"What's this I hear about you bringing a date to Thanksgiving dinner? What's her name?"

"Hi, Mom," Teddy said, tucking the phone against his ear so that he could dig through the paperwork on his desk. "His name is Carlos, just like I said in my message." He set the phone down for a moment to check another pile.

There had been a huge delay at the site; the counters that had been ordered had been delivered completely wrong. Despite repeated approvals and design checks, they were both too short and cut for the wrong inserts. An investigation had immediately been started by the manufacturer, but he wasn't hopeful they'd find the issue. Meanwhile, he was having to wait while all thousand units were recast.

They were already past the deadline for getting families into the development by Christmas, and with the holiday season approaching, the builders were starting to schedule vacations for their teams.

He picked the phone back up, unsurprised by the silence. "I don't know exactly when we're getting there, but don't worry about putting us up. I already made reservations at the Hilton in Fort Worth."

"You can't possibly be serious," she said, her voice grating on his nerves. "You are not parading that...that servant around in front of our friends. Or your grandmother!"

"He's not a servant," he snapped, setting the stack of papers he was flipping through down carefully so that he didn't inadvertently shred them. "He's my boyfriend, and he's pregnant with my child."

"So what?" she said. "Do you think that gives you the right to destroy our reputation? Jesus, Theodore. Be sensible. You don't bring people like that to a party."

It was so close to the things Carlos was always saying that he grit his teeth until his jaw popped. "I'm not ashamed of him."

"Well, you should be," she hissed. "He's nothing. If he's got his claws in you that much, then tuck him away in a nice apartment somewhere like a civilized human being, but you are not bringing him into my house. What would your grandmother think?"

Teddy closed his eyes, frustration burning like bile in his throat. It had been so easy to say it to his mother, her disgust rolling off him like it always did. He tried at least twice a week for the last month to bring it up to his grandmother, but every time he opened his mouth, nothing came out. He had nightmares about the words getting stuck in his throat, choking him until he woke up gasping for breath.

"If Carlos isn't welcome, then I'm not coming," he said evenly. "I'll see you at Christmas at Nana's."

"So help me God, Theodore William Connelly, if you don't come to Thanksgiving dinner, alone or with a proper guest, then your father is going to hear all about your little bastard."

"Don't call him that," he growled through his teeth.

"That's what he is," she growled right back. "You'll be out of the will faster than you can blink."

He laughed, a dark, humorless sound that was so much more normal and less happy than his embarrassing donkey bray. "If you think I care about the will, Mom, then you really don't know me at all."

"Dinner is at six," she snapped. "If you're not there, then your inheritance is going to Declan."

The line went dead, and he threw his phone across the room.

Bent over in his chair, he focused on breathing until he could think about anything without wanting to roar with fury. The project. He needed to work on the project now. He could deal with his family when he got home.

His hands were perfectly steady as he shuffled through stack after stack of paperwork, everything he could get his hands on, taken off-site and crowding the office at the Caldwells. He'd been hoping to be into a house of his own by now, but between the upcoming holidays and what Carlos was calling his extreme pickiness, he hadn't found one he liked.

It didn't help that about three weeks ago, he started to notice things. Little things at first. Things that didn't quite add up. The tilers running out of tile three-quarters of the way through the job. The carpet supplier's bill coming up higher than budgeted. This issue with the counters was the last straw.

The accounting records were at the bottom of a stack of supplier contracts, and he hauled the whole mess over to the fax machine in the corner. He had to go back across the room to dig his phone out from behind the mini-fridge where it had gotten wedged, but less than ten minutes later, he was listening to the phone ring, hoping Marcus wasn't still at work.

"We missed you at the Halloween party. Nate was Albert Einstein, and he looked amazing."

"Marcus," he said tightly. "I have a lot of papers I'm about to fax to you, and I need to know if I'm right about this."

"I can be home in ten minutes," he said, immediately serious. "I'm just picking up groceries."

"I'll pay you," Teddy said. "This has to be on the record."

"Of course. I'll give you the friends and family discount." He cleared his throat when Teddy didn't laugh. "That bad? My home machine should be full of paper. Go ahead and start sending them now."

"It might be," Teddy said, turning on the fax. "Or I might just be cursed with bad luck on this job."

"Well, shit." The sound of a car door slamming popped across the line. "Talk to me."

"Things going missing," Teddy said. "Things that are getting done wrong for no reason. Things not covering as much as they should. The city raised the budget so many times they don't even care where the money goes as long as it gets done, but..."

"You do," Marcus said.

"I do. Something's not right."

"Damn. I'm not on a project right now, so I'll let the company know I've got a consult. If you want this all on paper, then I'll make it an official job, call in some of the forensic accounting team to check my work."

Breathing easy for the first time all afternoon, Teddy set the first bunch of paper into the hopper. "Thank you."

"Of course," Marcus said, honking his horn at something. "We've got snow," he grumbled a moment later, honking again. "You'd think people would get used to it, but I swear they spend all summer going out of their way to forget how to drive in the cold."

"It's a traumatic block," Teddy said, glancing out at the sunny Texas day. It was warm enough he still wasn't carrying a jacket.

"That might be it," Marcus muttered. "How's Carlos?"

Teddy smiled. "Huge. His mother finally moved the last of her stuff into her condo, and he says if I don't pick a house by January, he's going to pick one for me. Are you all coming down for New Year's still?"

"Everyone but Cody," he said. "I just pulled into my garage."

"Is he still on radio silence?" Teddy asked, feeding another stack of paper into the machine. "I feel like he's been gone all year."

"I know what you mean," Marcus said. "Elevator, I might lose you. I knew he'd be busy when he made team leader, but this is a little excessive."

