"I’ve finished in the kitchen, Mamá." Carlos dodged to the side as a filthy rag came flying out of the attic. It landed on a pile of similar rags that showed just how disgusting the room had gotten in the last year.

"Thank you, m’ijo," Theresa said, sticking her head around the edge of the opening. Her hair was coated in a thick layer of dust, and she had a bandana tied around her face that made her look like she should be robbing trains. Under the mess, he knew her hair was still jet black without a hint of gray. t made him grateful for her excellent genes.

"I'm going to go empty the trash cans now. Did you need me to do anything else?" He said a quick prayer it wasn't bathroom day.

"I'm going to need your help to move some of these boxes around. I don't understand why Miss Chloe needs Christmas decorations. It's the middle of June, and she doesn't even take them out for Christmas." She disappeared back into the dim space, trailing off into distracted mumbles.

"Christmas in July, Mamá. It's a thing." He shook his head when she didn't reply, except to toss another rag.

The third floor of the house was almost entirely unused, guest bedrooms covered in drop cloths collecting dust since the family started spending their holidays in Europe. Even the second floor didn't see much use. Peter's room was on the far end of the floor, but he was still sleeping off his hangover, so Carlos gained a reprieve from emptying his trash can.

The rest of the floor was taken up with the spare office, originally set up for Peter in a fit of wishful thinking, and the two guest bedrooms that saw periodic use, most recently by Teddy.

Rolling his eyes at the thought of the strange alpha, Carlos stuck his head into the rooms one by one to check their trash. There was a single receipt crumpled in the bottom of one of the guest bathroom trash bins. Chocolate and cologne. It was the kind of combination that made perfect sense when he thought of the redhead, and he was smiling when he stuck his head into the study.

"Fuck. I tried that already."

The loud crumpling of paper covered the startled noise Carlos made as he jerked in surprise, slamming his elbow on the door frame. He'd never actually seen anyone in the extra study before.

Tossing the wad of paper at the floor where it joined a small mountain of similar papers, Teddy braced his elbows on the table and groaned. He looked wild today, his red hair sticking up every direction. The light from the windows made it look like it was on fire. There were dark circles under his eyes, though, and he was glaring at the sheets on the desk like he would rather they be what was burning.

Slipping into the room, Carlos started picking up the pieces of paper, trying to be as quiet as possible. To his surprise, Teddy immediately got to his feet and started helping.

"I usually take them out at the end of the night," the alpha said after a moment, his eyes flitting over Carlos. He seemed timid in the light of day, almost embarrassed. "I just haven't gone to bed yet."

"I can get it," Carlos said, glancing at one of the less crumpled pages. Shock made him freeze. They were blueprints. He even recognized them from his route to class. "How did you get the blueprints for the Simmons Street project?" Smoothing the paper out, he blinked at the dark smears that slashed angrily across the page.

Teddy sighed, shoving more of them into the garbage bag. "I printed them out at the City Comptroller's Office. They have a larger printer than the Office of Development."

"They just let you have them?" Carlos traced a finger over the plans, grimacing at the cramped layouts. Like most of the locals, he'd been skeptical of the city's promises for the new community, but this was worse than he'd feared. The spaces were hardly functional. "This is shit," he said, crumpling the paper up angrily.

"I know," Teddy said dryly, taking the bag from him. "I just can't figure out how to fix it."

"What does your shrink think?" Pulling the bag back out of Teddy's hands, Carlos got to his feet. "I've got to check the rest of the garbage cans, so I might as well take these."

Teddy settled more fully onto the floor, crossing his legs and resting his chin on his knees. It made him look like a kid staring up at Carlos. "Cody leaves the architecture to people with degrees."

Ignoring the way the alpha's eyes traced his stained clothes, Carlos nodded. "Smart of him. Why do you think you need to fix this, then? Shouldn't you leave that to the architect the city hired?"

There was a long silence, a flush rising in Teddy's pale cheeks. He looked angry about something for a moment, and Carlos bit his lip, hoping he hadn't upset the man's delicate mental state. Eventually he sighed, dusting off his khakis and getting to his feet. His face settled into blank inscrutability, and his lips pressed into a straight line, but the slump of his shoulders made him look as though he'd lost something important.

"Hi," he said as he straightened up, taller than Carlos remembered. "I'm Teddy. Theodore William Connelly III, actually. Of Connelly Designs." He dug in his pocket for a moment, fishing out a city ID card.

