I keeping you from work?” he asked.
“Oh, fuck, no. Don’t worry about me. I probably do work too much. This is good for me. And besides, I want… to help you.” I’d nearly said, “I want you.” That wouldn’t do. No matter how much I wanted Miles, I was no good for him. I’d help him this once, and then we were done for good.
“Have you dated anyone since college?” Miles asked, completely throwing me off my guard.
“No.” Damnit, I should have lied. How pathetic did I seem to him?
“Why?”
Would he stop it with the questions? This was about helping him, not baring my soul. I lied again. “Just like the friends thing, I’ve been too busy.”
It would do no good to tell him I was determined to never marry or mate. People always thought there was something wrong with you if they found out, like you just hadn’t met “the one.” Well, I had met the one, and I’d fucked it up. If I was given a second chance, I already knew I’d just fuck it up again. And I couldn’t allow myself to do that.
Miles abandoned the dating question, but his new direction wasn’t any better. “What about Marcus?” he asked. “Or Zeke. What happened there?”
I felt my face fall into the familiar, emotionless, stone mask I wore whenever the topic of my brother came up. We were definitely in a better place, but I still felt like I was missing something from his story, there was still a key I needed to understand why he’d thrown his entire family away. “Just family stuff.”
“So is he—”
“Are we good?” I interrupted.
Miles seemed taken aback by my abruptness, but he nodded. “I think so.”
“Great. I’ll be waiting to hear from you about dinner. What kind of wines do your parents like?”
“What?”
“So I can bring them a gift.”
“Oh, red Bordeaux.”
I sent a quick message to Lisa to find me a good red Bordeaux to take to dinner, whenever it was. I needed to be doubly prepared for it since we didn’t have a time and date scheduled yet. It was unlikely that I would land in the US and turn my phone on to get a message from Miles asking if tonight would work, but another thing that had pushed me to the top was my ability to plan ahead. There was no way I would let Miles down this time.
24
Miles
Sitting in my office, staring at the ceiling was the entirety of the tasks Dad had given me for the day, the file organizing on hold while they repaired some faulty wires, leaving far too much time for me to think about Parker. I never asked him how long he’d been here or how he wound up here. I guess it didn’t matter, yet I still yearned to know.
I wanted to know everything about him, yet at the same time, nothing. Knowing meant letting him in again, and that just wasn’t something I could allow to happen. The wounds had never fully healed from the last time. It was why I hadn’t dated again.
Was that why he hadn’t dated? No, that was such a fanciful notion that could only lead to more heartache. He was a workaholic; anyone could see that. He probably scratched the itch when the need arose and called it good. Just the thought of him with another man made my stomach drop. I needed to find something to do. All of this dwelling in the past was spiraling emotionally downward fast.
I was about to open my phone and not stare at the text Parker had sent me of the wine he had bought for my folks to make sure it was of their liking—to which I responded lamely that it was “fine”—when there was a knock on my door. Mrs. Jones was too put off by my lack of position to get up and deliver any message personally, which meant it could only be one person. Dad.
I slammed the phone into my pocket. “Come in.”
“That is not how one answers their door in this office.” My dad was already scolding me, setting the tone for a delightful exchange.
“I’m sorry, Dad.” Sometimes it’s just not worth it to tell him how you really feel, that the only person who comes to my office is him, and that getting up to let him in was an overture far from necessary given our biological connection. Nope. Apologies were easier. “The electricians done?”
His hands were empty, leaving any hope of a real assignment nonexistent. Dad responded by sitting down, his foot crossed over his knee. Not work, then.
“I wanted to discuss Andrew with you a bit more.”
Of course he did. How he didn’t see the man as the slime he was, I’d never figure out. I didn’t even know him and he gave me the jeebies, even before I knew his intent.
“Not necessary.” I held firm, but polite. When my dad got a notion, it was hard to get him to let it go, so usually I didn’t try. This was different, though. It was my life, and there was no way I was letting him decide the direction I went, especially when it was such a bleak one. “I’m dating Parker,” I reminded him as I sat up straighter, hoping I looked less intimidated than I was.
“Do not be so petulant.” Brilliant. I was apparently still sixteen in his mind from the tone of his reprimand. “You have known this guy, what, a decade? And yet you have not once mentioned him the entire time you’ve been here? No, he is leading you on.”
There had been a split second when I feared that Dad had connected the dots and figured out Parker had been the father of the baby they hadn’t known about until he was gone. They eventually would do the math, but for now I was glad to leave that little gem to myself. They were already team Andrew, they didn’t need any more encouragement in that department.
My walls fell a little at his concern. At least his heart was in the right place, even if his methods were wrong. He was right, the first time I mentioned Parker was the dinner of awful. It was a legitimate dot connecting on his part.
