I clicked “place order” on my rush delivery just as there was a knock on the door.

“Who is it?” I called as the tapping and knocking of We Will Rock You echoed in my apartment. “I said, ‘who is it’?” Not that I needed an answer. The knock told me what I needed to know.

I opened the door and swooped Charlie into my arms, giving her the biggest bear hug I could manage given the huge bag wedged between us. Good old Charlie never left home without that monstrosity—or at least one similar.

“What brings you to my humble abode?” I asked after I finally put her down and shut the door.

“Very funny, big guy.” She walked over to the kitchen table like she owned the place and started taking out her tablet, folders, and I didn’t even know all what.

Even though I rarely saw Charlie, she was one of my dearest friends, right there with Daniel. The three of us had grown up in the same neighborhood. We’d all had pretty craptastic families and bonded over that. Heck, Charlie was the only one to visit me in rehab after the accident. Daniel… went off the deep end, and I never faulted him for that. My dad had been too busy—or whatever lame ass excuse he’d given the nurses after his one and only visit. He only started to care when he sniffed the money. Jackass.

“I’ve only got an hour, but I think I have some good things for you to look at for your renovation. I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you.” She started tapping away at her screen, suddenly all business.

I had to give it to Charlie. Growing up the way she did, she was lucky to be alive, much less a college graduate and one of the most prominent general contractors in the state. I knew for a fact if it were anyone other than me, she wouldn’t even be entertaining a project as small as the one I had been planning for the last couple years. I’d thought about it forever before even asking her.

“Whichever design you decide to go with, the cost will be about the same. You’re lucky because this building was an old mill back in the day.”

“So you’re saying it’s possible?” The loft style was great for a young bachelor whose friends were more than happy to crash on the floor or couch, but I had passed that phase a few years ago.

“Very much so.” She was practically bouncing. I loved seeing her like this—in her element. “The possibilities are endless. This is my favorite one—or do you want the easiest first?” She held the tablet against her chest so I couldn’t even get a glimpse of her favorite before deciding.

“Easiest.”

I had asked her to draw up a few ideas one night when we were chatting on the phone. That had been months ago. Now… I wasn’t just thinking of my friends having actual rooms to crash in, I was thinking of the family I was about to have.

Logistically speaking, it would make sense if we lived here. True, the bar wasn’t ideal for kids, but Ethan lived with his mom and Ryan’s place was reminiscent of a grad student’s first apartment. Nice enough, but not a forever home. Plus, it was tiny. That left my place.

When the baby came, I wanted us all together. It was most likely a pipe dream, but dreams had always been what kept me going in life.

“Fine.” She turned over her tablet so I could see what I was missing before pulling up the other plans. “We take the extra storage for the bar on the other side of the sidewall there and wall up the door on the other side.” She pointed, opened up pictures, and tapped away at her screen as she showed me the entire thing, step by step. “Then we add a door on this side and voila—a bedroom. We could even split it in half, given the size, and add two doors for two bedrooms. And then where the walk-in closet is in your bedroom, the one abutting the bathroom, turn that into a half bath, and boom done.”

It didn’t solve all the issues, but it sure would work. She was pretty gifted at this stuff.

“And how long would that take?” I asked, dreading the answer. I saw enough home shows to know that the answer was pretty much always three months.

“Maybe two days with full man power.” My jaw nearly hit the counter I was leaning on. Two days was very doable.

“There’s a but.” I sighed when I realized she wasn’t answering with any more detail.

“Look at this. This is my favorite.”

“That is—wow!” The picture on her tablet blew me the fuck away. Her plan was basically to gut the entire thing, open the wall where the storage area now stood, and rearrange the interior. There was an eat-in kitchen where I could whip up some killer meals, four bedrooms, including a master suite, a second bathroom, and a large living room/den kind of space. There was even a little nursery off the master bedroom where a walk-in closet normally would’ve been, and since she included a couple of those already, that was perfect.

It was beyond perfect. That didn’t make it feasible, at least timewise. “I didn’t even tell you I was going to be a dad yet,” I protested.

“I know, asshole. You better be glad I found out from Daniel and not anyone else.”

I sighed. It was pointless trying to keep secrets in our little group. “But that would take what? A month, full man power?” Or three months.

“How much is budget an issue?” She tapped her chin with her stylus.

“What do you think?” I rolled my eyes. “You think you can turn this into that?” Because looking around it felt impossible.

“You’re seriously asking me that?” She smacked me upside the head. I deserved it.

“I mean, I knew you were amazing.” I rubbed my head as if it hurt, and she shook her head at my attempt at humor.

“Always have been amazing.” She turned off the tablet and shoved it in her bag.

“But what’s the time line?”

“Money doesn’t matter, right? That’s the premise?

“It is.”

“If you give me two weeks’ lead time to get the crew together and are willing to pay bonuses for completion with passing quality inspection by me so they don’t rush and give you crap—I can have it done in two weeks.” She looked slightly less impressed with herself than was her norm.

“Another ‘but’ is coming...”

“But you need to be gone for those two weeks. We can move your stuff into a truck easy enough, but if I have people all working at once, this place won’t be safe.”

I could easily stay at a hotel, or set up a cot in my office and use the shower at the gym, but what a pain in the ass that would be.

