“Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little green.” Joaquim was so very much not helping.

“I’m fine. I just need a cracker or something.” Or the last couple weeks of this trimester to be over so I didn’t want to puke pretty much every second of every day. Not that I puked—no, I just teetered on the edge of wishing for sweet death to take me instead.

“I should call Ren,” he announced as if that was going to happen.

Ren had enough garbage going on because of a corporate merger at his work. The last thing he needed to deal with was my sorry preggo omega butt whining about wanting to puke. He’d been amazing from the instant he found out our lack of protection created a new life. He didn’t have to step up to the plate... But, he did. Even if it meant we rushed through the traditional getting to know you phase of the relationship and jumped straight to the let’s have a baby phase.

It had gone remarkably well given the high speed ride we were on. If it weren’t for his lease and my mortgage being for places a decent drive apart, I’d have said things were perfect. His lease was up in a couple months, and we thought we had a solution in place, one where he would telecommute from Mapleville four days a week.

And then the stupid merger started and all telework had been shut down, making our plan as good as dead.

Nope. I wasn’t going to let Joaquin pester him with my drama.

“I’m fine. Don’t call him. Just give me crackers.”

“If you don’t look better after the crackers, I’m calling Ren,” he warned. He wouldn’t. This was not the first time we’d had that particular conversation, although I really hoped it would be the last. Besides, I was clocking out for the day.

“Not late for dinner, I hope.” Ren turned the corner, and from the look on his face, he’d heard I was sick enough to worry… Damn, Joaquin.

Of course.

“I’d never call you late to dinner, babe.” I winked before walking into his arms, earning me a groan from my friend. Not that he wasn’t equally as lovie dovie with his mate.

“I’m taking that as my cue to leave. See you tomorrow?”

“Nope. I have the next forty-eight hours off.” My hand slid down into Ren’s.

“See you then.” He grabbed his duffle and walked on out.

“What are you doing here?” It was a normal workday for him, and I crossed all things that it didn’t mean the rumors about upcoming layoffs were true.

“I missed you.” He kissed the top of my head and snagged my duffle off the bench. “And I have news.” He deadpanned.

What the heck? “Good news or bad news?”

“That depends. How would you like me to be in Mapleville permanently?”

“You got laid off?” I threw myself at him, hugging him tightly. I technically made enough money for all of us, but losing your job always sucked.

“Not exactly. My position has been cut, yes.” He tipped my head up to look at him. “But they want to start a satellite office in Mapleville, and I agreed to accept the position as manager—if that’s what you want.”

As if there was anything else I wanted more. “You would be here all the time?”

He nodded.

“And not commuting back and forth?”

He nodded again.

“And you would move in with me?” There was a tinge of insecurity in my last question. We’d grown close, super close, since our first official date, but I didn’t want to presume anything.

“If you’ll have me. They said I can start as soon as next month.”

I squeed like a little kid getting their first bicycle before kissing him soundly until a voice cleared behind us.

“That is not appropriate for the workplace.” Dr. Mc Creepy or Dr. Hartman, as was technically his name, said behind me. There was absolutely no reason for him to be on the unit and less reason for him to be in our break room.

“I apologize.” I went right into obedient staff mode. No sense arguing about it. Technically, he was right even if he didn’t belong there.

“You should. Kissing a patient. Really.” His eyes were glued to Ren the entire time, which only exacerbated his creepiness.

“Do you want to file a complaint, Mr. Michaels?” He stepped closer, and I found myself coming between him and Ren in a protective stance. We’d get to the how he knew Ren part later.

“I like it when my omega kisses me, so I’m pretty sure that’s a no, but thank you for your concern.” Ren took me by my hand and started toward the door, not even allowing me time to enjoy the way he’d called me his.

“You little tease.” Dr. Hartman grabbed Ren’s shoulder, effectively pushing me out of the way. I was seeing red.

“Get. Your. Hands. Off. Me.” Ren looked as if he were about to deck the man, and I couldn’t blame him. I pretty much wanted to as well.

“You lead me on and what, decide to hook up with that?” His grubby hand was pointing in my direction as he angled himself to block Ren from leaving. As if Ren would leave without me.

This was an entirely new side of Dr. Hartman, and he had been awful before. This side showed him to be truly insane as well. Even if Ren had been leading him on, which I found highly unlikely, this was over the top fucked up.

As his hand moved to cup Ren’s cheek, or at least I thought that was where he was going, I did something I had been needing to do for months—I threw up and not-so-accidentally aimed my projectile so most of it landed on Dr. Hartman.

Ren was immediately holding me, asking me if I was alright before the good old doctor even processed what had happened to him.

“I actually feel better now.” I really did too. A ton. “Let’s go home.” We stepped around Dr. Hartman, which snapped him out of whatever trance he’d been in.

Unlike me, who got puked on often at work, foot specialists rarely dealt with that kind of gross. I was happy to initiate him.

“I’m writing up an official reprimand. Unless, of course, Ren sees the error of his ways.”

“I see no error—only my future.” That was Ren’s only reply as we walked out the door, stopping only to ask my friend Mike, on the custodial staff, if he could clean up the mess I had unfortunately left behind.

There was no part of me that thought Hartman was going to let go of the fact that I threw up on him. But he had no direct chain of command over me. No indirect either for that matter. He basically was just going to have to deal with it.

“So, I’m guessing we’ll talk more about why Dr. McCreepy has you on his radar when we get home,” I said as we got to the parking garage where we would have to part ways… At least temporarily.

“Home. I love the sound of that.” That was all he said before enveloping me in a hug and telling me to drive home safely.

It was pretty much all I needed to know.