We ate in companionable silence, the not-getting-sticky clause long out the window, Janis peacefully dozing.
“Dad?” Bowie asked after he licked his fork clean. “What is a training order?”
“I have no idea. In what context?” I asked, trying to figure out what it was he was getting at.
“Dunno. Uncle Freddie was telling Uncle Rich about it, and I was leaves-dropping.” I mentally corrected his mis-wording of the phrase, not wanting to distract from the conversation at hand.
“Dummy, Uncle Freddie said he took care of it. Why are you bothering Dad?” Jagger elbowed his brother.
“Really?” I asked, looking at his elbow, and he shrugged. “I don’t know about this, but if Uncle Freddie said there was nothing to worry about, there wasn’t.” Although if it was about their mother and he didn’t tell me, there were other things to worry about.
My phone rang in my pocket. It was early in the day for us but not for most people. We were still on tour time. It was Freddie.
“Speak of the devil,” I joked and walked away from the table and into the garage. “What’s a training order?” Not the best way to answer a call, but that was how I was rolling.
“That’s what I called to talk to you about. We are going back into the studio and want you on as our full-time sound guy not just for shows but also for recording and videos and such.” We had talked about it on the road, but this was the first time we’d called it full-time.
“And I need training?” Because it sure didn’t sound like the answer to my question.
“No. I was telling Rich about the offer, and he said that was only going to encourage Iliana to come sniffing around more, just like she did with you going on tour, and I said no worries, we can get a restraining order if need be.”
“On what grounds?” Because that sure sounded fishy to me. You can’t randomly get restraining orders on people. You just can’t.
“On we have really good lawyers, and it wouldn’t really be a restraining order but more like a ban from all events the band is in attendance at.” Ahh, now that sounded much more legal. And would probably be enough to thwart her.
“She probably won’t really come around again. I think the ambulance thing scared her. I wish she could just be a good mom.” I sighed. The boys deserved that. Sadly, she would never be that for them. She’d offered to sign the paperwork giving up her parental rights the day she left. Who does that? Iliana.
“I don’t know. You did make a splash on the news.” He chuckled. Sure, the reporters had been there, and sure, they had taken a ton of pictures, but all of the headlines, every last one, talked about the famous people visiting a random omega. I was pretty sure not one of the articles even mentioned we worked on their tour. Still cool to have a picture of Janis like that for the scrapbook.
“I didn’t even make a footnote.” I walked back inside the house, not wanting Edwin to worry. “And about this job—you said it’s a full-time gig?” Because as much as I loved the work, I needed to provide for my family first and foremost.
“Pays full-time, but you know this business—sometimes we work our tails off, and sometimes we drink lemonade by the pool, bored off our asses.” I’d never been a part of that segment of the job, but I’d seen the lows for sure.
“I’ll need to talk to Edwin. When would it start?” I was itching to say yes, but it truly was a family decision.
“The tour was a huge success so the label wants to get moving right away. We told them we need a few weeks, but we can make it a few more if you want to babymoon longer.”
“You would do that for me?” For them, the longer they waited, the less of a chance they would knock it out of the park again. The business was fickle at best.
“You’re family now. That’s what families do.”
“Yes,” Edwin answered loudly, not for me but for Freddie.
“I guess it’s a yes.” I laughed as my omega leaned into my side, unsure how much he even overheard.
“Perfect. Let’s meet next week and work on details. Kiss that sweet baby for me.”
“Will do.” I leaned over and kissed her right then and there. “And, Freddie? Thanks for everything.”
“Anytime,” he replied, and I slid my phone back into my pocket. “You cool being mated into the world of rock and roll?”
“As long as you are by my side, there is nothing more I could ask for. Should we go tell the boys since they have probably been leaves-dropping anyway.” He took my hand in his.
“Told you they’d know,” Bowie scolded his brother from around the corner, and it was all I could do not to burst out in laughter.
“You guys up for some more tours in the future?” I called to them and they came barreling in babbling on about their bikes—because of course they did.
Epilogue
Edwin
The months flew with two active boys and a little duchess to care for. Somehow my plan to open a dance studio kept getting put off, but I did manage to teach a few classes at another place just to get my dance legs back, and I was even going to be in a small local production next winter.
But for now, we were waiting by the door for yet another tour, laden with baggage for a family of five. The bikes, along with some other bags, had gone on ahead. How could a whole year have passed since the day I met my alpha? Janis was eight months old and sitting up on her own. She’d even begun to crawl a little. The boys were eight and chattered nonstop about spending the next few months with their friends.
The black SUV pulled up, and the driver emerged. “Creature tour?”
“That’s us.” Judson opened the back door and went to work on fastening in Janis’s seat, something that always seemed tricky to me. While the driver filled the back compartment with all our things, the rest of us piled in and we were off.
This time we were spared the winding switchback road to the cabin, instead speeding directly down the highway to a private airport and through the gates to a DC3 freshly painted with the Creature logo and 2020 World Tour. This time, our little family was going off to see the world.
