Page 8 of Omega Dragon Manny (Shifters For Hire #3)

CLARK

I don’t know what I would have done if Beau hadn’t come into our lives. I’d been barely making it through the day and work had been slow then. Now? Now that wasn’t the case.

Work had been over-the-top busy. From the time I stepped into the office to the time I was able to break away for the day, usually after the sun was long down.

I was working nonstop and multitasking the entire time.

I hadn’t had a lunch break all week, and bathroom breaks…

yeah, they only came when there was absolutely no choice.

It was getting to the point of being unsustainable.

I kept reminding myself it wasn’t permanent.

I had a really big meeting coming up for a project I’d been working on for months, on top of all the new stuff that kept piling in.

I made this project my priority. I had to if I was going to achieve my goals of becoming partner within the next millennium at this rate.

But as much as I told myself this was temporary, the truth was that the second this project got done, another would be in its place, and then another and another and another.

The second we no longer had that next big project, we were cooked.

Our business model relied on it. It was time I came to terms with that.

It was nearly dark out, and from the looks of what I still had left to do, I was going to be going home late again.

Beau had been great about my schedule; not a single complaint came from his lips.

He even left dinner for me every night, something I told him repeatedly he didn’t need to do.

He wasn’t our personal servant. He was there to help take care of the kids.

And when I tried to get him to record extra hours so I could pay him more, he adamantly refused.

I did my best to track them, but with him waking up while I was still asleep to care for the kids, I wasn’t sure how accurate I was. It was safe to say he was getting a huge bonus come Christmas time.

My phone was buzzing nonstop, but I had to finish the document I was on. When I finally looked, there were messages from people at work. Those were to be expected. But then there was one that made my stomach drop.

It was an automated message from the pediatrician saying that I missed the triplets’ wellness check.

It would be easy to blame it on Beau. He was their caregiver during the day and he kept track of all their comings and goings.

But truth was, I didn’t remember telling him about it.

And even if I had, I was still their guardian, not him. He didn’t deserve being the scapegoat.

I’d completely spaced on the appointment, and I felt like shit about it.

The triplets had been let down enough in their short lives.

I needed to be better than that. Maybe this wellness visit wouldn’t prove that important.

They’d go in and the doctor would say everything was perfect.

But the thing with wellness visits was that they often caught the things people who saw the child daily might miss.

So while the kids seemed perfect to me, missing the visits was kinda a big deal.

At least to me, as someone new to this parenting thing, it was.

I picked up my desk phone and called Leroy in the next office over. I could’ve walked over there, but I didn’t want to waste the time.

“Yeah, boss?” He always called me that, and it was annoying.

I wasn’t his boss. Yes, I guess technically I was a level above him, but I wasn’t his direct supervisor.

Both of us had our evaluations done by the same person.

At first I thought he was being passive aggressive when I got my promotions, but now I suspected it was his way of praising my accomplishments, and I’d long stopped telling him to just call me Clark.

“Hey, so I have to leave now, and we’re gonna have to figure out how to make everything work with the Stanson meeting.

” Two days ago, if you told me I was going to walk out and leave everything in the hands of Leroy, I’d have thought you lost your mind.

Now? Now it was the only choice I could make.

That one message changed something in me.

“Uh…yeah, I guess,” he stammered. “There’s a lot to do.”

“Do I just randomly leave because I want to go get ice cream or pick up the latest new release at the bookstore?”

“No, Clark.” The words were so quiet, I second-guessed I was hearing them.

“I’m needed at home. And the truth is, I’m going to need to be home a lot. I’ll tell Victoria my plans, but I needed you to know first so you could be prepared for when she calls you into her office.”

Leroy didn’t handle surprises well.

“I’m going to be doing half days in the office, and then I’ll be working from home for the second half.”

“Next week? That’s the meeting.”

I braced myself for the freakout that was to come with what I said next. “At least for the next month.”

He choked, which was better than the scream I had anticipated.

“Then we’ll revisit my schedule. But the truth is, I’m needed there.”

“Oh, I thought you meant for the day when you called, and maybe a week. Are you like…serious? You plan to do that?”

“Yeah. I plan to do that. This is what I need to do. It’s not like I’m going on a cruise.”

He let out a deep breath and told me he’d do his best, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to do it as well as me. And maybe that was true, but at this moment, it wasn’t on the top of my list of things to care about.

Then I went to see Victoria, the president and the person who’d hired me.

“You got a minute?” I stood in her doorway.

“Sure, come in. Everything ready for next week?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.

” She indicated the chair in front of her desk, and I told her about everything I was going through and how I either needed to take leave or do hybrid remote work for a while.

I wasn’t sure which option I was hoping she took, but wasn’t surprised when she said hybrid was acceptable—ish.

“You understand this takes you off track for your goals,” she said, leaning back in her chair.

There had been a time when that would have been devastating to me. Not making partner, not climbing the ladder and gaining more power and status each year would’ve crushed me.

But when she said it, I felt none of that.

“I understand,” was my only reply.

My priorities had shifted. It was no longer a race to the top or a race to retire. It was a race to be present for the people in my life who needed me.

And for the first time, I felt like I was heading in the right direction.