Chapter One
Oliver
Six Years Later
“Christopher, get your little butt in gear. The train’s leaving!” I winced as I said that last part and my friend Kayden chuckled.
Christopher, my five-year-old son came running down the hall, backpack dragging behind him. “Train? Are we going on a train?”
I knelt down so we were eye to eye. “No, buddy. I’m sorry,” I said. “That was just a figure of speech. I meant to say that we're going to be heading out soon, so I need to get the last of your stuff in the car, okay?”
Christopher let out a long dramatic sigh. “All right.” He turned and trudged back down the hallway toward his room.
“You sure about this?” Kayden asked.
“Yeah, I mean, it shouldn't be a big deal, right?”
Kayden raised his eyebrows.
I plopped down on the couch and he settled next to me. The couch was the only furniture left in the small apartment that Christopher and I would be leaving behind. “We've been visiting my grandma in Millerstown every weekend for the past six months. Plus, we've been there on holidays throughout the years. The house is just far enough outside of town we won't run into… you know.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince with my spiel.
Kayden didn’t say anything, just kept his brows raised.
“And if I do run into him, so what? It's been five years. More than that. Almost six.”
I buried my head in my hands. “It won't be a big deal. I promise. I can do this. We can do this.”
Kayden shrugged. “If you say so. Just don't be afraid to sell the house as it is and move back. You can take the money you make off the sale and get a little place just outside the city or hell, wherever you want.”
I looked at him sideways. “We want to be where you are. We have plans.”
The other Omega plastered a goofy smile on his face. “Oh, that's so sweet.”
I rolled my eyes. “Because we're business partners, remember? You’re the brains, I’m the brush, right?”
“Right.” Kayden nodded, then his features softened, and he held my hand. “Seriously, if it doesn't work out to remodel your grandma's home to turn it into an in-home daycare, we don't have to do that. It was just an idea I had. If I had known that your ex still lived there…”
I snorted at that. Philip Miller could hardly be called my ex. He still lived in that town, though, and if I lived near it, I’d likely run in to him.
“It's not a bad place to live,” I said. “They have a really great school and they have a fantastic music program for gifted students. Christopher would do well there. His piano skills could really flourish. The kid’s a natural as it is.”
“He is that,” Kayden agreed.
“Plus, at my grandma's house, my house now, I suppose, there'll be room for an actual piano.”
“True,” Kayden said. “But I'm not all about bringing up painful memories. You couldn't pay me to live in the same town as you-know-who.”
I knew. Kayden and I had bonded over the fact that both of us had unexpected pregnancies that were immediately rejected by the men we thought were going to be our Alphas. I don't know what I would have done had I not met Kayden after first moving to the city. I lived in an apartment I could barely afford, with no job, no skills to get a job, and five months pregnant. Thankfully, he'd had his shit together.
Kayden ran a licensed daycare out of his apartment. Between the two of us, we were able to make a pretty good business out of it. It wasn't until later, just two years ago, that we'd come together and created a children's book. With my art and his way with words it became a modest success and we had seven books in the series.
I gave Kayden a hug and kissed his cheek. “Everything will be fine, I promise. We both want to get the kids out of the city, out of this crime-ridden area, into a place where they can run and play outside whenever they want. Past dark even. This is our chance.”
“We could get a dog.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, we can talk about getting a dog.”
Fifteen minutes later, I tossed my duffel bag into the trunk of the car and closed the lid, then hustled over to the driver side and slid in.
“Ready to roll, buddy?” I asked Christopher, who sat in the back seat, already strapped into his booster seat. He held his stuffed panda bear in his hand.
“Yeah,” he said. “Let's go.” He looked longingly at our apartment building, but he put on a brave face.
“I know you'll miss it, buddy. But we're going to have a big house with a yard now.”
“I know,” he said. “But I'm going to miss Uncle Kayden and Jackson.”
I smiled into the rearview mirror and met his gaze. “They'll be coming soon. Once we get the place fixed up. And we’ll be visiting them.”
“Why can't they come now?” he asked.
“Well, we've still got a few kids left in the daycare that need to be watched. We wouldn't want to leave their parents without any childcare, now would we?”
“No.” Christopher sighed. “I guess not. Can we get a swing set?”
I grinned even wider. “Yeah, buddy. It's on my list of things to start researching right away. Maybe we'll fix up the old chicken coop, too. We can get some chickens and you can collect eggs every morning before school.”
“And a puppy, we need to get a puppy.”
I grimaced at that. It was something that would have to wait. “We'll talk about that, little guy. I don't know if you're quite ready for a puppy.”
“I am. I am. I promise.”
I laughed and started up the car, then pulled it out of the parking spot and started down the road. “We'll see,” I said. “Onward and upward to a new adventure!”
I didn't know what awaited me in Millerstown, if anything at all. But this would be a good opportunity for me and Kayden, and the kids. It wasn't as if we would live directly in town anyways. We were just as close to the other small towns in the area, so we were just as likely to get parents from those areas as well as from Millerstown.
Millerstown had flourished in the past six years. Ian Miller was still mayor, but I knew from reading the meeting minutes from the town website, that some citizens had come together and started a petition to impose term limits. It’s likely he wouldn’t be mayor much longer. The town would probably erect a statue of him in the town square when he retired. The thought made my stomach turn. I pushed those thoughts aside, thinking about the younger Miller instead.
I hadn't seen Philip in nearly six years, the guy was probably married with half a dozen kids by now. I’d resisted stalking him on social media, wanting to put as much of him behind me as possible. Christopher and I didn’t need Philip. I did know he worked as a full-time fireman in Millerstown and was on his way to be fire chief someday. Just as he’d wanted.
The drive was a long one, but it was one I was quite familiar with, having visited my grandma many times throughout the years. At first, she'd come to visit me in the city since I'd refused to return to town. She'd never asked who the Alpha was that got me pregnant. Though, I think she’d suspected.
The last few years it had gotten more and more difficult for her to travel, so Christopher and I went to her for the holidays. Then eventually we started going every weekend to keep her company and thank goodness we did. Grandma had always been a strong woman. She raised me since my parents had passed away from a car accident when I was five. She began to get weaker and frailer, seemingly overnight. Two months ago, she’d had a stroke and passed away in her sleep. I still couldn't believe she had left the entire house to me. It had never occurred to me that that could happen. It didn't feel as if I deserved it simply because I was her grandson, but I appreciated it and I would do right by her memory.
If it didn't work out that we could turn the place into an in-home daycare, then… well… we’d cross that bridge when we got there.