Page 29 of Manny's Surprise Baby

“I didn’t mean you’d want me to touch you… God, forget I said anything.”

His pink cheeks made him seem kind of endearing, and it softened me toward him. “You’re different from a lot of alphas.”

“Am I?”

“Yeah. You express yourself better than most.”

He shrugged. “My mom encouraged communication. My dad didn’t, but my mom did. She felt that you could work out just about any problem if you just talked it out.”

“Huh. That’s an interesting thought.”

“All I know is holding shit in never helped anybody.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“Two younger brothers.” He glanced up. “I believe you said you were an only child?”

“Yep.”

He held up his hands. “I won’t push.”

For whatever reason, I didn’t mind sharing with him at the moment. Maybe because he seemed so open himself. “It was hard when my mom died.”

“I’ll bet.”

“But having a sibling wouldn’t have made that any better in the long run.”

“I guess not.”

“I know how lost Emily feels because that’s how I felt. But she’s lucky she has you. I know a lot of alphas who wouldn’t have stepped up.”

“I think most would.”

“You’d be surprised.” He’d finished his food, so I stood and took his plate to the sink.

He followed, refilling his water glass at the fridge. “Where in the mountains did you live before coming here?”

My stomach clenched and I turned away so he couldn’t see my expression. “It’s a tiny place. Nowhere important.” I was sure he didn’t know about solar eclipse omegas. Few of our modern alphas and omegas did. That meant he also didn’t know about the compound in the mountains where we went to have our babies. I sometimes resented that the Ancients insisted on keeping us a secret. They felt it made us safer if the majority of the population didn’t know about our ability to have babies. Just in case the sickness hadn’t been accidental, and in case it came back, solar eclipse omegas were forced to be a dirty little secret.

If he felt I was being evasive, he didn’t address it. “I’m an LA boy, born and bred. The only time I’ve gone to the mountains was to ski.”

“I’ve never skied.”

He widened his eyes. “You lived in the mountains and you’ve never skied?”

I grimaced. “I wasn’t born there. I’ve just lived there the last year or so.”

“Ahh. So then where are you from originally?”

“LA.” I dried my hands on a towel. I really hoped he’d stop asking questions. I didn’t want to think about the past or Baxter and all the years he had me under his thumb. I didn’t want to get sucked back into the depression and hopelessness that had me in its grip during the years with Baxter. If I thought about it too much, it ate at me that Baxter was still out there. That he’d never paid for how he’d used me and hurt me.

Thankfully, Seth seemed unaware of my inner turmoil. “One of the great things about LA is how close we are to the sea. We should take Emily to the ocean.”

I faced him, feeling agitated from my negative thoughts of Baxter but trying to hide it. “Yeah, you should do that with Brad. I won’t be able to go. Emily has school all week, and you’re interviewing Brad on Saturday. Then I leave on Sunday.”

He frowned. “What if I don’t like Brad?”

“There’s no reason not to.”