“Reid?” Kayson called from my bedroom doorway.
“Reid?” He was closer, yet his voice quieter. Calming.
“Reid?” He was sitting on the bed.
My Kayson. Mine.
I rolled over, flinging myself at him, the tears falling instantly as I begged him for his forgiveness.
“I’m so sorry. I got all up in my head. I mean I had help, but yeah. And then I got sick, although now I know it wasn’t sick, it was pregnant. And then I thought it was too late. Then, this morning, I put the pieces together and the condom—it didn’t work. Remember?”
He nodded, not interrupting my babbling nonsense, his hand holding the proof of our first joining.
“And I went out and got the test, and then you showed up. Why did you show up?”
“To get you back, silly omega.” He dropped the test on the nightstand and curled his body around mine, holding me close.
“But I was awful to you.”
“True.” He kissed the back of my head, his front pressed against my back, proving he was really here. With me. “But I didn’t say I wanted you only if you were perfect, did I. Because, if I did, I needed someone to go back in time and kick past Reid’s ass.” He forced a chuckle.
“No. But I was awful, and now—a baby. You didn’t ask for this.”
Neither of us did. I wasn’t upset by it, though. Which was all kinds of messed up, but there it was.
“Nor did you. But doesn’t that make the gift a thousand times better?”
Gift. He called our child a gift.
His hand settled on my belly.
“Gift?”
“Gift. We are going to have a baby. You and me.”
“But I left you.” Why was I arguing. He was here for me and wanted our child. I should be basking in the glory of it instead of trying to convince him I was unworthy. Which, I was.
“And I followed. So, as I see it, we can raise our baby here or back in Mapleville.”
“You would stay here—for me.”
He loved Mapleville. He talked about the people in town as if they were family. He was willing to give that up for me.
“I’d pretty much do anything for you. I was only a shell when you left.”
I knew the feeling.
“My aunt fired me at least seventy-two million times for crappy work.”
I could so see her doing that, too. She was a hot ticket. I could also see her being a great grandmother type for our child. When she wasn’t teaching them inappropriate things, anyway.
“Seventy-two million?” I rolled in his arms, needing to see him.
“Fine. A bunch. If you want to be here, here I will be.”
“And if I want to go to Mapleville?”
“Then I will help you pack later.”
“Later?”
“Yes, Later. Right now I need to feel you are here, with me, all mine. I need to taste you, touch you, mark you from the inside out.”
That was a plan I could get behind. Or in front of. Or whatever he had planned. He was mine.
“You kind of already did by putting a baby in there,” I sassed.
“So, try for twins?”
My mouth fell open, until I saw the glimmer of amusement in his eye.
“You know that’s not how that works, right?” I played along, glad we could so easily fall back into our playfulness.
“Of course, it doesn’t, but can’t blame a man for trying.” He shrugged. He had me there.
“I’m so sorry.” I was apologizing for all things. He would never ask it of me, but I needed him to know—to never doubt.
“No need to apologize. I love you just as you are.” His lips found mine before I could respond. I sank into his embrace and enjoyed every nip, lick, and suck. When our lips separated, both of us were breathless and ready for so much more.
“Does that mean I can have your knot?”
“Always.” And his lips found me once more.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kayson
One Month Later
Instead of making Reid move into my apartment and then moving the three of us into a bigger place, I found us a cottage at the edge of town that I’d had my eye on for a while but had no reason to buy.
And then, just when I was about to write the check for the down payment, I found out that Aunt Viv bought the damned place and put it in my name.
In cash.
Now, we just had to decide what stayed and what went.
“I’m not going to be able to stomach that chair.”
“That was Uncle James’s chair.” I attempted to defend the poor booger-green thing. I didn’t even like it, but I had to pretend to put up a fight sometimes.
“Uncle James had really bad taste and, with my sour stomach, I seriously can’t look at it.”
I sighed as though the thought of giving up my chair pained me. “I don’t want to make you any sicker than you have been, honey. That babe is giving you a hard time.”
Reid stopped fussing long enough to rub both his hands over his slightly swelling stomach. “The doctor said it should stop any day now. I just want to eat a burger without seeing it come up a few minutes later.”
“Come here.” I opened my arms for my mate. I needed to comfort him as much as I knew he loved to be cuddled. Maybe it was the hormones or just the acceptance of our relationship, but we couldn’t touch each other enough lately. I often woke in the middle of the night to find Reid plastered against my back, our babe between us in his stomach.
I loved every second of it. Protecting my family. Making sure my mate and my love were safe and taken care of. It had become my focus.
“I think I need to lie down,” Reid whispered against my chest.
“You want me to come with you? Can I get you anything? Tea?”
Aunt Viv had insisted on ginger tea for Reid, and it worked every time if he could get past the smell.
“Tea in bed would be great. Thank you, Kayson.” He tipped his face up and kissed my chin.
“Give me five minutes.” I watched him go to the bedroom and heard the flick of the lamp being turned off.
