Chapter Fourteen
Chris
After the cake tasting, and the realization of our new situation, the ride to Tak’s antique shop slash home was more than a little tense. So many revelations in one day. Will had been surprised to learn we were together, but his surprise wouldn’t stop him from sharing the news with everyone in our high school class. The party the following night should be...interesting...to say the least. But before we faced that, we had a lot of other things to think about.
I had a run-in a few days, and that would take me away for over a week. If I could, I’d pass it off to someone else, but I’d worked hard to get in with this company, and they didn’t like change without good reason. Romance...wasn’t on their list. And my truck payment didn’t allow me a lot of latitude for time off. I’d deliberately taken a shorter than usual loan term, which meant higher than usual payments so I’d own the rig sooner.
The sun was setting as we zoomed up to the shop and down the drive to park near the back door to the private area of the building. Tak’s helmeted head bobbed against my shoulder blade, making me a little concerned about how awake and aware he might be. He had his hands locked around my waist, and I suspected they were the only thing keeping him upright. If he was pregnant, and I really did think that was the case, no more bike for him until after the baby came. And then...and then maybe go ahead and sell it. The thought did bring a lump in my throat, but an alpha and a father put his family first.
As I turned the key and the engine shut down, I shook my head. Everything was happening so fast. Yesterday, I was a single trucker planning an evening playing pool at the local bar. Tak was a pleasant memory and a fantasy I never thought could be more. Today, I was an alpha with an omega and a baby on the way. How responsible was it to let all this happen with so little thought?
How fair was it to the omega or to the baby? I’d always wanted a family one day, and the face in that picture was more often than not Tak’s, although I’d convinced myself the visual was only a “placeholder” to be swapped out for an omega to be named later. It was one of the reasons I’d set up those higher truck payments, so when my fated love turned up, I’d be ready. Debt-free and able to support a stay-at-home dad if my future omega wanted to do that. I had it all laid out in my mind.
But apparently life didn’t work that way. You’d think my parents’ death and the turn my education and career plans took would have taught me that, but apparently, I was less than a quick study.
For better or for worse, ready or not, the man whose warm body was seated behind mine, the one with the spark of life already flaring in his midsection, was more than a placeholder. I felt like I’d won the love lottery, but was I everything he deserved?
“Chris, are we home?” He lifted his head, and I realized I’d been sitting lost in thought long enough, the sun had disappeared over the horizon and a cool breeze of dusk kicked up.
“We’re home, Tak.” And it would be home because I couldn’t ask him to move. My business was decidedly more mobile. Plus, he owned the land where we’d first made love, where we’d created the baby who would join us in not so many months. “Can you get off by yourself?”
“Sure, I think so.” Big yawn, muffled by the face shield and he slid off to the left. “Yep. I really love riding on this thing. Promise you’ll never get rid of it.”
Dropping the kickstand, I joined him and laid my arm over his shoulders as we started for the kitchen door. “I think I’ll need to. Can’t carry a baby on a motorcycle.” Although even the suggestion we could keep it amped my affection for my omega even higher. “I’ll have to get a station wagon—I think they are making those again—or a minivan. Something grown-up and family friendly.
He stopped short. “I have a Volvo XC90, the safest car on the road. Also, a van I use for the business. If you want a station wagon, if they are making those, we can consider it, but I hope we will have lots of chances in our life together for date nights, or after the baby or babies are grown to take long load trips and see the country.”
“Wow. Didn’t take long for you to find your biker soul.” But I could feel my grin stretching my mouth wide. “The baby can ride in my rig, too. I have a sleeper cab.”
“Family trips. Perfect. It’s going to be terrific.” His smile may have been bigger than mine. “I can’t wait. Thirty sounded so terrible, but look, it’s not even my birthday yet, and I’ve gotten the present I’ve wanted for half those years. Amazing.” He strode away from me, fishing his keys out of his pocket and whistling.
Watching him climb the steps and open the door, I tried to tamp down my own elation. It all sounded so perfect. But a warning flicker in the back of my mind reminded me of other times I’d thought I could see an amazing future that failed to happen. So much could still go wrong. Neither of us was the same as we’d been way back when. Over a decade had passed since we’d last seen one another, and neither of us had spent that time in stasis. We couldn’t expect to just walk back into one another’s lives as if we’d just been hanging out together the day before. We’d have challenges to face, but it would be worth it. My heart had never been happier than right at that moment.
“You coming?” he called, standing just inside the door after flicking on the kitchen light.
“Not yet, omega, but soon.”
Half an hour later, we’d gobbled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and tall glasses of milk. Talk about memory lane. Even the homemade blueberry jam his mom had fed us every summer of our young lives tasted just as good as I remembered. I pushed back from the table, feeling fifteen again. “Shoot. We were supposed to go visit your folks, weren’t we?”
He shrugged. “I texted we’d see them tomorrow at the party. They plan to come early and leave early so we ‘young people’ can enjoy our ‘hijinks’ without feeling chaperoned.”
I picked up the napkin beside my plate and leaned across the table to wipe away his milk mustache. “Your parents were always amazing.”
