Chapter Fourteen
Chris
After the cake tasting, and the realization of our new situation, the ride to Tak’s antique shop slash home was more than a little tense. So many revelations in one day. Will had been surprised to learn we were together, but his surprise wouldn’t stop him from sharing the news with everyone in our high school class. The party the following night should be...interesting...to say the least. But before we faced that, we had a lot of other things to think about.
I had a run-in a few days, and that would take me away for over a week. If I could, I’d pass it off to someone else, but I’d worked hard to get in with this company, and they didn’t like change without good reason. Romance...wasn’t on their list. And my truck payment didn’t allow me a lot of latitude for time off. I’d deliberately taken a shorter than usual loan term, which meant higher than usual payments so I’d own the rig sooner.
The sun was setting as we zoomed up to the shop and down the drive to park near the back door to the private area of the building. Tak’s helmeted head bobbed against my shoulder blade, making me a little concerned about how awake and aware he might be. He had his hands locked around my waist, and I suspected they were the only thing keeping him upright. If he was pregnant, and I really did think that was the case, no more bike for him until after the baby came. And then...and then maybe go ahead and sell it. The thought did bring a lump in my throat, but an alpha and a father put his family first.
As I turned the key and the engine shut down, I shook my head. Everything was happening so fast. Yesterday, I was a single trucker planning an evening playing pool at the local bar. Tak was a pleasant memory and a fantasy I never thought could be more. Today, I was an alpha with an omega and a baby on the way. How responsible was it to let all this happen with so little thought?
How fair was it to the omega or to the baby? I’d always wanted a family one day, and the face in that picture was more often than not Tak’s, although I’d convinced myself the visual was only a “placeholder” to be swapped out for an omega to be named later. It was one of the reasons I’d set up those higher truck payments, so when my fated love turned up, I’d be ready. Debt-free and able to support a stay-at-home dad if my future omega wanted to do that. I had it all laid out in my mind.
But apparently life didn’t work that way. You’d think my parents’ death and the turn my education and career plans took would have taught me that, but apparently, I was less than a quick study.
For better or for worse, ready or not, the man whose warm body was seated behind mine, the one with the spark of life already flaring in his midsection, was more than a placeholder. I felt like I’d won the love lottery, but was I everything he deserved?
“Chris, are we home?” He lifted his head, and I realized I’d been sitting lost in thought long enough, the sun had disappeared over the horizon and a cool breeze of dusk kicked up.
“We’re home, Tak.” And it would be home because I couldn’t ask him to move. My business was decidedly more mobile. Plus, he owned the land where we’d first made love, where we’d created the baby who would join us in not so many months. “Can you get off by yourself?”
“Sure, I think so.” Big yawn, muffled by the face shield and he slid off to the left. “Yep. I really love riding on this thing. Promise you’ll never get rid of it.”
Dropping the kickstand, I joined him and laid my arm over his shoulders as we started for the kitchen door. “I think I’ll need to. Can’t carry a baby on a motorcycle.” Although even the suggestion we could keep it amped my affection for my omega even higher. “I’ll have to get a station wagon—I think they are making those again—or a minivan. Something grown-up and family friendly.
He stopped short. “I have a Volvo XC90, the safest car on the road. Also, a van I use for the business. If you want a station wagon, if they are making those, we can consider it, but I hope we will have lots of chances in our life together for date nights, or after the baby or babies are grown to take long load trips and see the country.”
“Wow. Didn’t take long for you to find your biker soul.” But I could feel my grin stretching my mouth wide. “The baby can ride in my rig, too. I have a sleeper cab.”
“Family trips. Perfect. It’s going to be terrific.” His smile may have been bigger than mine. “I can’t wait. Thirty sounded so terrible, but look, it’s not even my birthday yet, and I’ve gotten the present I’ve wanted for half those years. Amazing.” He strode away from me, fishing his keys out of his pocket and whistling.
Watching him climb the steps and open the door, I tried to tamp down my own elation. It all sounded so perfect. But a warning flicker in the back of my mind reminded me of other times I’d thought I could see an amazing future that failed to happen. So much could still go wrong. Neither of us was the same as we’d been way back when. Over a decade had passed since we’d last seen one another, and neither of us had spent that time in stasis. We couldn’t expect to just walk back into one another’s lives as if we’d just been hanging out together the day before. We’d have challenges to face, but it would be worth it. My heart had never been happier than right at that moment.
“You coming?” he called, standing just inside the door after flicking on the kitchen light.
“Not yet, omega, but soon.”
Half an hour later, we’d gobbled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and tall glasses of milk. Talk about memory lane. Even the homemade blueberry jam his mom had fed us every summer of our young lives tasted just as good as I remembered. I pushed back from the table, feeling fifteen again. “Shoot. We were supposed to go visit your folks, weren’t we?”
He shrugged. “I texted we’d see them tomorrow at the party. They plan to come early and leave early so we ‘young people’ can enjoy our ‘hijinks’ without feeling chaperoned.”
I picked up the napkin beside my plate and leaned across the table to wipe away his milk mustache. “Your parents were always amazing.”
“Yours were, too,” he murmured, his eyes holding a sadness I hadn’t seen in anyone’s since their passing. “They always treated me like I was theirs. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you lost them.”
I crumpled the paper square in my hand. “I was very far away at school. And they’d moved, so their funeral wasn’t local.” But because it was true, I told him, “I wish you’d been there, too, though. I felt kind of alone surrounded by their new friends, with none of my own.”
“Shit.” He stood and gathered our plates and glasses. “I didn’t know about it until afterward. And I didn’t know where to find you after you’d left school. I should have tried harder.”
This man amazed me. He’d never moved far away like I had. I could have found him anytime if I’d made the effort. “Not your fault. It’s all on me. I was thrown for a loop. I had no idea that my tuition was coming out of loans they took on. I’d always thought the money was there, saved up or something, and when they were gone, so was the money. After selling their home, I still had medical bills to cover and some of those loans.”
Tak stood at the sink, washing up our few dinner dishes. “That must have been a shock.”
“Everything was. I went from happy-go-lucky college student with a family and a family home to visit, to, well, basically nothing. I was scrambling to survive.”
“I can’t even imagine.” He turned to face me, drying a plate, his eyes glistening with tears. “But we will make sure that never happens to our child. We will open a college fund tomorrow and take out life insurance.” He frowned. “Your folks didn’t have insurance?”
“They’d borrowed against it.”
Tak’s hand clapped over his flat belly. “They loved you so much, they made mistakes while showing it.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Dad was in construction. He didn’t make the money to afford my going away to school, living in a dorm, taking a semester in Europe...I was so selfish not to know.”