Page 40 of As The Shifter World Turns

40

LIKE A BAD PENNY…

Micah

“I made you lunch, love.” He held up the lunch sack. It wasn’t even really a lunch sack as much as a plastic grocery sack. “And the term might be a bit of an exaggeration.”

“Can I eat it?” He nodded. “And will it make my belly happy?” Another nod. “Then it’s absolutely perfect.” I kissed his cheek and accepted the bag.

“I see those videos on social media of mates making those fancy bento boxes for their partners and they’re adorable.” He let out a long sigh. “But they never look delicious and leftovers are much yummier.” He wasn’t wrong.

“I’d pick heating up last night’s dinner over fancy toothpick-jabbed sandwiches in a little plastic box any day of the week,” I assured him. And I would too. “What time are you and Elune stopping by today?”

We’d made big changes in our lives. Archer had given up his job and had started working part-time at the company Daire and I created. Yeah, we had a company of our own. Daire had given up the nursery job but still attended classes at his community college three mornings a week. And he kept making his gardening videos which brought in advertising money.

I’d been doing the staging for our new company, but adding gardens to our repertoire, thanks to Daire’s gift, leveled up what we could offer our customers. We now had very high-end exclusive clients who paid the really big bucks and we even had a wait list.

It blew my mind that people were scheduling their home sales around when we could get their houses where they needed to be. But then again, the whole selling a house for ten million dollars was pretty outside my realm too .

“I’m hoping to get one web page revamped during the baby’s morning nap and then bring her by after that. If the timing is good, we’ll eat lunch with you before I begin working on billing.”

I loved that owning our own business meant that every day could be bring your daughter to work day. We even had a little area set up for her in the office. “Now go, so I can get my work done and join you.” He slapped my ass playfully.

“I’m going to say—” He held up his hand, cutting me off.

“If you go in there and wake her…” Fair enough. She had just started sleeping for longer lengths of time.

“I was kidding.” Sort of. I still wanted to see her adorable face. “Video message when she’s up?”

Archer just rolled his eyes. “I could do that or get my work done here so I can bring her to the office.”

“Good-bye, mate.” I kissed him. “See you soon.”

Patch, not to be ignored, demanded his loving too in the form of a belly rub.

Why was it so hard to leave home… still? If I could spend all day, every day with them I’d choose that in a heartbeat. And really, we’d managed to get close to that with him working part time with Daire and me.

I walked across the street to meet Daire. We were driving together. He was already in his car when I arrived.

“Sorry. It’s not easy to say good-bye.” No sense pretending with Daire. He knew what a sap I was.

“I know,” he chuckled. “Grabbed us coffee from around the corner.”

“Basically, you knew I’d be late?” I took the coffee. It smelled amazing.

“Yes, but…” He picked up his phone from the dash and handed it to me. “We got a call from here. It’s… I know they aren't going to be in the right price range for us, but… let’s do this for our portfolio.”

Daire never asked me to do a project. He was always along for the ride until it came to getting his garden game on. The fact that this caught his eye had me intrigued.

I looked at the phone and he was right. The neighborhood was not high end. They wouldn’t be able to pay a fee that was worth our time, but… “A patio greenhouse.”

“What do you think? I bet we could get some decent publicity… possibly a magazine layout.” He sounded so hopeful that even if I thought it was a bad idea, I’d have said we should do it. We had enough high-paying clients that we could afford it. But he was right. The building was like a time capsule. We could do it properly.

“What time did you arrange the meeting?” I asked.

“You think I would do that without talking to…” I rolled my eyes and he quickly said, “Does now work?”

“Yes, Daire. Now works.”

Neil

“We need a word.” Joshua’s father was in my face—again.

He had this notion that Joshua was going to be a professional sportsperson one day. He hadn’t even decided which sport. He forced his son to participate in soccer, football, hockey and who knew what else when the poor kid just wanted to act and dance. I felt bad for him.

Especially when it came to hockey season. Joshua said those practices were at four a. m. because that was the only ice time they could get. I couldn’t even. This was supposed to be fun.

“You always let the same kids play.” That wasn’t accurate.

This was a learning league and I rotated a lot with the exception of goalie because that position needed a pair of practiced hands. Not all kids had that skill. There were two in the current team and no one else had expressed an interest in being goalie. And again… this was a fun league. No one here was going pro. Not even close.