I picked through some boxes until I found one tea cup and the electric kettle. I’d been using a kettle on the stove most of my life, but Reid insisted on the electric one. I had to admit, it was faster.
Reid seemed to do everything better. He made me better.
Minutes later, I brought the tea into the bedroom and set it on the table beside him. He looked absolutely green.
Even greener than Uncle James’s chair.
“Do you think you can drink some?” I asked, rubbing circles on his stomach.
“Yeah.” I handed him the tea. He sipped and closed his eyes.
“I’m gonna finish unpacking the kitchen while you rest. I can’t stand the mess in there anymore. And, as soon as you’re better, I want to make my mate a meal.”
He laughed a little and put his hand on top of mine, rubbing along with me. “I think we are both nesting a little.”
“I can’t help it. I need this place perfect for my family. I can’t believe we are going to be fathers.”
“You’ll be the best father, Kayson. You already are the best mate. I love you so much.”
“I love you, Reid. Always will.”
With one last kiss on his forehead, I left him to rest.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Reid
It was the day. The. Day. Sure, it really shouldn’t be that big a deal. The midwife had even said it was optional, although the more I interacted with her, the more I got the feeling she thought all medical care should be optional, except what she did. I liked her well enough, but she knew from the get-go she was only our midwife while Dr. Shaw was doing a short stint helping people hurt by a fierce hurricane down in the islands.
Thankfully, Dr. Shaw was back in time for today, our ultrasound.
“Did you drink it all?”
I growled at Kayson. It wasn’t becoming, but he deserved it. I�
��d just pounded more water than I usually drank in a day and had to hold it in my body for the foreseeable future. He should be commiserating and not checking on my obedience.
“I should make you do it, too, to help you sympathize.” Best. Idea. Ever.
“It really isn’t that much water.” He pointed my now-empty water bottle, which I proceeded to fill up and hand back to him.
“Over the course of a day, no, but all at once, already knowing I can’t pee until after our appointment as your baby is sitting on my bladder, yes.” I held my hand up to my mouth like a glass and pretended to drink more, showing him exactly what he needed to do with that bottle.
“Our baby,” he corrected before drinking it down as if it were no big deal.
“Oh no, he is all yours when it is something bad, and mine when it is something amazing.” I filled the bottle halfway and handed it back to him. It seemed to me that evened up the playing field since there was no child doing karate practice inside of him.
“You do realize that makes no sense,” he said, referring to my ownership clause. He wasn’t wrong.
“Ahh, but that is the joy of being pregnant. I don’t need to make sense.”
“Ready to go.” He slammed down the empty water bottle. I’d bet dimes to dollars he was going to have to pee first, mostly because, like a rookie, he didn’t empty before he filled.
“More than.” I took his hand and headed out to the car, the car we were going to need to upgrade to something more family-ish. I still hadn’t gotten to the point where I was ready to concede to a minivan, but the more I looked at other options, the more it was on the table. All I knew for sure was that climbing in and out of Kayson’s car was getting harder and harder by the day, and my truck had two seats, so a new vehicle was in the works.
We got to the doctors in time to check out and read all the class sign-up sheets they had. They even had pre-parenting sign language classes and a list of preschools. I mean, sure, I knew you had to think about things early, but I planned to focus on growing then evicting a human. Classes and preschool would have to come later, except the birthing class. I needed all the help I could get on that one.
We got called back, and Kayson was already doing his I-need-to-pee-but-I’m-not-going-to-say-a-thing dance. I was so winning the contest he hadn’t even known he was participating in.
Baby elephants cavorted on the wallpaper border as if they could magically warm up the steel and medical equipment feel of the place.
There was a knock on the door before a doctor and nurse walked in. Normally, a twofer would’ve had me nervous, but the nurse went straight to the ultrasound machine, and I figure out quickly the doctor was here for the same show we were.
“It is nice to meet you, Reid.” The doctor started speaking before they even made it through the door. “I apologize for not being here for the first half of your pregnancy, but I will be here for the rest.”
It wasn’t like we could be mad at a doctor for going to save lives in places with minimal if any medical access.
“Thank you.”
“Have you been feeling well?” Dr. Shaw asked as they perused the file he was holding.
“I’m not puking anymore, if that is what you mean, but I really need to pee.” Just as I said the word pee, Kayson shifted. Oh yeah, he was leaving the room first.
“I imagine that’s true.” The nurse chuckled, but not in a mean way.
“Shall we make a start, Nurse Nancy?” the doctor asked, and she nodded in reply.
“This will be cold,” she began as she lifted up the paper gown I was wearing and covered the wand with goop, “but worth it.”
She placed the wand on my belly, and I jumped just a little. “I told you—cold.”
Or made of icicles.
“Ohhhh, look at that, honey.” Kayson grabbed my hand as a black inkblot-looking thing appeared on screen. “We grew a blob.”
“I knew I picked the best alpha.” I squeezed his hand back.
“Here we go,” she said gleefully, ignoring our antics like a professional as Dr. Shaw gave us the side glare of disapproval. “This is your baby.”