"He must be happy, at least," Teddy said. "He finally made it into the Special Forces."

The line crackled and went dead, and he grimaced, setting the phone aside. He snagged it again a moment later to send a quick text.

"I think I was disowned today. —Teddy"

His phone rang less than a second later.

"Maybe you should have lead with that," Marcus said. In the background, Teddy could hear the fax machine grinding along.

"I couldn't think about it yet," Teddy said. "And this is more important."

"Your family is kind of important."

Teddy rolled his eyes. "I'm more upset about the job, honestly. We all knew Mom was going to use any excuse to give my inheritance to Declan."

"Yeah, but..." Marcus paused, shuffling some pages. "What the hell? Okay, I don't have a good argument for your family, but these figures are seriously off. Doesn't the city have someone checking the tax and fee calculations on these?"

"The City Comptroller is two years behind in their audits." Teddy grabbed another batch of papers to send. "I'm sending over the vendor contracts, too. If there's anything else you need, let me know. I have a truckload of paper in this office."

Marcus hummed distractedly. "Got it. I should have more information for you tomorrow."

"Thanks," he said, looking around the disorderly office and trying to ignore the urge to set it all to rights. He nudged the pile right in front of him until it was lined up evenly, and sighed. "I'm going to be here a while."

"Don't stay there all night," Marcus said. "There's nothing you can do until I finish looking at these. Send whatever you think is pertinent over and then go find your boyfriend. Rub his feet and have a nice dinner or something, but don't sit and give yourself a headache over this."

"Says the man who's going to be working for the next sixteen hours if he wants to give me his notes by tomorrow," Teddy said.

"I got plenty of sleep last night," Marcus replied. "If I know you, you've been stressing out about this for days. Go home."

"Fine." Teddy stuck his tongue out at the fax machine, ignoring the warm feeling in his stomach at the thought of being able to go home to Carlos. "It'll take me an hour or so to send all of these, and then I'll leave. Bossy." He hung up the phone on Marcus' laughter.

It was closer to three hours by the time he'd sent everything over and made it through traffic to Carlos' apartment. He took the steep and narrow stairs two at a time, grimacing at the thought of the pregnant omega going up and down them every day. Yet another reason he needed to get moving on that house.

Theresa had given him a key to the apartment when she moved out, so he let himself in. Once inside, the tension of the day slid away, and he felt himself smiling for the first time in what felt like weeks.

Carlos was curled up on his bed, a math book open under his head. His maternity shirt stretched tight over his belly, riding up to show a strip of skin. Teddy shook his head. The omega had been growing bigger practically every day, and they were going to have to order another size up very soon. He thought about pointing it out to Carlos, but the omega was stressed enough about finishing up his classes before the baby came. It probably wouldn't help him to know that twin births averaged only 35 weeks, and triplets even less. The first ultrasound was scheduled for after Thanksgiving, so he'd wait to see what the doctor said.

Even with the massively swollen belly, he still looked incredible. His face was a little softer, smoothing out the harsh line of his jaw and plumping his lips. Teddy was constantly having to fight the urge to kiss him in public.

Carlos had gotten better about being seen with Teddy, but he still wasn't fond of public displays. He could understand that. He hadn't cared for them much either until he had the most beautiful omega in the world on his arm.

He smiled, filing it away to tell Carlos. It would definitely earn him one of those indulgent eye rolls.

"Are you done staring at me, because I have to pee," Carlos muttered, his eyes fluttering open. They were brilliantly gold in the dim light, and Teddy's breath caught in his throat.

"You're not wearing your contacts," he breathed. He'd never actually seen Carlos without his dark lenses in, and those eyes were electric, even dazed with sleep.

"They were bothering me," he said, tugging his shirt down over his belly with a grimace. "Need to go clothes shopping."

"You look beautiful without them," Teddy said, helping him to his feet and pressing a kiss to his hair. He smelled like Omega Angel. "I'll have some more things sent over. You really don't want to go to the mall anytime soon."

"Fucking holidays." He accepted the kiss and nuzzled his nose against Teddy's neck before shuffling into the bathroom and shutting the door in his face. "I want fitted shirts again," he shouted through the door a moment later. "None of those dress things. Something cool."

Teddy coughed, trying to hide his amusement. "I'll see what I can do."

He wasn't successful, judging by the muttered "Fuck you" that drifted through the door.

"I love you," Teddy replied, ignoring the tense silence that followed. "My mother called today."

That got the door open. Carlos wiped his wet hands on a rag with one eyebrow raised.

"I've decided we're not going to Thanksgiving dinner," he said, trying for nonchalant. From the way Carlos' eyes softened, he failed at that, too.

"You can go, you know. I'll stay and have chile con queso and brisket with Mamá. She's got that weekend off and..." He trailed off, rolling his eyes at how vigorously Teddy was shaking his head. "You're going to give yourself a headache."

Teddy dragged him into a hug, grateful he went without an argument, tucking himself sideways under Teddy's chin. Resting one hand in what had become his spot on Carlos' belly, he shook his head again. "I'd rather be here with you. Besides," he added, "I've never had chili and cheese for Thanksgiving before."

"Please stop," Carlos said, laughing despite his very real disgust. "That was terrible."

"You'll just have to teach me Spanish," Teddy said, pressing a kiss to his smiling lips. "You can start over Thanksgiving."

"Why wait? I'll teach you all the curse words today, that way you'll know exactly what I'm calling you during the delivery," Carlos said, his voice not quite steady.

"Sounds perfect," Teddy said, holding him close. "Sounds absolutely perfect."