“I’m sorry that you feel that way.” Because I sure as shit wasn’t going to apologize for something I didn’t do. “I can assure you Joshua gets his fair share of playing time.”

“He does not and neither does Gene.” Great, a second father was joining in the fun. “They’re by far the best players and you opt to have your friend’s children out there longer than the most talented.”

I needed a freaking drink or five. Gene could barely kick the ball when it was standing still. I wasn’t sure what talent his father saw, but there was none. And even with that he had a fair amount of time on the pitch.

And friends? Who were all these friends I had because at last check I had exactly one friend out here and it was Martin. Toby hadn’t even played yet today because his cleats broke during warm-ups. Instead of going home, he decided to just watch. We were going to go cleat shopping—the three of us—afterward.

“I don’t see this as being accurate.” Martin came to my side. “But if you’d like, I’d be glad to analyze all the pitch times and we can enter them into a spreadsheet for the next game.” Both the fathers’ jaws dropped. “I mean if there’s a discrepancy we should deal with that. Next year is competitive and only the best get to play. Your sons could really benefit from more playing time. It would be a shame if they missed out.”

They both stomped off.

“Thanks.” I wasn’t even sure how it worked.

“No biggie. I wasn’t going to let their bullying take away from other kids,” he shrugged. I hadn’t really thought of it that way. I was too busy trying to figure out what the heck was happening.

“I guess I owe you dinner.” I smiled sweetly at him just as I was about to blow the whistle.

“You don’t, but I’ll accept.”

Ivor

I scrolled through the pages looking for the perfect place to take Ryder for our date. I wanted to officially ask him to be mine for always and finally agree to move in. It was a huge step. Bigger than huge. And if I had been asked even a couple of weeks ago if I’d ever take it, I’d have said it wasn’t in the near future.

But something changed. Ryder was sleeping better. He no longer had nightmares about Kellan. He didn’t freeze up every time his phone buzzed. He didn’t look behind him when we were out in public. It was like Kellan was finally gone and the only two people in our relationship were us.

I loved it.

I should’ve known it was too good to be true.

“Where’s your boss?” Kellan was standing in the doorway like the freaking bad penny he was.

“Not your business.” I set down my tablet. “You can leave now. You have no business here.” I stood up, needing him to see he no longer impacted my life. “See yourself out or do I need to call for an escort?”

He cackled. He fucking cackled.

“That’s not how this works.” He stalked over to me. “You tell me where he is or you call him in. You’re the employee not the boss.”

My confidence started to waver. He was too close, too insistent. I was missing something—something huge.

“I’m not playing games.” I barked and picked up the office phone.

“Fine, call them and let them know you want your boss's pregnant omega taken out by force. That’ll go over well.”

Pregnant.

No! My wolf wasn’t having it.

Kellan was pregnant.

Ryder’s pregnant omega.

He couldn’t possibly mean…

“Liar!” I seethed. “Get the fuck out, you liar.”

“Whatever. Just tell Ryder. He’ll remember the condom breaking last time we were together. Don’t look at me like that. Of course my belly is still flat. I’m only six weeks along.”

I had to have heard him wrong. I had to. Six weeks would mean he was with Ryder when… no… fuck this… no …

“Do you want to see the test?” He swiped on his phone and turned it around. I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see anything, my eyes so full of tears.

“Get the fuck out.”

And by some miracle he did.

I crumbled to the floor sobbing. How could Ryder do this to me? No. That wasn’t even it.

“How could I have been so fucking stupid?” I forced myself up and went to the copier and emptied a box of paper. I was leaving. I couldn’t face him… couldn’t deal with him seeing me like this… couldn’t… I just needed to leave.

I started to throw my personal things in the box. I didn’t have much, but I had enough that I needed to remember it all, especially the food.

I’d been through the interview process for Archer’s old job and his boss had texted me early this morning to say it was mine. I had to give him my reply before five p.m. today. He wanted me to start immediately. I’d been going to discuss it with Ryder but now, thankfully, I had a well-paying position waiting for me and I could start Monday.

“What’s going on?” Ryder came in with a pizza box. He stuck his dick in someone else and he brought me pizza. Fucking pizza.

“I got a new job,” I told him. “Archer’s old one, really. I gotta go.”

I dropped the box and ran out of there. It was too hard.

Too fucking hard.