Expecting You

by Claire Cullen

  “We can all see how tough you’ve had it, duck. Aaron did what any of us would have done, if we could have.”

  Zac knew that was true. Having to call in sick for days or weeks at a time meant he’d gone from a stable job to getting a few relief days here and there. He’d lucked out in that Aaron had both taken pity on him and not been too concerned about the legal side of things.

  “How is Aaron settling in?” He and his new alpha husband, Gino, had just left the country for Japan, where they’d live and work for the duration of Gino’s tenure at the university there. Who worried about a tiny little thing like healthcare fraud when they wouldn’t be back in the country until long after the statute of limitations ran out?

  “He says it’s quite the culture shock, but they’re enjoying playing tourists right now. He’ll be glad to hear you’re doing so well.”

  “He’s a lifesaver,” Zac said quietly, sobering at the thought of where he’d be if Harper’s cousin hadn’t come through for him like that. The nine-hundred-dollar co-pay was a tiny price to pay for getting his freedom—his life—back.

  “That he is, and we’ll drink a toast to him, when you get a job and we can afford to drink again.” Harper flopped onto the old ratty couch that was the centerpiece of his living room and had been Zac’s bed for the previous few months.

  “Speaking of jobs, one of the agencies might have something for me.”

  Harper perked up at that. “Details, Z. Sharing is caring.”

  “It needs a minimum level-two healthcare cert. And it’s live-in.”

  Harper’s face fell, but he rallied well. “Apartment’s too small for all of us anyway. I was getting tired of you crashing on my couch.”

  “Honestly, I don’t think they’ll want me. I haven’t exactly been the most reliable nanny this past year. It sounds like they’ve been through a handful of nannies already. This kid must be really sick, Harper.”

  “Or he’s a spoiled brat who gets the sniffles now and then. You’ve told me those stories often enough.”

  Zac groaned. “Oh, I hope not. I always feel so sorry for those kids. No nanny is ever good enough, so the parents keep chopping and changing. How are they ever going to learn how to cope in the real world when they’re wrapped head to toe in bubble wrap?”

  “Well, either they’ll never leave their bubble or they’re in for a rude awakening one day. But if it’s not helicopter parents, are you gonna take the job?”

  Zac tugged at a loose thread on the hem of his T-shirt. “Maybe. I have a phone interview this afternoon.”

  “So soon?”

  “They sound kind of desperate.”

  “Sure, but maybe you should ease yourself back into things. Pick up more casual work. Wait for something easier to come along.”

  Zac made a face at Harper.

  “It’s off-season. Most positions have been filled and not much will come up again until the New Year. I’ve been living off your kindness for far too long. We’re just lucky your roommate’s more interested in his boyfriend’s house than he is being here. I don’t think Colin has even noticed I’ve been living here.”

  “Fuck him. You’re my friend. If I say you can stay, you can stay.”

  “Sure. Except the landlord is his uncle, not yours. Which one of you is gonna get kicked out if you make trouble?”

  “Him, ‘cause he’s an ass,” Harper insisted.

  Zac gave him a look, and he capitulated. “Yeah, yeah. Me, because nepotism is alive and well in the twenty-first century.”

  “Never forget it,” Zac said softly.

  Harper leaned across the gap between their cushions and grabbed his hand. “I’m really glad you went through with it. This is the start of good times, good things. I feel it in my bones.”

  Zac pushed him away, laughing. “You also said you felt we were in for a week of sunshine, and it hasn’t stopped raining since the day before yesterday. I think you need to have a word with your bones. They’re giving mixed signals.”

  “And we know better than to give mixed signals. Alphas are terrible at reading anything that’s not literally the words ‘come fuck me’ written on an omega’s forehead.”

  “We should try that for Halloween this year. Could be fun.”

  “Wouldn’t you rather be a sexy nurse and go find yourself a doctor? I bet Dr. Hains is good looking.”

  “Dr. Hains is a she, and she wasn’t even there. Her replacement… let’s just say he left a lot to be desired, in every respect.”

  “But he got the job done,” Harper said pointedly. “Have to give him that.”

  That he had, and now Zac had five blissful, heat-free years ahead of him. And he didn’t have to worry about accidentally spawning some alpha one-night stand’s baby.

  Chapter Four

  With time running short, Beckett tried another agency he’d used in the past.

  “Mr. Rayne, your pool of potential nannies would be greatly increased if they weren’t required to be live-in and extensively health certified.”

  “Live-in is the only arrangement that works for me,” Beckett explained patiently to the manager.

  “Well, given little Luca’s medical needs, perhaps you should be looking for a nurse and not a nanny.”

  “That won’t do.” He didn’t bother giving a reason, knowing she wouldn’t fully understand it. A nurse would see Luca as a patient first and a child second. A nanny—an omega nanny—would always see the child.

  “If you’re certain…”

  “I’m certain.”

  She took a breath and continued, “Then we do have someone who might suit your needs. His availability doesn’t start until next week, and while he has excellent references from all his families, his recent work record leaves something to be desired…”

  “Send me his resume,” Beckett said immediately.

