Page 8 of The Omega's Fake Mate
What to say? This was none of Kade's business, but if I said anything to that effect, he'd only get more curious. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
To my luck, I was saved by my cousin. Just as Kade was about to speak again, Shane appeared in the doorway to the living room, his five-year-old daughter by his side. “Hey, Nick! Good to see you made it here okay.”
“Yeah, so great.” I forced a grin on my face. “Hi, Shane. Hi, Mary.” I walked over to the little girl, feeling my friend's eyes on my back. “How do you like being a big sister?” I asked Mary to distract everyone.
“It's okay,” she said with a slight shrug. “I want to cut Hope's hair.”
Shane grimaced and looked at Kade. “I found her with a pair of scissors in the nursery.”
Oh, was that why they hadn't come down immediately?
Horror flickered across Kade's features. Almost like that time I nearly broke his guitar. Good. This was sure to make him forget all about me for a while. “A pair of scissors?” He rushed over to Mary and I stepped aside. “Youcannotplay with scissors, and you canabsolutely notcut your sister's hair.”
I exhaled in relief as all attention focused on Mary. I did not want to tell Kade about the alpha I had ogled at Dean's wedding. Not that I had reallyogledhim. No, I'd simplywatchedhim from afar. He'd looked so awkward on the dance floor. Part of me had wanted to go over and show him how it was done. I hadn't, though. In fact, I'd done all I could not to run into him at all.
Zander was my oldest friend.
When we were growing up, his family lived just down the street from mine. He was a quiet boy, the kind who didn't speak unless spoken to. But that made the words he did say all the more precious. Like when we were six and he said that I was his very best friend in the world. Or when we were eight and I'd been in a fight with my brothers and he said he would always be there for me.
And I couldn't help but remember that time when we were ten and we'd just found out we were alpha and omega. He'd said we were perfect for each other.
Perfect for each other.
When we were ten, I'd kissed him for those words.
Fifteen years later, I could only scoff. Perfect didn’t exist.
* * *
Thankfully, by the time Kade was done lecturing Mary, he'd forgotten about me and Zander. After dinner, the two of us sat out on the front porch with a beer or two and looked up at the stars. It was a chilly evening, but not so cold that we couldn't enjoy the view. To be honest, I was hoping for a bit of snow. My hometown was nice in spring, summer, and fall, but it wasbeautifulin winter.
“How are you liking Oceanport?” I asked my friend. “I mean, now that you've been living here for a while.”
Kade sipped at his beer and glanced up at the stars, as if he had to give this question some serious thought. “I guess it's nottoobad,” he said on a sigh.
“You're just messing with me, aren't you? You're loving it.”
He shot me a grin. “Yeah, I know what I used to say about small towns, but Oceanport really is kinda relaxing and all that. It's nice for the kids. The location is kind of inconvenient, though.”
“What? Are you trying to tell me that Maine isn't the heart of America?”
“Hate to break it to you.”
I laughed. “Well, I'm sure it's better than the shit hole where you grew up.”
“Can't argue with that.”
I nodded. My friend had grown up in a community dominated by a religious cult. Members of this cult called themselves Vinists and pretty much believed that alphas were superior to omegas in all things. Somehow Kade had managed to escape their clutches, but from what I'd heard it wasn't easy for omegas to break free—a fact that depressed me a bit whenever I thought about it.
Kade must have seen something on my face because he asked, “You heard anything from your brother?”
This time, I didn't have to ask which of my many brothers he meant. We were both thinking about Rhys. My twin brother, who had married a Vinist and converted, accepting everything that came along with it, including the loss of his independence. Saying that our relationship had become sort of rocky after that would have been an understatement. “Sometimes he responds to my text messages,” I said.
“You think he's doing okay?”
“I don't know.” I felt my face fall. It wasweirdnot to know what was going on with Rhys. I always knew. Even when I'd moved to LA and he'd gone to college in a different state, we used to talk or text every day, just to keep each other up to date on everything. Unlike many twins, Rhys and I had always had different interests, hobbies and friends, but that didn't mean we didn't care about each other.
Until Rhys started dating that stupid Vinist asshole, anyway. I could never so much as pretend to be supportive of that relationship. He'd not taken it so well.