I twisted the gold ring on my finger, remembering the past and savoring the present. There would be no mannies or tutors on this flight. Rich had taken the summer off so he could enjoy the time with his children, and it had been deemed unnecessary to hire a tutor when the world had too much to offer.
Judson hopped out and offered me his hand. I linked fingers and stepped onto the tarmac, looking up at the huge aircraft that was replacing a tour bus this year.
“What’s next?” I asked him. “Mars?”
He drew me in for a big hug and kiss, which we broke to a chorus of ewwws, pretty much as usual. Living as a family was not everyone’s idea of romance. The boys ended up in our bed more often than not, one or both. And Janis still woke in the night sometimes. And the boys, early always. So sleep was at a premium. But happiness? That we had in buckets.
Another SUV pulled up and Freddie and Rich and their family spilled out. The four boys, ours and theirs, raced up the stairs onto the plane. Sarah walked up with us and her dads and Janis, chattering away to the baby as if she understood every word of the plans being made for her summer. The girls’ team.
We boarded and wrangled all the kids into seats before settling by a window. We’d come a long way in a year, maybe me most of all.
Home is where your family is…
Fleeing a heart-crushing break-up after discovering his infertility, Omega Pace moves across an ocean to become a classically trained manny. When his father’s health declines, he leaves his job with a minor branch of the royal family to be by his side and signs on with Manny’s Mannies to take a temporary local job locally.
Sometimes achieving your goals isn’t all it’s cracked up to be...
While Adam loves his children, he doesn’t see his life as a stay-at-home omega. Soaring in his career, he finds balancing work and home challenging at best, especially when his job takes on a much more serious tone as a take-ov
er looms.
Sometimes doing everything for your family means admitting you can’t do it on your own...
Alpha Lincoln will do anything for his family. He loves them with all he is. He puts the same passion into his career as a physician, going above and beyond the call of duty to achieve what his family needs. Seeing his omega struggling, he does the only thing he can think of to help...he calls Manny.
Pace walks into his interview, immediately sees a family in need, and pushes back his attraction to the two hot men who will become his boss. Their children need out of the chaos their lives have become and his training makes him a perfect fit. Little does he know that they are exactly what he needs as well.
Completed by Their Manny is a super sweet with knotty heat MMM Mpreg romance featuring two adorable kids who would keep anyone on their toes, an omega father who knows all too well the meaning of father guilt, a smexy alpha doctor trying to hold it all together, and the manny who will complete their family in a way they could never have imagined. Completed by Their Manny is the fifth book in the popular Manny’s Mannies series, featuring hot dads, their adorable children, and the manny who becomes so much more.
Completed by Their Manny
by
By Lorelei M. Hart
Prologue
Pace Prince
I stared out the window of the jetliner at the approaching coastline of my home country. After several years abroad, I’d thought I would never return to the United States for more than a visit. Too many memories lay here, ashes of a life I’d built with someone I thought I’d be married to forever. When we exchanged vows, I’d certainly meant them for better or worse, but, apparently, to my ex-husband, they only rang true until he realized he’d married damaged goods.
I closed my eyes, remembering the day he’d thrown me out, told me I wasn’t “what he’d counted on” when we got married. My problem was not surmountable, and he’d already gotten his secretary, a blond, blue-eyed omega with aspirations beyond his worth, pregnant. So, he was in, and I was out.
My settlement was enough to get me to an entirely different continent, where I used the last of it to attend the Royal Manny Academy, the school from which most of the rich and titled in the UK and Europe in general drew their fancy full-time babysitters. Since I loved children, and fate had denied me the ability to have any of my own, I thought this was the best way to enjoy them and a comfortable lifestyle, without running into my ex and his replacement omega and their no-doubt adorable baby on a daily basis.
I was not sure what I’d expected when I enrolled, maybe something from a movie where an intrepid young omega crossed the Atlantic to recreate himself and become who he should have been all along—preferably while charming instrumental music played in the background. And in a way, my fantasy did happen—sans music, of course. But the Royal Manny Academy was certainly not an easy way to get there. And I was the oldest in my first-year class by a few years.
We rose at five every morning for vigorous exercise followed by breakfast, during which the headmistress or an instructor addressed us regarding a relevant topic and we went over any changes in the schedule for the day, and then we were off and running until well after supper. Classes in childcare and rearing, defensive driving, nutrition, self-defense, and basic sewing. So many things to learn to be a Royal graduate. Three years of classroom training were followed by a year working with a family carefully selected to assist a new manny in completing his degree.
When I walked onstage to shake the hand of the headmistress and our keynote speaker—the prime minister—I was prepared to raise any child, prince or pauper, and do it well. I wore the Royal Manny uniform with pride and entered into the service of a minor member of the royal family. The children I raised were in line for the throne, but so far out neither of them would ever sit on it. Which was fine. They were twin girls who loved horseback riding and painting, and me.
