Chapter Eight
Levi
Once I started talking, it was hard to stop. Everything that I’d held in for the last few years came pouring out. I told Ezra that Stephen was my Omega and husband, and that when he died, he’d been pregnant with our son. We named the baby Danny.
“The night of the accident, my parents were in the car too,” I said and actively fought back tears. “I lost my entire family that night, and it was my fault. I killed them. I feel like I should have gone to jail for what I did, but instead, I just walked away,” I said. “Well, I didn’t walk away that night. I was in the hospital for weeks recovering, and I was alone. Paige, that was Stephen’s assistant, was the only person who came to see me in the hospital. She’s still my only friend.”
“Stephen’s assistant?”
“He was an actor too. He was good.” I couldn’t help but smile.
“You’ve said that you killed them and that you should have gone to jail. I don’t understand. What did you do?”
The only people I’d ever told the story to were Paige and the police. I contemplated whether I should tell Ezra and ultimately decided I’d already told him so much of the story that I might as well tell him the rest.
The night of the accident, Stephen and I had taken my parents out to dinner to celebrate the news that we knew the baby was a boy. We told them that we’d planned to name the baby Daniel after my granddaddy. My daddy had also been wanting to get together with Stephen to find out what kind of baby shower he wanted. My parents were going to plan the whole thing, but my daddy didn’t want to pick out the flowers or food without asking Stephen what he wanted.
After dinner, we were giving my parents a ride home. We’d picked them up because the restaurant where we had reservations was downtown and parking was a bitch. Plus, it was cold and I didn’t want my parents to have to walk in the cold. I was able to drop them and Stephen off at the door while I parked the car.
There wasn’t any snow in the forecast so I hadn’t worried about the roads. The weatherman that day had said there was a slight chance for rain, but it wasn’t anything I worried about.
I should have worried. The rain was steady, but it wasn’t alarming. The problem was that after the sun went down, the temperature dropped enough that there was black ice on the road. After we slid the first time, I put my SUV in four-wheel drive and slowed way down.
We almost made it to my parents’ house, but one of their neighbor’s dogs ran out into the road. On instinct, I jerked the wheel to avoid hitting it.
The rest was a blur, but the police said the truck spun out before clipping a parked car and flipping over. My parents died because they’d undone their seatbelts. We’d only been a few houses away from their driveway. Stephen was killed when our vehicle wrapped around a light pole. I survived because I was still buckled in and our SUV was five-star rated for the driver’s side.
“You have to know it wasn’t your fault,” Ezra said. “The accident wasn’t your fault. No one could blame you for reacting that way to a dog in the road. You just acted out of instinct.”
“It feels good to hear you say that,” I said, and felt some of the guilt I’d been carrying dissipate. I hadn’t expected that.
“Surely someone else has told you before that it wasn’t your fault.”
“A few people have. Most of them worked for me so I was used to them telling me what I wanted to hear. It was hard for me to believe them. It felt like they had something to gain by making me feel better.”
“Well, I don’t know you, and from an outsider’s perspective, it’s obvious that it wasn’t your fault,” Ezra said.
“I don’t know what to say.” I was dumbfounded by the kindness emanating from Ezra.
“Why don’t you say you’ll start a fire, and I’ll make some cocoa?” Ezra said. “I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep without a huge mug of hot chocolate.”
“Deal,” I said.
I built a fire while Ezra went to the kitchen and made hot cocoa. He also threw together some snacks, and I noticed while I was watching him work that he seemed to be having a lot of fun. It occurred to me that when he’d lived with Gavin, he wouldn’t have been able to make midnight snacks and hot chocolate.
After helping Ezra carry the snacks and cocoa into the living room, I pulled the coffee table closer to the sofa so we could use it while we chatted and ate. It felt completely natural for us both to sit on the sofa under a blanket.
We talked and laughed until Ezra fell asleep against my chest. I brushed a strand of his blond hair away from his face and fought the urge to kiss him. Before long, my eyes felt heavy and I dismissed the guilt that creeped into my chest. I hadn’t had a drink in at least twenty-four hours, and I was doing my best to let go of my shame of Stephen’s death. The sound of Ezra’s heavy breathing against me carried me off to sleep.
When I woke up, the sunlight was just breaking through the window. The guilt of sleeping snuggled up against another Omega got to me, so I got up and walked to the window. The snow was a heavy blanket over the landscape.
“Good morning,” Ezra said as he stretched. I must have woken him when I got up off the sofa.
“Good morning. The snow is thicker than I expected. I think you’re stuck here with me for a few days.”
That made me unexpectedly cheerful. It was an almost alien feeling as I hadn’t experienced it for years.
“Coffee?” I asked.
“Yes, please,” Ezra said as he popped up off the couch. “And I’ll make the eggs.”
It had been a long time since I’d had an Omega to cook for me. It felt good. I felt like a real Alpha again. The best part was that Ezra seemed to enjoy having an Alpha to take care of, but I tried not to think too much about how nice it would be for us to take care of each other.
Sure, I could protect and provide for Ezra and he could build a home for us, but was that too much to hope for given that I’d already had my chance?