“Yours were, too,” he murmured, his eyes holding a sadness I hadn’t seen in anyone’s since their passing. “They always treated me like I was theirs. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you lost them.”
I crumpled the paper square in my hand. “I was very far away at school. And they’d moved, so their funeral wasn’t local.” But because it was true, I told him, “I wish you’d been there, too, though. I felt kind of alone surrounded by their new friends, with none of my own.”
“Shit.” He stood and gathered our plates and glasses. “I didn’t know about it until afterward. And I didn’t know where to find you after you’d left school. I should have tried harder.”
This man amazed me. He’d never moved far away like I had. I could have found him anytime if I’d made the effort. “Not your fault. It’s all on me. I was thrown for a loop. I had no idea that my tuition was coming out of loans they took on. I’d always thought the money was there, saved up or something, and when they were gone, so was the money. After selling their home, I still had medical bills to cover and some of those loans.”
Tak stood at the sink, washing up our few dinner dishes. “That must have been a shock.”
“Everything was. I went from happy-go-lucky college student with a family and a family home to visit, to, well, basically nothing. I was scrambling to survive.”
“I can’t even imagine.” He turned to face me, drying a plate, his eyes glistening with tears. “But we will make sure that never happens to our child. We will open a college fund tomorrow and take out life insurance.” He frowned. “Your folks didn’t have insurance?”
“They’d borrowed against it.”
Tak’s hand clapped over his flat belly. “They loved you so much, they made mistakes while showing it.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Dad was in construction. He didn’t make the money to afford my going away to school, living in a dorm, taking a semester in Europe...I was so selfish not to know.”
Chapter Fifteen
Tak
I’d spent the night in my omega’s arms, and even though our babe was pea-sized, I loved that they were with us, cocooned and safe in my belly, under the care of our alpha.
Hearing about how he struggled after his parents died broke my heart, but it also gave me greater confidence in my alpha. He’d been torn down to shreds and then built himself up to be a self-motivated worker. And a gorgeous one at that. He would be an amazing provider for our child, and those things he’d gone through had made him strong and resilient. He’d become one hell of a man.
I’d woken up several times in the night, thinking about all the what-ifs and could-be scenarios that were now within my grasp. It wouldn’t be easy. That much I knew. Chris would be gone on trips more often than I would like, and in order to run my shop and raise a child, I wouldn’t be able to go with him as much as I hoped he wanted me to.
Riding in the back of a truck didn’t sound all that wonderful to me, but what did was sharing time with Chris in his adventures, even if it was work. We’d wasted years and years, and I didn’t want to be without him for another second.
I knew there would be work trips that he would have to take without me, especially when the pregnancy progressed and times when my store was busy, around the fall festivals and Christmas.
There would be spans of time without my alpha.
But there were sacrifices and choices in every relationship to make them work, if they were worth it.
All I had to do when I got worried in the night was to turn over and look at Chris’s face next to mine and revel in the strength of his embrace around my body to know it would all be worth it.
We would make our love worth it.
“Good morning, omega,” he groaned and nuzzled his scratchy stubble against the back of my neck.
“Good morning.”
“I’m gonna go pick up a few things. Do you need anything? Want anything?”
I ran my thumb over the shape of his full lips. “Not that you can get from a store.”
He chuckled and nibbled my chin. “We have all day for that. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday. When I get back, I’ll make sure you’re well taken care of, omega.”
I sighed and tried not to let my fantasies of when he got back carry me away. “While you’re gone, I’ll get dressed and check on some things. See if I have any online orders to be filled. Or...do you want me to come with you?”
Gods, I sounded desperate. He got up and hopped into a pair of jeans but held the T-shirt in his hand while he brushed his teeth. After he was done, he leaned against the doorway. “I’d love for you to come with me, but I have some things to take care of. I’ve got to check on my truck and call in to see if my route is still on for Monday. Just some work things. I’ll be back in an hour, hour and a half, tops. And maybe I’ll have some breakfast, but no promises.”
I perked up at the idea of breakfast. My stomach didn’t revolt against the notion of food like it did the day before. I had no clue about pregnancy, but from the movies, nausea was a thing that came and went. Hopefully mine went for good. I loved food too much.
“I’ll make the coffee.” I pushed the covers back and stood up, fueled on by the thought of my caffeine brew.
“Um, Tak, is that such a good idea?”
I almost choked and strained my neck turning to see what he could possibly be talking about. “When is coffee not a good idea?”
He smiled, but only on one side. “When you’re pregnant.” His gaze shot down to my belly. I stood stunned for a moment. So many things were changing so fast, I could barely keep up.
I sat back down on the side of the bed and completely deflated. “Nine months with no coffee?”
Chris came and knelt in front of me, trying not to smile by biting his cheeks. It wasn’t working. I could see the laughter in his eyes.
“Tak, love, you’re trading coffee for our babe. Good trade, right? Sounds like it to me.”
I nodded, but with a pout on my face.
He’d taken my hands in his and rubbed his thumbs in circles over the backs.
When he released them, I reached out and ran my fingers over his shaved head and watched as he bent forward and placed sweet kisses across my belly. “Is it weird that I love this little one already? I mean, how could I not? We made it. You and me.”
