by Grey, Aspen
“We making candy bars?” I asked.
“Something like that,” Garrett smiled. I watched as he started dicing the onion, cutting horizontal slices first, then vertical slices, then chopping it straight down causing it to fall into perfectly sized pieces ready for cooking.
He took the burger from me, tore the packaging off, seasoned it with salt and pepper and tossed it into the pan. It burst with smoke and sizzled as the meat began to cook. He leaned over me and grabbed a spatula and began breaking the ground beef apart into nice bite-sized pieces.
“Can you chop these spring onions for me, Tommy?” he asked. “Doesn’t have to be too fine.”
“I’ll do my best!”
I took the knife and a bundle of the spring onions, set them on the cutting board and began to chop. I felt clumsy as all Hell but managed to chop the long green things into what I thought were the right sized pieces.
The smell of the meat filled the apartment and I felt my mouth beginning to water, and not for the same reasons as earlier.
“So, what about you guys?” Garrett asked. “What are your stories?”
“Ugh,” Billy groaned. “Let’s wait until I don’t have to concentrate on anything before we get into that?”
“That’s fair,” he replied, tossing the burger like a professional chef. “Tommy, underneath you in that cupboard, there’s a strainer. Can you grab it for me and put it over that bowl?”
“Whoa, we’re getting fancy now,” I remarked as I found the thing he was looking for. It looked like thin metal wire mesh in a concave shape that fit perfectly over the bowl he’d shown me.
“We use it to drain the fat,” he said as he lifted the pan and scooped the ground beef into it. I watched as the olive oil and fat dripped out into the bowl beneath.
“Ahhhh,” I smiled. “Look at you. So fancy!”
“Now, Billy. Toss the garlic and onions into the pan for me?”
Billy did, and the film of oil flared and sizzled. Garrett stirred quickly.
“Now, add some brown sugar for me,” he said. Billy and I fought over the bag for a second, but then I gave in and let Billy scoop out a bit with his hand and sprinkle it over the onions and garlic.
“Oh, the chilies!” Garret exclaimed. “Toss those in too!”
I snatched the pile of chilies from the cutting board and threw them in, causing the pan to hiss again. Garrett stirred, flipped the pan and stirred some more and I watched as the vegetables began to take on a rich caramel color. The smell was fantastic and I inhaled deeply, growing more and more excited for our first meal together.
“Billy, can you warm some taco shells for me in the oven?” he asked.
“That I can do no problem!” Billy laughed. He took some of the taco shells from the cabinet and put them in the oven while Garrett added the burger back to the pan along with the vegetables, threw in the spring onions and stirred the whole mess together into a mouth-watering meal that I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into.
“God, this looks delicious,” I remarked as he spooned everything out into a large serving bowl. “Would you serve these on your truck?”
“Absolutely,” he smiled. “With a little rice and some options for salsa.”
“Let’s eat!” Billy laughed, pilling the now crisp tacos onto a plate.
I noticed there was no dining table in Garrett’s apartment, so we took our plates over to the couches and set them down on the coffee table. Until now, this had obviously been a bachelor’s pad.
Garrett spooned out our portions and when I took my first bite, I closed my eyes and groaned like I’d just taken my first dick.
“Aw, fuck,” I muttered. “I’ve got the name for your food truck, Garrett. When you open it.”
“Oh, yeah?” he asked.
I nodded. “Taco-Gasms!”
Chapter Thirteen
Garrett
“Anyone want more?” I asked as I leaned back on the couch, so full that I felt like if I had another bite I would burst.
“Not me,” Tommy replied. “I’ve had enough, although they were fucking amazing!”
“Me either,” Billy groaned. “Unless you’re trying to force-feed me like a foie gras goose!”
“Oh, I’d never do that,” I smiled, reaching over and squeezing Billy’s firm thigh. “I like you just the way you are.”
“Well, you’d better not keep making all this fantastic food! Or I’ll end up a big roly-poly goofball!”
“I mean—you are going to be nice and pregnant soon,” I reminded him. “Or have you forgotten what we did?”
“Yeah, I forgot!” Billy groaned as though such a thing was utterly impossible. “My insides just feel like they got pummeled by Mike Tyson for no reason.”
I burst out laughing as I looked across the coffee table at my two mates. They were just so cute, but they were still mysteries to me. I knew nothing about them, which made the fact that I knew they were my fated mates so much more powerful.
“So, tell me about yourselves,” I told them both. “Why is it that beautiful boys like you are out on the streets?”
“Well, that’s quite a story,” Billy started with a sigh. “But the long and short of it is that my father, the only one I know, is a drug addict in town who likes to steal money from me any time he sees me. He needs to be in rehab, but every time I tried to get him to go, he’d get hostile and call me all kinds of names.”
“Charming.”
“And I’m an orphan,” Tommy added. “Originally from Baltimore, but the city got to me so I made my way here. Thought I’d do better than I’d been doing back there…”
“Well, you’re doing better now,” I assured him. “We’re together now and that’s a big deal. Just having found each other is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
“What’s really more interesting, Garrett,” Tommy started. “Is this conflict you seemed to have when we met you. You said—you said you weren’t an alpha?”
