Chapter Seven
Ben
I’d made my famous lasagna for dinner complete with garlic knots and tossed salad.
Not that I was trying to impress the omega.
Except I kind of was. Levi and I both were. Something about Cory drew us to him which was badness—all kinds of badness.
He was our employee. Done.
Except, even as we discussed whether or not we should’ve hired him and basically invited a single hot, yummy-smelling omega into a home of two alphas, it felt wrong to do anything but. He was the best choice for Tobias. It was clear as day. The rest of it needed to be pushed aside, at least until he finished his thesis and graduated. When he was done with the employee season of our acquaintance—maybe then we could explore things.
It wasn’t as if Levi and I hadn’t shared before. It wasn’t something we did often, and in fact hadn’t in years, but back in our youth, as Levi liked to tease, we had invited an omega into our bedroom for a little naked fun on more than one occasion. It was never more than one night, though, something all parties knew going in.
And that was where this felt different. I doubted one night was something Levi nor I could agree to even if Cory was on board. And that somehow turned into me making lasagna, and both my husband and I pretending hiring him wasn’t a mistake. The poor guy just wanted a job and a roof over his head, not two alphas who desired him becoming his boss.
Not that we would act on it.
Probably.
Maybe.
Crap, we were in a pickle to be sure, and the worst part was, we intentionally walked into it when the right thing to do was to have given him a polite decline or helped him find another job as we had with Lawson. We deserved every bit of discomfort we felt, but what was done was done, and our omega—the omega, not ours—was upstairs putting away his belongings and washing up for supper.
“Smells amazing, love. I don’t understand why you don’t love to cook. You have such a gift.” Levi nestled his head in the crook of my neck before inhaling deeply. I loved it when he scented me so intentionally like that. It just did something to me.
“Because it feels like work, and if I’m going to be working, might as well have it pay the bills.” The timer pinged, and I grabbed the pot holders off the counter, already missing the feel of my husband snuggled up close. “Did you call him?”
“Yeah, he said he’d be right down.”
I grabbed the garlic knots out of the oven and placed the pan on the stove next to the lasagna, which was settling. Lasagna actually tasted better the second day, but it would have to do. “He’ll be good for Tobias.” On that I think all three of us agreed.
“He will. Want me to put the knots in a bowl?”
“That would be wonderful. And don’t forget—I cooked, you clean.” It was designed to make us jump at the chance to cook, but in the end, we always ended up doing the dishes together so the razzing was just for fun.
“I can do the dishes.” Cory’s voice caught me off guard, and I almost lost my balance turning in his direction. “Do you need any help?”
And as if on cue, Tobias decided it was time to cry. We knew we were on borrowed time so close to his natural bedtime, but we were hoping he’d have made it through at least part of dinner.
“I’ll get him.” Cory bounded off in the direction of the ExerSaucer Tobias had been blissfully playing in as he watched me cook only moments earlier. He picked Tobias up, and the tears instantly stopped. The man was officially made of magic. He was still holding him as we finished getting everything to the table.
“I’ll take him so you can eat.” Levi held his arms out for Tobias. “It’s your first day. Food first.”
Hesitantly, he handed Levi the baby. I had a feeling he thought it was a test. It wasn’t. He had the job even if said job equated to Levi and I dealing with constant arousal.
I helped serve up the plates, which was silly given we were all adults, but this felt like a family dinner, and when I grew up, my mom always served us so it was de facto mode during times like these. Not that there had ever been a time like this before.
“This is wonderful.” Cory shoveled another bite into his mouth. Was he hungry, or was it just good? Either way, the alpha instincts were kicking in, and it was all I could do not to fill his plate with cheesy goodness.
“I agree, love. One of your best. And that’s saying something because nothing you make is less than amazing.” Levi took a second garlic knot, little Tobias grabbing for it from the perch on Levi’s lap. He gave me a questioning look, and I nodded before he tore off a tiny piece and gave it to Tobias who made his I’m-not-sure-about-this face.
My mind went back to the day we got the call, the day where I lazily made toast instead of a breakfast, the day when we nixed the plans for a reading nook in lieu of a small play area for the child who would soon be ours, the day everything changed. I fiddled with my fork before pushing the memory down. That was not what I needed to be focusing on. Not now, anyway.
