Page 27 of The Omega's Secret Baby

“What are you saying?” Eli’s voice remained remarkably steady, considering that a tear rolled down his cheek. I wiped it away with my thumb.

“I’m saying you’re not the only one who makes stupid decisions every now and then.”

“I never blamed you.” He hesitated. “Well, maybe I blamed you a little. But I knew you didn’t have a choice. Not really.”

“No, that’s what they want us to think. But we always have a choice.” I looked into his eyes. Thankfully, no new tears were forming. Good. He had such pretty eyes. I could lose myself in them if I wasn’t careful.

“You really think so?” Eli asked, looking up at me. He was just a little bit shorter than me. Ideal height, really. Perfect for me to lean in and…

“What are you doing?” I heard Jake’s voice from behind me.

Somehow I managed not to groan as I tore myself away from his Daddy.

“Nothing, buddy.” I ruffled his hair, which had become a bit wet from the snow.

“Where’s your hat?” Eli asked.

Jake patted his head as if only now realizing that he wasn’t wearing it anymore. Then he looked behind himself and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll look for it!” And off he went again.

Only this time, Eli went with him and our moment was irreparably broken.

13

Elias

Ispentthe evening after Matt had taken us sledding sitting at the coffee table with a pen and a notepad in hand while Jake watched his favorite cartoons on the television. I was raking my brain for ideas about the charity event at the shelter, but it wasn’t all that easy to think about cats and dogs when my mind was still stuck on how close I’d come to kissing Matt the day before.

Which would have been a stupid thing to do considering that he’d hurt me before. And considering that I still didn’t know what he really wanted to do about our son. Who was my first priority in everything.

The commercials came on and Jake peered over my shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to plan a charity event,” I informed him.

He shot me a questioning look.

“We’re trying to get people to come to the shelter and give money to us so we can buy dog and cat food.”

“Oh.” He pulled his lower lip between his teeth as if thinking very hard. “Can you just ask them nicely?”

“Well, we are going to do that. That’s good. But we also have to make them want to come to the shelter, you see? So they can see our animals and want to give.”

“So the animals need to do something funny,” Jake concluded.

“Well, not necessarily--“

“I'm sure everyone would come!”

His enthusiasm made me smile, even if it didn't convince me.

“When we went to the zoo, a lot of the animals weren't really doing anything,” he said, crawling in my lap.

“What do you think they should be doing?” My curiosity was piqued. Jake had the darnedest ideas sometimes.

“I don't know.” He looked up at me, poking his tongue out between his lips. “Something funny.”

“You mentioned that.” I ruffled his hair.

Thatseemed to give him an idea. His face lit up with it. “What if they all wear hats?”