I sighed and lowered my head. I knew this was going to come up at some point. The only problem was that I didn’t have any real answers for them.
“I—I don’t really know what to tell you,” I admitted. “I grew up with extremely abusive fathers who always made me feel like I was worthless. They constantly told me things to break my spirit and I believed them. I think eventually they must have gotten to me and…”
“Caused you to believe you weren’t an alpha?” Billy asked, filling in the rest of the sentence for me. I nodded, feeling like a total schmuck. “That’s…incredible.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that before,” Tommy remarked. “I didn’t even think it was possible.”
I shrugged. What else could I do? “I guess it is. I don’t know. But when I smelled you two, something snapped inside of me. I can only describe it like—have you seen Game of Thrones?”
“Parts of it,” Billy said sullenly.
“Yeah, parts.”
“Okay, well, you know The Wall?” They both nodded. “Well, I feel like I’d built one of those around my heart and when I smelled you two back in that alley, and saw what was about to happen to you, the wall came tumbling down. Does that make any sense?”
For a second, I thought they might not understand me, but after a second, they both started to smile and nod.
“Yes,” Tommy replied. “I’d given up on love completely until now.”
“Same,” Billy agreed. “No room for love out on the streets.”
“Well, your days on the streets are over,” I told them. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to take care of you two now. No more Johns. No more Pablos. No more nonsense.”
The smiles of my fated mates were enough to warm my heart again. I smiled and opened my arms to them as they got up from their couch and came over to mine and sat down on either side of me. I wrapped my arms tightly around them and closed my eyes, relishing in the moment of bliss that was so much more than anything I’d ever known. I almost couldn’t believe it.
>
This is it, I thought. This is what my life has been missing.
Chapter Fourteen
Tommy
One week later…
I woke up feeling…different. That was really the only way to describe it other than the obvious, technical definition. I was pregnant and I knew it. I looked over at Billy at the moment of realization and saw a look on his face that let me know that he felt the same way as me.
“Are you—?” I started to ask. Billy nodded effusively.
“Are you?!”
“Yes!” I burst out laughing. We threw our arms across each other and embraced, love-drunk off the realization of we’d just shared.
“Pregnant,” Billy marveled as if he couldn’t believe it.
“I know, right?”
“Pregnant!” he repeated. “Like—we’re both pregnant!”
“I know!” I was grinning like a skull.
It was a difficult thing to explain—the feeling of knowing you were pregnant—but I guess it was a little bit like the feeling I’d gotten when I’d met Garrett and known he was my fated mate. There was no mistaking it. I didn’t need to be told by anybody. I didn’t need to think about it. I knew.
“It feels so…different,” Billy said quietly as he sat up in bed beside me. Garrett had already gotten up and was probably in the kitchen making breakfast. I could barely contain myself. I threw the blankets aside, leapt out of bed and raced out of the bedroom, down the hall and into the main room of the apartment. Sure enough, he was at the stove working on something delicious looking.
“I’m pregnant!” I just about shouted at him. As he turned to face me, Billy came running up behind me and slid to a stop, almost falling over in the process.
“So am I!” he yelped, not to be left out.
“Are you—are you guys sure?” Garrett asked, taking his pan off the hot burner.
“Oh, we’re sure,” I told him.
All smiles, Garrett walked slowly over to us, his eyes wide with the revelation of what we’d just told him. His eyes moved back and forth from each of us, from our eyes to our bellies. He stopped in front of us and put a hand on each of our stomachs.
“I knew this day would come,” he said softly, almost to himself. “But I guess I still wasn’t completely prepared for it.”
“Are you excited?” Billy asked. Garrett’s eyes quickly flicked up to his and he nodded emphatically.
“Of course I am, silly!” he exclaimed. “How could I be anything but happy!? This is exactly what we wanted!”
“I know!” I laughed as he threw his arms around us and pulled us together like a big ball of happiness and warmth. We’d been living together for a week now, and things had started to feel more and more domestic, but this was really the proverbial nail in the coffin (except in a great way, not a horribly morbid way) that really finalized the new family the three of us had created.
This is what it’s like, I thought as my heart practically exploded inside my chest. This is real happiness.
But there was so much more to come! We’d grow bigger together, bear Garrett’s children for him, raise them and forge a strong family that would continue through the years. I could see it all, and with today’s news, was feeling more confident and ready than ever.
“I can’t wait to see what you two look like when you’re ready to pop!” Garrett exclaimed. He leaned in and kissed us both on the cheeks and smiled, looking already like a proud father. I was practically stumbling over myself as I pictured what he’d be like actually raising his children. We still had a long way to go, with our living situation and our income, but nothing was going to stop us.
“Ah, I’m just so happy,” Garrett remarked. He stepped back a bit to get a better look at the both of us, then got down on his knees in front of me. Before I knew it, he was lifting my shirt and kissing my belly with all the care in the world.
Ah, I’m going to melt!