“Do I need to close the bar?” People counted on their paychecks and tips. Closing the bar would be a deal breaker.

“Not at all, but they’ll probably hear us because it’ll be long-ass days.”

“I love you so much right now, I could kiss you.”

The renovation sounded so doable. Two weeks of hell and then, boom, a place fit for a family. There was a lot that had to come before it, but I had a plan in place, and that always put me at ease.

“Been there. Done that. It didn’t work so well.” Charlie rolled her eyes. It had been one night in our early twenties. And it worked out just fine for that night of fun. It never would have worked out in the long run, though. While she loved me, Charlie preferred pussy over cock.

“Okay. Send me your availability.” I was itching to throw money at her and beg her to start tomorrow. “Thanks so much, Charlie. This means everything. You’re the best.”

“I know,” she teased as she put the rest of her things in her bag.

Even if it wasn’t the right time to talk to Ethan or Ryan about moving in together, I wanted to have things ready. Even if it ended up only a part time gig. I rejected that idea, vehemently. I had no interest in being a part-time father.

Ethan had accepted a job from me and already started, so that was a huge step in the right direction. He wasn’t counting on the job being forever or even for long. For now, it was nice to have him where I could keep an eye on him. It was challenging to work with a hard-on all night, every freaking night, though. But I was trying to be good, even if every time I stepped in my apartment I envisioned him on his knees, his lips wrapped around my cock like it had been that night. He wanted space, and fuck if I wasn’t going to make sure he had everything he wanted. Unless it was me being out of his life. That wasn’t going to happen if I had anything to say about it, and not just because of the baby.

I almost hoped it wasn’t my little soldier that reached the battlefield first. I knew blood wasn’t family. In fact, none of the people I considered family shared my blood. Having the baby be biologically Ryan’s wouldn’t change how I felt about the baby one little bit.

“So, what’s the rush now? You serious about these guys?”

Damn, Daniel told her everything, didn’t he? “That’s part of it, but I don’t have any plans to move anyone in soon.”

“Because they don’t feel the same?”

It took me a moment to realize what she was asking. I’d been too wrapped up in my head. It seemed to be the way, lately.

“For one, because the omega had an evil fucker for an alpha before, and we have to work a lot to repair that damage.” His ex needed to pay. Not just the money he owed his daughter, either. Karma had a way of handling douche canoes like him, so I tried not to dwell on that too much.

“Does he know how you feel?”

“I don’t even really know the feels part, I just know the yearnings to fix all the problems and to make them both mine.”

“Alphahole.” She hip-checked me with her taunt.

“You are far more alpha than me so don’t even—just don’t.” And it wasn’t an exaggeration, not even a little bit. It was probably why she was so kickass at her career.

“Fair enough.”

Someone else knocked on the door and I opened it to find the delivery I had been waiting for. Excellent. I signed for it and turned to find Charlie half a foot in front of me and ready to go.

“What, you too lazy to go to the store now?” She eyed the box. Knowing her, she was deciding if what was inside was worth asking about.

It was. I had managed to find the most glittery, rainbow princess tutu in existence. Bella was going to love it.

“For your information, I went to three stores this morning looking for it and couldn’t find it. Delivery Now had it.” For an insane amount of money, but worth every penny if Bella smiled half as brightly as when she’d won enough tickets at the whack-a-frog game at Chuck E. Cheese to get the princess wand she’d been eyeing all night.

“What did you get? Something kinky for your date?”

“We’re going to The Princesses on Ice Showsation, whatever that means. Hardly a hot date.” It so was a date.

“Bet you can’t wait,” Charlie sassed, not realizing how very true her words were.

“I can’t.”

“Let me see.” She reached for the box as I held it just outside her reach. “You know you want to.”

I conceded, handing her the box.

She opened it up and held up the dress as a little shower of glitter drifted to the ground. That was going to be fun.

“You do have it bad.” She put it back in the box as perfectly as it had been when she opened it.

“I know. So, scram. I have a date to arrange.”

She cracked up in a full-on belly laugh, only stopping when she was out of breath. I had no idea what the joke was, but I was most definitely the punch line.

“Arrange? They don’t even know? No fucking wonder you’re still single.”

There was that.

“And your reason?” I tapped her on the nose to let her know it was in fun. I knew her reason. She wanted an omega to start a family with, and single female omegas were not bountiful by any stretch.

In that way, Charlie was so unlike me. I couldn’t care less about designation or gender, as long as we clicked. Charlie had a checklist, and that left her terribly lonely.

“Alphahole.” She grabbed the door handle. “It was good to see you. Call me when you want to start. I stand by what I said,” she said over her shoulder as she sashayed out the door.

I quickly pulled out my phone typed away to Ethan.

Tickets to The Princesses on Ice Showsation in my left hand. Tutu for Princess Bella in my right. Be ready at four.

I called Ryan. I knew he didn’t love talking on the phone, but I needed to hear one of their voices and Ryan at least sometimes answered his phone... unlike Ethan. Ryan picked up on the first ring and I told him all about the plan. He was all for it. As I hung up with him, my phone dinged.

Sometimes a guy likes to be asked. And where is my tutu?

Ethan was being funny. Funny was good. It meant he wasn’t freaking out.

I’m sure one can be procured.