“He’s not.” The last thing I needed was for them to treat Parker like an alphahole. That wasn’t nor ever had been him. We had our issues, sure but that didn’t make him a complete asshat. Had he been, our time apart would’ve been so much easier. “Not that it is your business. We just reconnected.” I went for calm, but a tinge of anger lined my words. Talking with my dad had a tendency to escalate discussions to a much less fun level.
“Reconnected.” Dad huffed out a laugh. “More like he was looking for an easy lay.”
“Dad.” It took all my restraint to not get up and walk out on him. Parker was not like that, not that Dad knew him, but Dad did know me and his insinuation that I would allow that sort of treatment had me seeing red.
“Don’t ‘Dad’ me. I know why you were fired. You think I live in a bubble.”
Never in a million years had it crossed my mind that dad would stoop this low. Never.
“No, not a bubble and not reality either.” My voice was getting louder, but I couldn’t give two fucks. My dad had just insinuated I was a freaking whore. That was not okay. Not. At. All. “Do you honestly believe I sexually harassed my coworkers, trying to find a heatmate? Are you freaking kidding me?”
“Tone, young man.” Dad stood, not to l
eave, but as a power stance. It was a technique he had taught me when I first started law school. He said, “Always stay taller than those you want to influence,” and here he was pulling it on me. Only I wasn’t playing that game. I rose to meet him, pointing to my door.
“This discussion is over. If you think so little of me as to believe that, there’s nothing I can do to convince you of anything related to this matter. If you don’t mind, I have work I need to get back to.”
“I will let your bold faced lie go, as you are my son. Maybe if… never mind.”
I wanted to ask him “maybe if what?” What would it take for him to give me work? For the first time, he had admitted, in a way, that he was giving me nothing to do for a reason. Now was not the time for that discussion, though. Or any. He needed to leave, or I would.
“That’s neither here nor there,” he continued as if this was not a fight at all, but a civil conversation. No wonder he was such a good lawyer. If only he could be as equally good a dad right now, because that was what I needed. The dad he was before he found out I was an omega. “Andrew is a good man and when your father and I see for ourselves that this Parker guy is not mate material, you will give him a chance.”
He was blind if he thought Andrew was good. People don’t give off those kinds of vibes if they are good.
“I’m almost thirty; I choose who I date.”
“My roof. My rules.” With that, find a new job and apartment moved up my to do list, just below breathing and before eating. “It’s for your own good. We love you and want what’s best.”
Scary part was, he believed that.
He walked out, not giving me a chance to reply. That was good, because I had nothing productive to say. We were both too angered to get through the impasse.
Before I could think my way out of it I took out my phone and punched away.
Got a minute?
I knew Parker was probably in one of a hundred meetings, so when the phone rang I was sure it was a junk call, but my jaw fell as Parker’s name appeared on my caller ID.
“You didn’t need to call.” Yeah, I was still smooth as silk when it came to Parker. I missed the time when things between us was easy and making a call like this didn’t make my blood pressure sky rocket.
“Did you not want me to?” He sounded utterly perplexed. Maybe he thought I was a text only person now.
I began to fidget with the corner of my desk calendar to avoid tapping my fingers, a nervous habit that drove even me insane. Besides, Parker might hear it over the phone.
“No, I just know you’re busy and figured I’d get a text later.” Or not. I still didn’t completely grasp his work, but it sounded like he was practically married to the job. I liked the sense of security a decent salary gave me, but even when I practiced law full-time, I understood balance made me better at my job, not worse.
“You have me now.” His words touched a chord in me, making me, if only for a second, wish it could be true. That I had him. I was a hot mess of a mess. “How are you? You sound, dare I say, frazzled.”
“I just had a discussion with my dad.”
“And by discussion you mean fight… about me?”
Yeah, Parker could still read me like a book.
“More about Andrew, but yeah you were part of it. He has already decided you are using me for—alpha needs.” I cringed at my crassness.
“He said what?” The control of his voice told me he was livid. I could practically see his eyes closing just a few nanoseconds too long between blinks. It usually took a lot to get him this riled up. Or it had, back then. I didn’t really know him anymore, did I?
“No, he didn’t say it that way.” I was sugarcoating it. Dad might not have used those words, but he used every bit of snideness as he spoke. “He said if it took us this many years to get together, I was a convenience lay for you.” There that sounded better. Kind of.
“Lay? He said that word.” And Parker was just as upset. That was the last thing I intended to do when I called, not that I’d had a thoroughly thought out plan at the time.
“Arrg, this isn’t why I called. I suck at this.” I meant the words for myself than him, but out they came crystal clear anyway.
“At what?”
“At asking for more help. Do you possibly have anytime off before dinner when we could get our backstory better set? Because if not, dinner is going to be painful, and I’m going to be homeless.” I talked a mile a minute afraid I would chicken out if I so much as took a breath.
