Page 40 of The Omega's Fake Mate

“Hey there, sleepy-head. Time to head upstairs into your real bed.”

Mary shook her head. “The couch is comfy!”

The two were still squabbling while I left the living room. Voices were coming from upstairs--Kade and Conner, no doubt. When I reached the second floor, I saw Kade come out of Conner's room.

“Go away! You're not my daddy!” Conner yelled before slamming the door shut.

Ouch.

I cringed on my friend's behalf, but he seemed surprisingly unflustered. Glancing at me, he shrugged in awhat can you do?sort of manner.

“What's going on?” I asked.

He gave me a pained smile. “I guess even Conner acts like a child sometimes.”

“I can hear you!” It came from Conner's bedroom.

“What?” Kade shot back. “Suddenly you wanna listen?”

I suppressed a laugh.

“C'mon.” Kade gestured me to follow him. “I hope your evening went better than mine.”

“Marginally, I guess,” I replied as Kade led me to the guest room, where we could talk without any eleven-year-olds listening in. “You go first. What did Conner do?”

“I guess I might as well start.” Kade flopped on the bed and I sat beside him. “It's not easy being a parent, you know? Especially when you're not actually the parent. Conner and I get along most of the time, but there's days I swear I want to shake him. I'm sure he feels the same way about me.” He laughed a little to take the edge out of that statement.

“Don't you feel the same way about the kid you gave birth to, though?” I asked, remembering some of the conversations we'd had.

“You're right about that.” Kade let himself fall back on his bed. “Hope threw all her carrots on me just yesterday. I guess it's not so different after all.”

“What happened tonight? Is Griff really pregnant again?”

“Seems that way.” Kade's eyes lit up. “He looks so happy too! Both of them do. I'm kind of glad you made me sing at their wedding. They're such good people.”

I boxed his arm. “You're glad because you got to know Shane that way.”

“Well, maybe that too.” He grinned. “So anyway, Griff makes his big announcement and what do you know? Next Conner walks up to him and goes allisn't that hurting your career?Basically, asking Griff if he really wanted to get pregnant. You could have sliced the air with a knife after that, it was so thick.”

“Ouch. I can just picture it.”

“Yeah, so I tried to tell him that he can't go around saying things like that.”

I nodded. “I guess he didn't take it too well.”

“Nope, he's on his way to becoming a teenager.”

“Joy.”

Kade chuckled. “Yeah, I agree with you there. But really, I don't think Griff's announcement is what's making him so cranky. He was in a bad mood all day and I can guess why.”

“Yeah? Why's that then?” I leaned back on the bed, wondering if Conner's mood might get even worse if he knew that the owner of his favorite bookstore kissed me earlier. Or how much I'd enjoyed it.

“He and Jake barely spoke at all during dinner.”

Oh. Jake was his best friend, wasn't he? The alpha? That explained his rotten mood then. “They're fighting?”

“Looks like it.” Kade sat up straight again. “Honestly there's been some tension ever since Jake became popular at their new school. You know Conner isn't exactly running with the cool kids.” He sighed.