"You won the Markham Fellowship," Carlos breathed, his spine frozen ramrod straight with shock. The picture on the card was surprisingly good; Teddy was obviously caught in the middle of talking to someone, his eyebrows furrowed. It made him look just a tiny bit dangerous.

One red eyebrow went up, the alpha offering the card again. "Yes," he said. "I'm surprised you recognized the name."

"They have a category for civil engineering, too," he said, pushing the card aside. "I believe you, man. I'm just surprised. I thought you were a mental patient or something." Carlos almost bit his tongue trying to halt the flow of words. "I mean...Fuck. I'm just going to go empty the damned trash."

Teddy threw his head back and laughed, that same loud donkey bray that scraped at the air. He looked so joyful, though, Carlos couldn't help but join him.

"I'm sorry, but you gotta admit you're a little...different." Carlos leaned against the desk where a whole stack of untouched blueprints was sitting in a perfect stack, aligned with the military precision to run parallel to the edge. "You're not boring, at any rate."

"I get that a lot," Teddy said, his eyes darkening to the same blue as the sky outside, hot and sharp. "The different bit. Not many people admit that normal is boring."

Carlos shrugged. "What's normal? The Caldwells? The woman who cleans their toilets?" He brushed away the tingle in his gut from the warmth of those eyes. "So if you're the guy who's building the buildings, then why are they such crap?" he asked bluntly.

"They picked a different bid and got burned." Moving around the desk, Teddy grabbed one of the blueprints. "I have four buildings that already have studs up, and I don't have the money to move it all around. The city only agreed to rip out the complete ones because the state inspection team threatened to condemn the whole building." He dragged his finger across the page, pointing out the awkward dimensions and horrible wall placement.

"Sounds about right." His fingers itching to take a look, Carlos tangled them in the trash bag. "I should leave you to it."

"I'm not getting anywhere, so you don't have to rush off," Teddy said. "You're a welcome distraction. I've been staring at these plans for weeks."

If it was anyone else, Carlos would have understood the words to be a polite fiction, but Teddy's face was relaxed and open. Giving in to his nosy side, he leaned over the table. "You said it was just four of the buildings that have this issue, right?"

Teddy leaned in as well, pulling around another sheet that was a diagram of the block the complex was going to sit on. "These four," he said, tapping the sites. "The other six to eight buildings are less than foundations right now."

"Six to eight?" Carlos asked, then waved his hand. "Right. I guess it depends on how much the city is willing to pay. Is that a playground?"

"And a basketball court. It's important for communities to have gathering spaces, especially for children."

"You get that out of a textbook?" Carlos leaned over to examine the placement a bit closer. "You should move it to the other side of the courtyard," he said.

"A study from Notre Dame," Teddy admitted, leaning over the table. There was no smell of cologne today, just a comfortable earthiness that rose off him in waves. "It won't get as much sun on that side."

"Yeah, but it'll be closer to the laundry room, so the moms can watch their kids while they fold clothes." Picking up the drafting pencil on the table, Carlos made a few notes on the plan before he realized what he was doing. He set the pencil back down carefully, glancing at the alpha through his lashes. "Do you have a certain number of units that you have to fit in each building?"

"Not exactly," Teddy said, his voice distant as he contemplated the changes Carlos made. "The goal is to double the area's low-income housing. They want me to fit as many as possible, of course. That's a very good idea," he added, initialing the new location.

"Really?" Carlos blinked at him in surprise. "I mean, I know it's a good idea, but you're really going to do it?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

It wasn't so much the words that stopped Carlos in his tracks as the way he said it, as if there was no other possible outcome. "Because I'm nobody, and this is your design. I'm the housekeeper's son, man. Who's gonna listen to a guy like me?"

"I will," Teddy said. "It was a good idea." He stared at Carlos until the omega had to look away. "I want to make the apartments as functional as possible, otherwise I'd just throw up enough walls to meet the code requirements and be done with the damned thing."

Carlos stared at the blueprints on the desk, trying not to breathe in the scent that was slowly taking over the air between them. He overheard people talking about the new development, how the city was going to cram people in like sardines and call it progress. How it was going to turn into another run-down, graffiti-covered slum just like the rest of them. Looking at the set of Teddy's mouth, the way he might as well have been etched in stone, made something swirl in his chest, painful and unfamiliar. He thought it might be hope.

"So why not leave off walls?" he blurted, his skin prickling when Teddy's eyes snapped to his, all the distraction burned away by laser-sharp focus. "You could make some of them into studios, and then on the rest, combine the existing layouts into two or four bedroom units."