The silence before he answered was deafening. It was only five seconds or so, but it felt like minutes. What if Parker backed out completely? My family of crazy just too much for him to deal with. Not that I could blame him. Heck. I wanted out of it too.
“I’m hoping you are using creative license in the homeless comment.”
That was his takeaway from all of this. His alpha protectiveness was shining through and I liked it a bit too much, even though my brain knew it was all biology and nothing personal.
“My house, my rules,” I mimicked my father’s voice, trying to instill humor into an extremely depressing situation.
“I have seven tonight.” He what? Looking at my clock, that was less than three hours away. The romantic side of me wanted to believe my knight dropped everything to help. The reality based side of me saw it for what it was. Sheer luck. “Pick you up or should we meet someplace?”
We hashed out the details of our date before I hung up and left the office. I just couldn’t take another minute there. It wasn’t a date, though. Not really.
Then why did it feel so very much like exactly that?
25
Parker
My pulse was still racing when Miles ended the conversation. Homeless? Was he trying to give me a heart attack? I still felt uneasy without a firm date for dinner with his parents, but if that meant I got to spend more time with him? I wasn’t going to complain. In fact, if we needed to see each other several times to make our “relationship” more real for his parents, we could put off dinner as long as he needed.
I still felt guilty for clinging to every chance to see him when I should be keeping my distance, but he had asked me for help. I could let myself indulge as long as he needed me. After that, I’d go back to keeping my distance and making sure I didn’t fuck up his life more.
I did my best to turn off thoughts of Miles and return to work. I did my best to turn off thoughts of Miles and return to work. I had been in the middle of preparing for a dinner with a possible client who was looking to expand some of their manufacturing overseas, and I felt like every fact about him and his company had flown right out of my head the moment I had seen Miles’s name on my phone screen. With a sigh, I scrolled back to the beginning of my research brief. Better safe than sorry.
We met at the same diner. I wanted to suggest somewhere fancier, with dim lighting, a rose on the table, wine—but that was definitely out of the question. Though to be honest, the diner wasn’t doing much to keep my romantic impulses at bay. So many of our happy memories were at a diner not so different from this one. Our first kiss. When I told Miles that I loved him. When he told me we were having a baby.
All bittersweet, now.
I arrived before Miles and the waitress approached with coffee. It had been surprisingly decent when we’d been here last time. Not as good as Café Om, perhaps, but better than the swill from a gas station or a home instant coffee machine.
“What can I getcha, sugar?”
I leaned back, not bothering to look at the menu standing at the end of the table. “I’ll take a cup of high-test, and what pies do you have tonight?”
“Well, we’ve got our standard apple, blueberry, and caramel pies, and the specials are coconut cream and strawberry rhubarb.”
I smiled. “I’ll take a strawberry rhubarb and a coconut cream.”
“Sure thing. Anything else to drink?”
“No, that’s all for now, thank you.”
She drifted ov
er to the next table, a couple of grizzled truckers, and greeted them with the same friendly demeanor she’d given me. That was one thing that definitely gave this place a leg up over any five-star restaurant—here, it didn’t matter who you were or how much money you had. They treated you just the same. Unless you were an asshole; then you got botted out on your ass. Neither management nor the customers would let that go. I didn’t have to see it happen to know that’s how it would be here; it was eerily reminiscent of the one Miles and I went to in college.
Miles arrived at the same time as the pies, and it warmed my soul to see his eyes light up at the sight of the coconut cream pie slice. “I hope there’s more where that came from,” he teased the waitress. “I just may eat you out of your entire stock.”
“You keep eating, I’ll keep serving,” she replied, filling his cup without asking. I wondered if he was a regular here. I’d have to make a list, I realized, of places I needed to avoid after this whole charade ended, places where Miles liked to go. It was my responsibility to keep his path clear of me, and I didn’t want him to feel like he couldn’t go to his old favorites anymore.
Miles dove into his pie without greeting me, but I had expected that. Nothing would distract him until he’d packed away that first piece. If he ordered a second, which he probably would, that one he would savor and it wouldn’t block conversation, but until he set his fork down with the first slice, there would be no talking to him.
His fork finally clattered to the plate with a sound ring of satisfaction. Miles leaned back with a smile of contentment. “I needed that,” he said, and downed half his cup of coffee.
“Apparently.” I had barely finished a third of mine, content to watch Miles and sip my coffee.
“It’s not like Cathy’s,” Miles said. “I never know when they’ll have coconut cream. Sometimes, they’ll have it three days in a row, sometimes they won’t have it for a month.”
“I bet it wreaks havoc with your schedule.” I couldn’t keep the smile from my eyes, and Miles shrugged my teasing off.
Reclaiming His Omega: M/M Non-Shifter Alpha/Omega MPREG (Cafe Om Book 5) Page 8