“I can’t believe you and me is a thing,” I whispered, trying like hell not to cry.
“You and me will always be a thing from now on, Tak.”
We stayed like that for a few minutes, him worshipping my belly with kisses while I reveled in the you and me of it all.
I tipped his head back so I could look into the depths of his brown eyes. “If you love me, you’ll find me something comparable to coffee this morning. I don’t know what, and I don’t know where, but there has to be something.”
My face heated saying the words. Yeah, Chris loved me. I’d have to get used to it.
“Do you doubt your alpha?”
“Never. I’ll see you in a few, right?”
“Absolutely. Don’t pick up anything around here while I’m gone, either. You’re not supposed to lift anything heavy while you’re pregnant.”
I yelled to the hallway where he was beginning to go down the stairs, “Bossy!”
“Concerned!” he yelled back, and I laughed.
Just when I thought I’d get back up and start the day somehow, without caffeine, I heard the pounding of footsteps up the stairs. Chris came back in, at a sprint.
“Forget something?” I asked, looking around to see if his wallet or keys were laying around.
“Yes. This.” He marched toward me and then took my mouth with one swoop and kissed me until I was dizzy. “Happy Birthday, Tak, my love, my omega. That’s what I forgot.”
And before I could say another word, he was back down the stairs and the door shut behind him.
I laughed to myself as I fished some clothes out of my dresser.
I had an alpha, the one I’d waited for all my life, and his babe growing inside me.
Best birthday ever.
Chapter Sixteen
Chris
I was gone longer than planned, but there were not a lot of jewelry stores nearby, and the one in Mapleville was not on the main street where you’d think it would be, but tucked down a small side street and the sign in the window said...by appointment only. Luckily, it also included a phone number, so I whipped out my cell and dialed then waited while it rang over and over. I could hear it from inside the building as well as in my ear. Far more times than you would ever expect a phone to ring without going to voicemail. On at least the twenty-fifth ring—no one could say I wasn’t determined, once I made a decision—a breathless voice answered.
“Mapleville Jewelry, what the hell do want?”
Charming. In the city, I’d hang up and go to the next shop. But since the next shop was in the city, I forced myself to remain pleasant.
“I’d like to buy something?” Dumb ass.
“Do you have an appointment?” Really? Was he so busy he could afford to turn away a customer?
“Can I make one?” Still pleasant, but my fingers ached and I loosened my death grip on the phone. I was already nervous and did not need the hassle. I could wait. It wasn’t as if Tak was expecting anything, well, besides the decaf I had already grabbed for him at the store, hoping it was okay for a pregnant omega to drink as long as the caffeine had been removed by an “all-natural process.”
But something inside me refused to let me walk away. Some might say I was rushing things, that we’d just gotten involved, but it felt as if we were picking up right where we left off, where we should have been all along. When we made that promise to marry at thirty, it had been prophetic. I was more sure of that by the minute.
“I have an opening next week,” the cranky ass said. “On Wednesday.”
Well, crap. Maybe he wasn’t inside as I’d assumed. But...I’d heard the phone ring. Just then the blind in the door twitched. Bastar
d was right inside watching me. “Look. I can see you there. I want to buy a set of rings. Engagement and wedding.” Lucky I had a rainy-day fund, one I tried to forget. “Either open up or I’m heading for the city.”
The knob twisted and the door creaked open. Sounded like he didn’t open it every day. “What’s your rush?” A tall, silver-haired man in lounge pants and a T-shirt stood there, shaking his head at me. “Did you get your omega pregnant or something?”
I pushed past him into a smallish shop space, less than half the size of Tak’s. I guessed it was common to live in the same building where you worked, in a small town, but… “That’s none of your business. Kind of late to still be in bed, isn’t it?” Staring pointedly at his red-and-black plaid flannel robe, hair in tufts sticking up from his head, stubbly jaw, and bare feet, I tapped my toes.
“And that’s none of your business. Since you’re here, I guess I have an opening in the schedule. Why don’t you look and see if you find anything you like while I get dressed?” And he was gone, disappearing through a curtain opposite the entrance. Trusting soul to leave me in his jewelry store alone. He didn’t know me from Adam, and why didn’t that seem weird to him? Did he have lots of out-of-town customers?
The dim interior made it difficult to see anything, so I pulled open the blinds on the door and the windows on either side of it. As soon as I did, dust motes danced in the rays of sunlight stretching across the deep-pile rug. Glass cases lined both sides of the room, but more dust covered them. Weeks’ worth, if I had to guess. The whole place looked neglected and sad, like its owner.
Looking around, I found a cloth and used it to wipe away the grit on the case nearest the door. Sunlight poured into the case, catching the fire of some of the most exquisite gems I had ever seen. Not that I was any kind of expert, but I knew what was beautiful.
Lucky I was not a robber, or I could have smashed the glass and grabbed a handful, enough to live on for years. As it was, I moved on to the next case, looking for something less flashy, more subtle...and that I could possibly afford. This time I found diamonds. Lots of diamonds. Definitely not the direction I was going for. I wanted something special, unique, and something my omega could wear all the time.
Marrying His Omega Page 6