Page 36 of The Omega's Secret Baby

“I was not.”

“Oh yes.” She took a sip of her tea. “Remember that time you insisted all the children coming to your birthday party had to be dressed as clowns? I was finding thrown away red noses all over the house for weeks.”

Oh God. I had forgotten all about my childhood obsession with circuses.

“You were a stubborn child,” Frederica said. “And you've grown into a stubborn man.”

Had I? In some regards, perhaps. But being stubborn wasn’t always a bad quality.

“You should bring the boy around some time,” Frederica went on. “I'd like to meet him.”

I grimaced. “Bring him here and introduce him to my parents?”

“Oh no, maybe not such a great idea. You're right.” Frederica shot me a sympathetic look. “But you're not going to keep him a secret forever, or will you? You know I love a good secret.”

“No, I won't.” That wouldn't be fair to Jake. It wasn't that I wasashamedof him or anything. I just didn't want to expose the child to my parents quite yet. “I'm not sure what I'm going to do. This has all been... difficult.”

Frederica nodded. “But you're going to raise him?”

“I do want that. But like I said, I don't know how to be a parent yet.”

“I'm sure you'll be fine. Nobody knows at first. You grow into it.”

I could only hope she was right.

But there wasn't only the issue of whether or not I knew how to be a parent. There was also the issue of whether or not Jake was going to accept me as such. After all, we still hadn't told him about any of this.

And I couldn't stay in town forever either. At some point, I would have to go back to work. For now, I was managing things via the Internet, but that was only a temporary solution. The reality was that I had built my life in a different state.

I took a deep breath, and a sip of my tea.

No use worrying about all of that now.

“What were you going to tell me?” I asked Frederica.

She shot me a questioning look, as if she'd already forgotten why she'd summoned me in the first place.

“Your news,” I reminded her.

“Oh, yes!” She reached out to refill her tea before going on. Then she licked her lips. Never a good sign. Whatever she had to tell me, it wasn't good news.

Just great.

Because I really needed more problems now.

“Well,” Frederica started. “You know how people like to talk.” She waved her hand dismissively as if she wasn't one of those people, even though we both knew she was.

“I know. Go on.”

She gave me a tight smile. “There's a rumor going around about you and a certain omega.”

“Me and a certain omega?” My eyebrows shot up. Eli and I had tried so hard to be discreet.

Her expression turned to one of sympathy. “You were seen going into his house last night. And not coming out for a while.”

“That was last night! And you already know about it?” This wasexactlywhy I'd been glad to leave this place for my boarding school at the end of summer each year.

She shrugged. “It's a small town. People talk. They don't have much else to do. You know how they are.”