And just like that, she began to outline a little figure on the screen. I could make out most of it, but as she put a word to each body part, it became a thousand times more real.
“That’s—baby’s head.”
She slid the wand over slightly.
“And here are the hands and feet. Would you like to know the gender?”
“Yes,” we said in unison. We’d not argued even a little bit on that one. Kayson wanted to design decorations for the baby’s room, and I wanted to start picking up random items as I saw them. True, we could’ve gender neutraled all things, but the way we figured it, it was a surprise no matter when we found out.
“It’s a girl.” And then she went into pointing out ovaries and I didn’t even know what. I was too overwhelmed by knowing the sweet baby I was carrying was a girl.
“A girl.” Kayson kissed me, earning him a cough from the doctor, not that either of us cared. “We’re having a girl.”
“You’re having a girl,” the doctor reconfirmed.
“We just need to take a thousand measurements so relax while we press on your bladder and make you hate us.” Nurse Nancy looked like she was about to bust a gut, and Dr. Shaw gave her the full-on evil eye. “What, Doctor? You know it’s true.”
It so very much was true. By the time she had removed that wand, I barely made it to the bathroom. Not that Kayson made it until I had even gotten my pants back on before he was racing out the door.
“We’re having a little baby girl.” Kayson beamed as we exited the office, making our way to the car.
“We are.” My hand settled on my growing-by-the-day belly.
“Let’s go buy all the things.” Kayson was practically bouncing as we reached the car.
“She probably won’t need all the things.” I rolled my eyes. I knew the second they said girl that this sweet baby was going to be spoiled like nobody’s business, but no need to start that before she even arrived.
“So can we go buy some things?” he asked as he climbed into the driver’s side.
“We could.” I let my hand settle on his thigh as he started the ignition. “Or we could go home and snuggle up on the bed with that baby book and look at names.”
“That always leads to frustration,” he whined.
He wasn’t wrong. Between family names that sucked, modern names that were too weird, and names that were far too common, we’d managed to never accomplish a darn thing.
I even joked with him we should name the baby Valentine for when we met. He, being a rational human being, scoffed at that. I, being pregnant and therefore far less rational, was starting to think it was our best option.
“But now we have a gender, so it should, in theory, be easier.” Or at least we had George and Earl off the list of possibilities. Gotta love family names.
“In theory.” He didn’t sound any too sure as he pulled away from the parking lot and started back to our place.
“Fine. I will just pick a name and tell you at the birth.” I smirked. Problem solved.
“Works for me.”
Wait. What? He had to be kidding, except he looked almost relieved. Seemed baby namin’ was left to me, which suited me just fine since I already had a pretty good idea where I wanted to go with things now that I knew it was girl.
“It also means we can spend our afternoon taking care of how dirty you are. You, my sexy mate, need a shower.” He slowed to a stop and turned just enough to wink at me before continuing on.
“She wiped the gel off. I’m fine.” Which was partially true. I still had far more of that yuck on me than I should, but I’d been in so much of a hurry to pee that I hadn’t bothered wiping off the globs she missed.
“Too bad.” He turned down our street. “I was planning on making sure you were good and clean.”
Yes, please.
“Oh, I see. Upon secon
d thought, I am very, very dirty. Please take me home and help me get clean and then dirty and then clean again.”
“Can do, mate. Can do.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kayson
“Here you go, Brent. These should do the trick.”
My cousin had come in for flowers. He never came in for flowers.
“Phone for you, Kayson. It’s Reid.”
I waved bye to Brent and practically sprinted to the phone. Kayson had been having some back pressure, and the doctor was sure it was imminent labor.
“Reid? Are you okay?”
“It’s time. Water broke. All the back pressure. All the back...please get here like ten minutes ago before I start walking there myself.”
He would, too. Pregnancy had made him as stubborn as a goat.
“Five minutes, Reid. I’ll be there.” I didn’t even bother hanging up the phone.
The brakes screeched as I pulled the car into the driveway. Long gone was the Jeep, and in its place was a family car, suitable for a car seat.
“Get in, honey. I’ll grab the bags.”
Of course he couldn’t just wait, no, he was on the porch, tapping his foot at me.
I helped Reid down from the porch and into the car before running back inside for his bags.
With the duffel and the baby bag in hand, I scrambled to get to the car.
“Now, please now.” He reached over the console and grabbed my hand in the tightest vise I’d ever felt.
“As fast as I can. Hold on.”
I didn’t even remember what lights were green, or if they even were green. I just remembered pulling up to the hospital.
“Come on. Here we go.”
Reid had called the hospital in advance, and an orderly and a nurse were waiting at the entrance with a wheelchair. They took us right in to labor and delivery. Another benefit of small-town living. All births were a huge deal, and you got the royal treatment.
Everything happened all around me as if I wasn’t even there. Which, to be honest, was probably for the best because all I wanted to do was to yell at them to make him not hurt anymore.
Roses for His Omega Page 9