  He ended the call feeling hopeful, but that hope was quickly dashed when he read through the nanny’s file. He’d lasted less than six months on each of his last four jobs and less than three months on the most recent. What Luca needed wasn’t just expertise, it was consistency. Yet, reading the detailed references from all the families painted a picture of a wonderful nanny. Exactly what he was looking for. He couldn’t figure out how the short-term employment fit in with the glowing references, but one of the families was a couple he knew. So, he did what any concerned father would do and gave them a call.

  “Hello?”

  “Rafe, hi. It’s Beckett Rayne, Luca’s dad.” Rafe’s daughter, Frankie, had been at playgroup with Luca before he got too sick to attend.

  “Beckett, lovely to hear from you. How’s Luca? We miss him at the jungle gym.”

  “Luca’s hanging in there. He’s a real little trooper. I actually called because I’m looking for a new nanny for him, someone with medical training. I know with Frankie’s asthma, you’re very careful in your choice of nannies, and I wanted to ask you about a nanny who cared for Frankie previously—Isaac Hughes?”

  “Isaac? Oh, you mean Zac. Of course. Frankie loved him, and so did we. What did you want to know?”

  “Yeah, you wrote him a fantastic reference, but I couldn’t help noticing that he wasn’t with you all that long. I don’t want to introduce yet another person into Luca’s life if they’re going to be leaving again in a few months.”

  “I understand, of course. Zac was fantastic, in every way. But…”

  “But,” Beckett prompted.

  Rafe lowered his voice. “He was having some medical problems. Of the…” His voice dropped to a mere whisper. “…personal kind, if you know what I mean.”

  For omegas, personal almost always meant heat-related.

  “He left the position voluntarily. I don’t think he’s worked as a nanny since, except some relief work here and there. If the agency is handing his resume around again, he must have sorted out his, uh, little problem. If it was me, I’d snap him up in a heartbeat.”

  “Thanks, Rafe. You’ve been a real help.”
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  “Sure, Beckett. Don’t be a stranger now. Maybe Luca could come over for a play date?”

  “He’d love that, I’m sure. We’ll schedule one soon.”

  He didn’t hesitate to call the agency back as soon as he’d finished making small talk with Rafe. They agreed to arrange a phone interview first, and Beckett set up a time to call.

  Twenty minutes beforehand, he pulled up his list of interview questions, making a few changes and mentally preparing. He wanted to choose right this time, for Luca’s sake. A minute after the set time, he dialed the number the agency had given him.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello. Can I speak to Isaac Hughes?”

  The first rule of any phone conversation: make sure you’ve dialed the right number.

  “Speaking.”

  “This is Beckett Rayne. The agency gave me your number. Are you free to talk?”

  “Ready when you are.”

  “Great.”

  He started with some easy questions, pleased with the answers he was getting. Just as he was about to get to the hard stuff, Isaac anticipated what he most wanted to know.

  “You’re probably wondering about the gaps in my resume and the short placements.”

  “It’s given me pause. Luca has had a lot of turmoil in his short life. He needs some consistency right now. If you can’t provide that, I’d appreciate it if you could be upfront about it.”

  There was a short silence before Isaac spoke again.

  “I had some health issues, and it’s taken time to get proper treatment for them. But they’ve been sorted out. If you hire me, I won’t let you and Luca down.”

  That was as much reassurance as Beckett could expect. He didn’t pry or ask questions, he just moved on to Isaac’s medical certs.

  “Do you have any questions for me?” he asked as he meandered to the end of his list.

  “Two, actually, but they’re requests rather than questions. Can I have the names of one or two of your previous nannies? Also, I’d like to meet Luca before this goes any further, assuming it will go further.”

  Isaac immediately went up a few points in Beckett’s estimation. He understood that a good nanny chose a family as much as the family chose them.

  “Of course. I’ll send you the details of our most recent nannies, if they’re okay with that. As for Luca, I would really like the two of you to meet. When would suit you?”

  “Tomorrow morning, nine-thirty?”

  Beckett had a conference call at nine that he suspected might run long. “Can we make it ten?”

  “Sure.”

  “Great, I’ll send you the address along with the contact details for the nannies.”

  He ended the call, feeling like a weight had lifted off his shoulders. Things were finally falling into place. All he needed now was one more good piece of news to really make his day—that their surrogate’s IVF had been successful. Austin had an appointment with their doctor to confirm implantation that afternoon. With any luck, Beckett would be getting a call right after.

  To distract himself while he waited, he checked on Luca. He was napping after a morning of playing with his toy trains. Beckett just stood in the doorway, watching the rise and fall of Luca’s little chest. Every breath was another hope. All he had to do was keep him breathing.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he stepped away, closing the door behind him. It was later than he’d realized, almost an hour after he’d expected to hear the news.

  “Hey, Dr. Lawson. How’s Austin?”

  There was a long pause, and Beckett’s heart sank.

  “Well, he’s not pregnant, I can tell you that much.”

  Beckett’s heart clenched tightly in his chest as bitter disappointment swallowed him whole. “The IVF failed.”

  There was an even longer pause this time.

