Page 48 of As The Shifter World Turns

48

TIME TO MAKE THE CALL

Ryder

“I’ll be deciding on second interviews by the end of the week. You’ll hear from me either way.” I outstretched my arm to shake the poor guy’s hand.

He didn’t have a shot at the job. He was worse than the last guy and he was pretty horrible. In fact they all had been awful and I had a lot of applicants. The job paid decently and the requirements were not overly intense.

I was just picky.

People at Sunshine Manor probably thought I just hired anyone and that Ivor got the job because I wanted him. And it was true, I did want him. But that wasn’t why I hired him. I mean, I probably would’ve hired him for something when he was so down on his luck, but it would’ve been a made up job that was just me helping him out. And he had needed a job, any job when I offered it to him. That was true, but the job I hired him for, that one I was picky about, Ivor filled it beautifully.

Our friends—his friends, too—loved him, but they didn’t see how gifted he was at multitasking. He could manage the office better than I could. I didn’t have to worry when I was out. Ivor had everything under control and without being stressed to the point he was going to burn out and leave like the three people before him.

I needed to find another Ivor, one who didn’t hate me.

Wanted: Someone as amazing as Ivor. Must be able to master all the office tasks, juggle them like they were a circus performer with twenty rings in the air, and not think I’m the second shittiest person on the planet. Apply in person.

“Pretty sure that wouldn’t work. ”

What I really needed to do was suck it up and call Ivor, beg him to come back and offer him extra money and the promise of staying out of his hair.

But really, was the last part possible? His job required communicating with me on a regular basis. That was hard to do when the person you are working with broke your heart and as much as I hated Kellan, it was me who did that.

I gave him the reasons to believe that Kellan’s lies were possible. Me. When he needed it most, I didn’t alpha up and show him that he mattered above all others.

This was all on me.

I took out my phone and pulled up Ivor’s contact information. He had blocked me. It didn’t work anymore, but I couldn’t bring myself to delete it.

Scrolling up, I found Daire’s name and called.

“Ryder? Did you butt dial me?” It was a fair question. We were text only friends most of the time. In fact most of my friends were. I kind of hated talking on the phone.

“I need your help.”

“Nope.” He popped the p. “I am not getting in the middle of shit between you and your omegas. Don’t even ask.”

Your omegas. They weren’t mine. He had to know that, but also I needed his help and couldn’t chance pissing him off by arguing about it. Some things just weren’t worth it.

“This isn’t about that.” Not directly, anyway. “Can you come by the office and help me? I need to hire someone and I hate them all.”

“Then put another solicitation out there.” That sounded much more sensible than it was in practice. I was coming to the conclusion it wasn’t just the applicants that were the problem. It was me.

“Please?”

“Fine, but you’re buying me a muffin from the place across the street. Go get it now before they run out. Blueberry or chocolate chip and for the love of Pete, don’t bring me one of those full of seed good for you ones as a substitute. I think I still have one in my teeth somewhere.”

I agreed and ran across the street, buying him one of every kind.

When he showed up and looked at everyone and the notes I took on the interviews, he removed two from the pile and wrote all the rest of their names on a piece of paper and put them in a mug.

“Pick one and that’s your new employee.”

“I could’ve done that.” I rolled my eyes.

“But you didn’t.”

He was right. I didn’t and his plan was better than the one I had, which would’ve destroyed me emotionally and resulted in the office still being employee-less .

I stuck my hand in the mug and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

At least this way I didn’t need to torture myself with a second set of interviews.

Micah

“Take a nap, mate.” I reached for Elune and he shook his head. “You have to sleep. It's been days. She needs her daddy to be well rested.”

He looked up at me, his eyes sunken in. It wasn’t the first time we had this conversation since the day we’d brought Elune home. And I understood why he was so stubborn. I was as worried as he was about our sweet baby girl. But I actively tried to follow Martin’s advice and sleep when she did. True his advice was about newborns not people being sick, but still it sounded right.

Not that it was easy to do. I was running on fumes, too.

“But what if she needs me? You are an amazing dad, but you don’t have what she needs.” He was referring to his milk supply. And he was right, I didn’t, but I had the ability to feed her a bottle like a boss and to wake him up if needed.

I couldn’t help the nagging in my brain that this wasn’t just teething like the nurse said and that it was more. Being a unicorn not born of a unicorn—that made her special. It was also the only thing holding me back from racing her to the hospital like most newish parents seemed to based on my scouring Q&A for fevers in babies on the internet. Human doctors might be able to tell she was unique and in theory, not possible.

Part of me wanted to go downstairs and ask his parents for advice. They have been there and done that with teething babies. They might know the difference. If I did, Archer would want to know how his father was doing and the answer was, not well.

I felt bad, part of me wishing Archer’s parents hadn’t moved in yet. They weren’t able to deal with his alpha father’s failing health and I knew they added a whole new level of worry onto Archer’s already full shoulders.

“I have an idea. You lay down. I’ll sit in the rocking chair in our room with Elune and rock her sweetly, give her teething toys, and make sure she has a dry bum. You sleep.”

I piqued his interest. He wasn’t immediately declining the offer. Good. Poor sweet mate.

“And if she’s hungry or needs comfort feeding, I’ll wake you up. Immediately. Promise,” he pleaded as he held her out to me. “I know you say all kids run fevers and the nurse said they all do and Martin said its normal, but… I was looking at the parent’s groups on social media?—”

I cut him off right there. Those things were toxic. “The same places that said that if your child is born with vision problems they need to use some weird herb that you can only get via a sketch website? The same places that said brushing your kids teeth will lower their IQs? The same places that said if a fall breaks the skin and you don’t go to the emergency room you are abusive? ”

He nodded after each one. That group was toxic and ran the gamut from medicine is evil to your kid needs to spend a week getting tested for everything because they aren’t reading at three. A complete cesspool. I’m sure some were great… he just didn’t happen to end up in those.

I took my sweet girl into my arms and held her close. She was my world.

“I think we need to move up the study… the one at the university.” Just saying the words took all of my strength. Bringing her was going to be another, but Archer had been right. It was the right thing to do and waiting would not change anything and only increase our worry.

“If she was a human baby or…” I didn’t want to say normal. “We’d have taken her to be seen, told we were over anxious parents, and sent home with instructions to let it ride. Instead, I’m here running worst case scenarios through my head and don’t tell me you aren’t. Because if you weren’t you’d have slept some.”

“You’re right, mate.” He got up and kissed her head and then my cheek. “Will you make the call?”