I looked over at Billy who was smiling knowingly back at me. Garrett pulled back and moved over to him and did the same thing he’d done to me. Billy’s cheeks went red and he gently stroked Garrett’s hair.
It was such a delight to have an alpha who wasn’t afraid to do things like get down on his knees in front of his omegas. He wasn’t worried about maintaining some kind of tough guy appearance or “standing tall.” He knew what he was and he wasn’t insecure at all about apparently anything.
Maybe it had to do with rediscovering himself later in life. Or maybe he was just always that way, despite not realizing just how powerful of an alpha he was. But whatever the case, he was perfect for Billy and me, and every day I woke up next to him, I was in awe.
“I made eggs with guacamole and bacon,” he said from beneath us.
“That sounds delicious,” Billy replied.
Garrett got to his feet and moved to the stove as we all began our well-rehearsed routine: I got the plates from the cupboard, the utensils from the drawer and set the table while Billy got the glasses, orange juice and milk (if we had cereal) and I stood beside Garrett while he served up breakfast. If there was anything else we needed, condiments or seasonings, Billy would handle it. But this morning, we had all we needed.
“I wish you could stay home all day and celebrate,” I told Garrett with a wink and a nudge.
“I wish I could too,” he replied as he swallowed a forkful of eggs and guacamole. “But if this food truck’s ever going to happen, I need to start putting money away.”
“It will happen, baby,” I assured him. “Just don’t worry yourself to death about it.”
Garrett smiled and we finished our meal with quiet smiles across our faces. I was thinking about our future and just how sweet it was going to be, and I was pretty sure they were too.
Chapter Fifteen
Garrett
I was feeling extra excited when I stepped in the back door to work, and it wasn’t just the incredible news about the boys’ pregnancies that had me going; it was the fact that I’d met an investor who was interested in my food truck idea, and he was coming into the restaurant today.
His name was Sawyer and he was a big-shot lawyer in San Diego. He’d come in for dinner a few nights ago when I was lucky enough to get one of my specials on the menu, and he’d actually asked the kitchen to speak to the chef. Of course, they’d had to send me out there to meet him, which had upset Pierre, the head chef, but hey—that’s the way the cookie crumbles, I guess?
The special had been simple: fried haddock tacos with my own red cabbage coleslaw mix and tartar sauce on some soft taco shells, but he’d loved them. I had told him they were just the kind of thing I’d like to serve on my food truck when I got it together.
“Food truck?” he’d asked. “When you gonna get that going?”
“Not sure,” I had admitted. “But it’s my dream, ya know? Be self-sufficient. Take care of my boys and not have to rely on someone else to do it.”
Sawyer had just nodded slowly and then slid his card across the table to me.
“Call me,” he’d said. “That sounds like something I’d be interested in.”
I’d almost lost my shit right then and there, but I had to go back to work so I did my best to keep things together. But Pierre, my boss, could tell something was going on when I made my way into the back.
“What’s gotten into you?” he’d asked. “One compliment and you’re on cloud nine?”
“Sorry, boss,” I’d replied, forcing the smile from my lips and getting back to work.
Yeah, just a single compliment!
Since then, the vision of my food truck had been racing through my mind as I brainstormed recipes, looks for the truck, logos, advertising, all the things that went into running one and being in charge of my own business.
The boys would want to work there for sure, and I’d love that, but when they got closer and closer to their due dates, I’d want them at home. I’m sure they’d be in full-blown nesting mode too and wouldn’t want to be chopping lettuce, onions and tom
atoes all morning.
“There you are, Garrett!” Pierre exclaimed in his thick French accent. “Where have you been? Don’t think that just because some lawyer man thinks you are a good cook that you can go around coming into work late!”
I wasn’t late, of course, but Pierre was letting me know he was still my boss. And I respected that. We’d never had any trouble with one another, and my time at the restaurant had been good for me. But if I was going to be starting my own family, I felt as though it was time for me to move on.
It was a big step, moving out on my own when both of my mates were pregnant, but I was confident that together we could handle anything. If Sawyer wasn’t all talk, and he put his money where his mouth was, the truck would be a success. I’d be my own boss, a small business owner and have plenty of room to expand in San Diego later down the line. I was already seeing colors, logos, the interior layout, different tacos, the specials boards and the line down the block…I was captivated, to say the least.
“Sorry about that, chef,” I told Pierre as I got my chef’s uniform on. “I’ll get started right away.”
“There is a man in the dining room,” he said, sounding slightly annoyed. “Says he wants to talk to you.”
“Oh?” I asked, pretending to be surprised. Pierre wasn’t buying it. He extended a warning finger.
“Make it quick!”
“Yes, chef.”
I nodded as I tied my apron around my back and stepped through the swinging door into the dining room. It was empty except for one table where Sawyer was sitting.
He was a bit of a cliché, but in the best way. He was tall, with loose blonde hair, blue eyes and a luxurious tan, not from working outside but from going to the beach, surfing and probably tanning booths too. He was wearing a pair of blue chinos, a loose white t-shirt that hung low at the neck and an olive-colored blazer. He smiled as I entered and got to his feet.