  “It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. There were some… irregularities… in his blood tests. We’re still trying to determine the cause. Right now, all I can tell you for certain is that Austin isn’t pregnant. However, we’re not sure the implantation procedure actually went ahead.”

  Beckett froze, his mind jumping in a dozen directions at once.

  “Wait, I don’t… How are you not sure the procedure happened? Austin told me himself that it did. Does this mean you still have the embryo?”

  If the procedure hadn’t gone ahead, then the clinic should still have it. Which meant they still had a chance.

  “We’re looking into that. As soon as we understand what happened, we’ll let you know.” He coughed awkwardly. “Our legal department may become involved. Just giving you a heads-up.”

  “What? Why would…”

  But Dr. Lawson had already hung up.

  Beckett stared at the phone for a long moment, then stepped back toward Luca’s room, pushing the door open slowly. Luca’s little life, which was already so fragile, had just grown even more so.

  Chapter Five

  Zac had never been one for pre-interview jitters, but he couldn’t deny that he had them now. His stomach somersaulted again, and he pushed away his slice of toast.

  Harper raised an eyebrow at him. “Nervous? I don’t know why. You’re a shoo-in.”

  Zac made a face. “We don’t know that. They haven’t even met me yet.”

  “But once they do, it’s always the same. They fall in love with the most beloved nanny in this city. None of those families ever wanted to let you go. Hell, the Curleys paid for a relief nanny every time your heat knocked you out of action. You were the one who pulled the plug.”

  “Because it wasn’t fair to the kids.” Zac dragged his plate closer and nibbled on the crust of his slice of toast. “Even when I was there, I wasn’t able to keep up with them.”

  “Well, anyone would find toddler triplets hard work. Even if those triplets did adore you.”

  “They didn’t adore me,” Zac grumbled.

  “Kids, animals, old people. You’ve got some kind of Mary Poppins thing going on. Everyone falls under your spell.”

  It was sort-of true. Zac rarely met a child he didn’t get along with. He was a people person, through and through.

  “And the other nannies didn’t bring up any red flags, did they?”

  Zac had contacted each of the three names Beckett had provided, and they’d all said more or less the same thing.

  “Not even a yellow flag. Though they did say that Beckett’s a widower.”

  Harper made a face at that. Zac knew what he was thinking. A single alpha parent was often, by itself, a reason to be cautious in the nanny business. “But they also said that he’s devoted to two things: his son and his job.”

  “How’d his husband die?”

  “Omrey’s disease. He didn’t know he had it, and the pregnancy accelerated it. Collapsed and died with no warning shortly after his son was born. Luca has the juvenile type, that’s why he’s so sick.”

  “That’s rough,” Harper said. “Losing your mate like that and then knowing it’ll take your kid, too? Sounds like this family could really use you there. I guess I’ll have to come to terms with letting you go. Thai food would help. And cocktails.”

  Zac laughed, and his stomach lurched again. With a groan, he pushed back his chair, giving up on his toast.

  “I’ve never had butterflies in my stomach before. Is it a bad sign? Maybe I’ve lost my confidence.”

  Harper snorted. “You? Never. You’re just out of practice. I give it half an hour before you’re back in the swing of things.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  He knew Harper would take him up on the challenge. “Sure. I bet you a medium pizza that you’ll walk in there, wow the pants off them, and I’ll be down a roommate by next Monday.”

  Zac already owed Harper far more than a pizza.

  “Deal.”

  They shook on it, Zac laughing as he got to his feet, cleared his plate, and got ready to leave. He brushed the few crumbs off his clothes and turned to Harper.

  “Ho
w do I look?”

  “Like you walked out of a nanny catalog.” He made a shooing motion. “Go forth and charm all the families of the neighborhood.”

  Zac rolled his eyes. “See you later?”

  “Very late. Got a date tonight.”

  “Leo from the gym?” Harper’s most recent obsession.

  “Micah from the community college. I’m a sucker for a man in glasses. He can teach me any day.”

  Zac’s destination was a bus ride away. It wasn’t too crowded seeing as it was after rush hour. Live-in nanny jobs were easier in some ways—they cut out the travel time. In other ways, they could be harder, especially when the family wasn’t good at setting firm boundaries. Beckett sounded organized, but he was also the alpha of the household. In Zac’s experience, it was the omega parent who was normally the difficult one. Having an omega nanny around felt like an encroachment on their territory. At least with this family, that wouldn’t be an issue. Zac would still have to be careful to maintain firm boundaries, though.

  He got off the bus, double-checked his map, and walked the short distance through the neighborhood. It was a gated community, but the security guard recognized him on sight and waved him through. This wasn’t the first family he’d worked with in the area. The array of houses was an architect’s dream, each one showcasing some individuality. Outside of nannying, Zac had only ever lived in working-class neighborhoods: rows of drab buildings, identically run down. In comparison, a neighborhood like this was paradise.

  As he walked up the driveway to the house, he checked his watch. Five minutes early. Early was better than late, so he went ahead and rang the doorbell. He didn’t hear a sound from inside. Anywhere else, it might have meant no one was home. In this neighborhood, it spoke to some impressive soundproofing.