Hand snapping out faster than Carlos would have guessed he could move, Teddy grabbed his pencil and leaned over the table. He muttered to himself as he made notes to the blueprint, so lost in his thoughts he didn't even notice when Carlos rattled the trash bag.

Having spent his entire life being ignored by the wealthy families his mother cleaned for, Carlos would have expected to be more upset about the alpha's sudden dismissal. It was obvious Teddy didn't mean it as an insult, notes appearing across the paper almost faster than Carlos could track. It made him smile, a soft, affectionate curl of his lips he couldn't have stopped for the world. He shook his head and headed for the door.

"That was brilliant," Teddy said before he'd made it a few steps. He was still writing full speed, but his head was tilted toward the door.

Carlos ducked his head, glad his tan skin hid the blush he could feel creeping up his neck. "It was just an idea."

"If that's what you call just an idea, you're going to be a great engineer." Adding one last notation with a flourish, Teddy set the pencil back down. He didn't turn to look at Carlos as he pulled a few more sheets off the pile. "Would you be willing to look at the rest of the designs and let me know if you have any other ideas?"

"Are you serious?"

There was a dimple in Teddy's right cheek, a fact which cemented itself into Carlos' brain as the alpha turned and smiled at him. "My friends would tell you I'm always serious."

"They don't know you very well, then," Carlos said, glancing at the trash bag in his hand. "Let me drop this off downstairs, grab another chair, and I'll be right back."

Some of the light went out of those blue eyes, but Teddy nodded. "All right. I'll be here."

The slight slump of his shoulders made Carlos pause. "Don't pout, loco. I know I'm irresistible, but you can live without me for five minutes." He ducked out the door before the alpha could do anything to tempt him to stay.

It was still early enough in the day that the family was gone, so he dumped the trash bag into the pile by the kitchen door and then ran upstairs to the third floor. The pile of rags had disappeared which meant his mother had found the box she needed.

"Mamá? I finished the trash." He hopped up onto the second rung of the ladder and stuck his head into the dusty attic. "Did you find the box you need?"

"Yes," she said. She had her face buried in a box with two hieroglyphics on the side that evidently meant Christmas decorations to whoever had packed it.

"Great," he said trying not to touch anything as he made his way into the room, but somehow still ending up with a black streak down one leg. "Fuck."

"Watch your mouth," his mother snapped, lifting her head to glare at him. The dust had left her with red-rimmed eyes, and she sniffed loudly as he picked up the box.

"Yes, Mamá." The box was surprisingly light, full of paper-wrapped glass ornaments worth more than his mother's annual salary as far as he could tell. It barely took any effort to haul it down to the mudroom on the first floor. "Did you need anything else?" he asked her, washing his hand and trying to lighten the smears of dirt on his clothes.

"You in a hurry all of a sudden?" she snapped back, her hands on her hips.

"I'm going to help a friend out with some homework," he said, unable to suppress the proud smile that stretched his chapped lips wide.

"A friend," Theresa said, the words rolling off her tongue like she wasn't sure she liked them. The lines around her eyes were darkened by the streaks of dust smeared across her temples.

Carlos grimaced, scrubbing harder at the gray streaks on his shirt. "Yeah, Mamá. A friend. He wants my help on a big project. He thinks I have good ideas."

She was still staring at him when he glanced at her, her black eyes swimming with an emotion he couldn't quite name. "Get out of here, then, you useless ass," she said, swatting him with her rag. It puffed a cloud of dust into the air, and they both sneezed. "Look what you did."

"Look what I did?" he said, exaggerated offense in every syllable. "You're the crazy lady who goes around hitting people."

"And I'll do it again, too." She raised her rag high, and he scurried out of the way, laughing.

He was almost to the door when she said his name, her voice serious enough to stop him in his tracks. Her eyes were still red, despite the relatively clearer air, and she had to clear her throat before she could speak.

"Be careful, m’ijito," she said, smiling sadly. "I know you're a smart boy, and you won't forget your good sense just because someone is charming, but..." She sniffed again, rubbing her nose and leaving a dark patch behind. "Just be careful, okay?"

As little as two years ago, Carlos would have ignored her advice, convinced he knew what he was doing. He liked to fool himself by thinking he'd grown past that, and he considered her words now. Without thinking, he turned his eyes toward the second floor.

"I'll be careful, Mamá," he said, dragging his attention back to her. "I promise."

She smiled again, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Get out of here," she said, a wealth of meaning in those simple words.

"I will, Mamá," he promised as he went back upstairs. "I will."