I planned to stay with them as long as their family needed me, but, unfortunately, just two years into my service, I received a letter from my uncle Ned. After boarding the next flight, I pulled it out and read it again.
Dear Pace,
It’s been too long since we’ve seen you. We’ve been busy around here, too. The store is buzzing with activity. Turns out our line of hand-tied fishing lures are big sellers. Also raising our own worms… We have a secret blend of soil we grow them in. I don’t want to write down what it is, but I’ll show you when you come to visit one day.
And that brings me to why I’m writing you. Your dad hasn’t been doing too well lately. He doesn’t like to complain—you know how he is. But the doctor says he needs surgery and maybe more than one operation. Also other treatment. He doesn’t want to do it. Nephew, I know there’s hurtful memories for you in your hometown, but if you can find a way to go there for a while, maybe you can get your father to have those operations and help to keep his spirits up? I know you’ve got a job in England, and I wouldn’t ask if there was any other way. But I’m afraid if you don’t return, I’ll lose my only brother. I can visit from time to time, but I have your aunt to take care of, and she’s not doing well either.
You hold your dad’s life in your hands.
And as a bonus incentive, we’ll teach you our worm-raising method next time you make it up here. Maybe you can earn some money on the side in the big garden at the house you work at. Never hurts to have something extra just in case.
See you soon,
Uncle Ned
Worms…I could just picture worm bins in the manicured gardens surrounding my employer’s Victorian manor home. But I came from fishing folk. Lure makers. And worm raisers. Salt of the earth, but they inhabited a whole different world from the one I’d stepped into. Uncle Ned owned a fishing shop, unfortunately several hundred miles from Dad’s place, and my aunt was suffering from the early stages of dementia. My uncle was a devoted spouse, and I couldn’t expect him to try to drag her to Dad’s and care for them both. He wasn’t a spring chicken either. Just a really great guy.
When I contacted the school department that also handled contracts for their graduates, I was told to come right in on my next day off to discuss the matter. I entered the office to find not just the employment counselor but also the headmistress waiting for me with a pot of tea and a plate of my favorite chocolate biscuits. My eyes swam with tears.
“You remembered the biscuits.”
The headmistress rose and came to take my hands. “We remember everything. Our graduates are always family. Come sit and tell us.”
I did, leaving out only the plan to grow worms on the estate. I expected disappointment if not disapproval at my decision, but I’d been mistaken.
“I believe,” said Miss Spades, the counselor, “you will need a job while you are in the colonies.” I did not comment on that; nobody ever did. Miss Spades held strong opinions on the position held by England in the world. She was over eighty and very good at her job.
“I will, yes, but I understand you probably wouldn’t have placements in the town I grew up in. It only has a few traffic lights and no manors.”
The headmistress tsked. “We have requests for mannies from everywhere in the world, as you know, but in that area, we work with an organization called Manny’s Mannies. The owner has a standing request for any of our mannies who might want placement in their area.”
Miss Spades went on, “Despite their rather quaint name, they are quite respectable and, if you agree, will find you a family to work for close enough for you to assist your father as needed.”
“I-I don’t know what to say,” I spluttered, looking from one to the other of the conservatively dressed women. “But that would be beyond acceptable. Dad doesn’t need me to be with him all the time, but he does need ongoing support for the foreseeable future, especially in decision-making.” Phone calls with Uncle Ned had confirmed as much. I didn’t tell Dad because he would have tried to talk me out of it, proud, independent old man that he was.
“Perfect.�
�� Miss Space drew a manila envelope from the top drawer, one of the old-fashioned kind fastened closed with a string. Knowing her it was probably fifty years old. “Make your arrangements to leave immediately. When you arrive and get settled, call Manny’s Mannies and make an appointment. They will be expecting to hear from you and will take it from there.”
“But my current posting?” They were not only members of the royal family but genuinely kind and had treated me well. I also was quite fond of the girls.
“We will contact them and explain. As luck would have it, another manny has become available unexpectedly, so we will be able to slot him right in.”
“But…is he good? The girls are so sweet and—”
The headmistress lifted her chin and looked me right in the eye. “He is a Royal Manny.”
And no more needed to be said.
And very shortly thereafter, I was riding in a cab to my dad’s home. When he opened the door and I got a look at him, pale and much thinner than four years before, guilt assailed me. I’d spent my holidays traveling Europe and seeing the sights instead of spending time with him.
“Hi, Dad. Look who’s home for a while.”
He blinked at me, looking so surprised I was afraid he might have a heart attack on the spot. “Well. Come in. I made my famous chili.”
Chapter One
Adam Graves
“You have too many clothes on.” Lincoln stepped close and unbuttoned my work shirt, my tie having hit the floor as soon as I walked in. It had been a trying day. Amazing yet altogether not. I needed this. “And the kids are long asleep.”
What went unspoken was that they were fast asleep because I pulled yet another stupid extended day all in the name of moving up the corporate ladder. Was it working? Today was proof it absolutely was. Was it worth it? An entirely different matter.
A Bundle of Mannies Page 45