“So the fierce guard dog that wandered into my room, licked my hand then meandered back out into the hall before disappearing—”
“You met Molly.” Levi laughed. “She is sweet and loveable and so stinking cute, but not much of a guard dog. She can be bossy, though, so don’t let those green eyes fool you.”
He wasn’t even kidding. Molly was just in her napping why-are-you-bothering-my-routine mode. If it was time for her to eat or get a treat, their encounter would’ve gone extremely differently.
“Duly noted. I’m done eating. If you would like, I can take Tobias. Is that what you call him all the time?”
“Here.” I plopped a second helping down on his plate. “You missed a bite or two.” I was being sassy, but I had a feeling it was the only way to get him to eat his food, and the more I looked at him, the more I noticed subtle signs of him not eating properly or sleeping well for that matter. That just wasn’t working for me.
“Thanks?” He raised his eyebrow, and Levi cracked up.
“Get used to it. He hates to cook, but when he does, it is amazing, and you will be waddling away from the table.” Levi pulled off another piece of the garlic knot for Tobias. “And yeah, we kind of call him Tobias, although I’ve caught Ben calling him T-man before.”
“Because look at how adorable our little man is.” And yeah, he really was. “I have been toying with Toby, but his father named him, so I want to honor that.”
“Then Tobias with an occasional T-man, it is.” Cory had already finished half of his second helping, which made me ridiculously happy for some stupid reason.
I got up and held out my hands for Tobias, giving Levi a chance to eat before his food was an icicle. As was his normal routine, Tobias immediately grabbed my ear. I wasn’t sure what made my ears any more interesting than the next guy’s, but he was fascinated with them.
We chatted as the men finished up their seconds and then thirds, and just as I was about to suggest we clear the table for dessert, Tobias’s little head drooped.
“Looks like Tobias is ready for bed. I’ll get him his bottle.” Levi popped out of his chair, grabbed a prepackaged, premade bottle of formula off the counter, and poured it into the bottle Tobias preferred before bringing it back to the table.
When he came to us, the social worker had four thousand suggestions on how to make the adjustment to parenthood on literally no notice. Most of her ideas were useless, which we discovered pretty much the first week, but the instant bottles were genius. No mixing, no warming them up. Nothing. And since we opted for some fancy organic kind out of guilt for not being able to provide him with the natural milk he’d been used to, they came in glass bottles, making them easily repurposed or recycled.
“I got this.” I stood up, accepting the bottle from Levi. Tobias was not impressed. He wanted it on the spot, but we learned the first day that if we didn’t change his diaper before feeding him his evening bottle, we would most likely need to wake him up to change him, making the transition to bed time less than ideal. He’d get his bottle soon enough.
I carried Tobias out of the room, loving hearing the two men chat away.
The baby’s room was far from the ideal nursery, and it bugged me. It double bugged me this time. Sure, it had a crib, but that was pretty much it, so I wandered into my bedroom where I could easily change and feed him.
We still hadn’t purchased a changing table. That was one of the little things that we listened to the social worker on that was very much regretted. She reasoned out that he wouldn’t need it for much longer so it was a waste of money and space. She was so wrong, and I’d already picked out a few for us to look at next time we wandered into the city. Mapleville was a lot of amazing things, but a shopping smorgasbord wasn’t one of them, and ordering furniture online seemed not the best of ideas.
I had him changed and fed in record time, and he was all but asleep by the time I placed him in his crib.
“Good night, sweet boy.” I gave him a light rub on his back. He’d already grown out of the back-to-sleep stage and rolled right onto his tummy as soon as he hit the crib. The doctor assured us it was fine and to not keep flipping him over, which we had already figured out was a fool’s errand, not that it had stopped us from trying. “May all your dreams fill you with joy.”
As I slowly crept out of the room, I turned on the monitor mounted on a shelf and grabbed the receiver. We could hear him, the house wasn’t huge, but there was comfort in the electronic reassurance.
As I got to the top of the stairs, laughter filled my ears. Cory being here was a good thing. I could feel it. I could also feel my boner, and that was something I needed to learn to control. No good would come of things if I didn’t.