When I woke up, it was dark. Pitch dark. I grabbed the phone off my nightstand and saw it was ten—at night—the next day. I guess I had been as tired as I felt. Not that I’d have changed my decision to go clock in early. Those triplets went from a 20% chance of survival to close to 90% once we got their breathing stabilized, which was something their birth hospital had been unable to do. They still had a ways to go, but I knew in my gut they were going to make it.

I padded to the bathroom and took care of business before throwing a frozen dinner in the microwave and sending Ren a text.

Looks like I was right to not try to have dinner tonight. I just woke up.

The microwave dinged, and I took out the dish, stirred the potatoes as directed, and put it back in just as the phone indicated a new message.

Leona has money

I didn’t even read the entire thing before reporting it as spam. Damn scammers had been using every number known to man lately. Too bad there wasn’t anything you could do about it.

I grabbed my dinner a few seconds before it was done and brought it to the breakfast bar, grabbing a fork along the way. Peeling off the plastic wrapper, I wanted to cry at the grossness that was before me. I should’ve stuck with frozen pizza. They too were gross, but at least you knew what you were getting.

I grabbed my phone and snapped a photo, sending it to Ren.

In case you were worried about the bar being set too high for our date tomorrow - this is what I’m about to eat.

The phone rang almost immediately.

“Hello,” I answered with a ginormous smile on my face just from seeing his name, or as I had him labeled in my contact information, Birthday Boy.

“You are seriously going to eat that?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It was in my freezer and it’s already ten. It’s either this or cereal with spoiled milk.” If I even had that left. I really needed to stock the kitchen.

“Don’t eat it. Trust me.”

“I haven’t eaten since yesterday. It is edible-ish.” I stuck my fork in the potatoes and attempted to grab a bite only to have the entire portion lift up with my fork, stuck there still in the form of the tray. “Maybe not super edible. I’ll take a shower then run to get something.” I deposited the thing in the trash and walked to the bathroom where I turned on the shower. “See, shower on.”

“So you’re getting naked.” His voice deepened slightly.

Damn, he was sexy. I pushed down my boxer briefs, which was not as easy to do as it would’ve been without the massive boner I was now sporting thanks to—to Ren being Ren.

“I find showers easier when naked, but I wanted to talk to you as long as I could, so instead of saying goodbye, I turned our conversation about nutritionally wise choices into something a bit more scandalous.”

I pulled off my t-shirt with the phone removed from ear for the shortest time possible.

“I was thinking sexy more than scandalous.” He huffed out a laugh. “But go—take your shower. I’ll be up late if you want to talk. Or not. I’m not being creepy, or maybe I am but not on purpose. I’ll shut up now.”

“Not creepy. I’m going to get in the shower now and grab some food after that. If I still have energy, I’ll call you later. It takes me a while to catch up after such a full week, and I really want to be all fully awake by tomorrow.”

Checking the water, I turned the knob slightly and grabbed a towel.

“Night. Happy shower.” His voice cracked at shower.

“Night.” I hung up before I could do something stupid like tell him I was about to beat one off to the thought of him being in my house, in my space, the next day.

Although that was totally what I did after I climbed under the steaming water. I officially had it bad. Coming after only three tugs, his name spilled from my lips as my seed spilled from my body. What was it about this man that had me so needy for him?

Sure, he had saved me, but there was more than that. I’d had my eyes on him most of my short time at the bar. There was just something that drew me to him.

At first, it was probably his looks, and then, of course, the rescuing, but with each encounter we had, more and more things were added to that list. How he looked almost nervous the first time I saw him after our first meeting. The way he didn’t hide his intent to ask me out, going so far as to text things like wanting me to be safe. The way he respected my sleep time and waited for me to call him. The way he stopped me from eating that vile meal. And the way he let his desire for me show in subtle ways, like his voice cracking at the word shower.

He even agreed to come to Mapleville on a Sunday night for a date. We hadn’t talked about his career yet, but Mondays were a work day for most fields, which meant he was giving up sleep for me.

I had a feeling he was a keeper.

I toweled off, slipping on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt just as the doorbell rang. I grabbed a twenty out of my wallet, pretty sure it was cookie selling time. That was something I could never turn down—for the children, of course.

To my surprise, it wasn’t the neighbor’s daughter stalking me for cookie sales. It was Jaxson with a pizza and a bag of, well, I wasn’t even sure what.

“Jaxson, did we have plans?” I didn’t really know Jaxson all that well and I doubted we did, but I’d been known to agree to future plans when I was near exhaustion, and he’d delivered flowers to the nursing station on my ward for his stepmother's flower shop the day before so it was totally possible.

“Nah, dude. You were as tired as you looked yesterday, huh?”

I nodded. I had been.

He handed the food to me. “It’s all paid for.”

“I’m missing something here.”

“This is your food. I brought it to you. Eat it.” He tapped away on his phone before turning it to me. Sure as shit, it was a prepaid order for food with my name and address on it.

“Ah. And you’re bringing it because?”

“Because I’m driving for WonderWheels now, and they just added food delivery.”

Poor guy, every time I saw him he was doing some kind of side hustle from working at Harrison’s to working at the restaurant to delivering flowers and now delivering food.

“Well, thanks. And here.” I handed him the twenty.

“You sure, man?” he asked as he saw the size of the bill. “I was already tipped when they ordered.”

“And you were just tipped again. Wanna eat it with me? Looks like there’s more than I can eat.” I stood to the side so he had room to walk in if he wanted to.

“I can’t. I have another order to pick up. Maria and her cookies.” He shook his head as if those words meant anything to me.

“Thanks for the grub,” I called to him as he made his way back to the car.

I set the pizza on the breakfast bar and opened the bag to find a Caesar salad, some kind of pie, and a sandwich. If I went hungry, it was going to be my own fault. There was even a bottle of cola.

I grabbed a slice and took the biggest bite I could manage before setting it down so I could text Ren. Turned out, I’d missed a message while I was in the shower. He’d let me know not to head out and that food was on the way.

Too freaking adorable.

Food just came. It’s perfect. Thank you so much.

I’d only taken one more bite of pizza before he responded to my message. I wanted you to be rested and well fed for surgery tomorrow. Night.

See you tomorrow and thanks again.

I snapped a picture of the spread he sent along with a picture of me taking a bite of the pizza before sitting down and eating more than any grown man should in one sitting. Who was I to deny an alpha the chance to feed his omega.

Not that I was his.

Not yet anyway.

But a not so small part of me was optimistic I could be one day, and that was enough to keep a smile plastered on my face for the rest of the night.