10. Rome
10
ROME
I checked my watch for the third time in two minutes.
“How can he be late? He lives next door,” I said crossly.
James grabbed my arm with the wrist-watch and tucked it behind my back. “Maybe he misjudged how many steps it would take and only budgeted for ten instead of fifteen,” he said lightly.
I gave him a long look. “Do you feel clever?”
“Yep,” James said unrepentantly.
My leg bounced restlessly as impatience gnawed at me. I’d made sure Ivy made it home safe this morning. From a distance, mind you, even though it rankled my instincts. It would have been better , retorted my alpha, if I had followed her inside. Spent the day feeding her, making sure she was well-rested after her heat spike. Kissed her until we tumbled naked into bed.
Maybe if she squirmed off my knot in the middle of night I could fuck her back onto it to remind her that she was mine.
Instead, I had trudged home where James and Logan followed soon after. We agreed to meet later that day with cooler, less scrambled heads.
Then I let James lick the remnants of Ivy’s slick off my cock before I stole it back with my kisses.
“Goodness, Rome, what on earth are you thinking about?” James asked with false curiosity.
I sighed wistfully.
A heavy fist knocked on our door.
“Finally,” I said, standing up and going to let Logan in.
“I fucked up,” he said as soon as the door swung open.
I had no idea what Logan had done, but if he had upset Ivy in any way I was going to shut the door in his face.
James stepped between us and dislodged my white-knuckled grip from the handle.
“Hello,” James said with exaggerated slowness. “Please come in.”
Logan ran a frazzled hand across his bearded face. He had three takeaway coffee cups in a cardboard holder balanced in one hand. “I went to get coffee for everyone,” he said, kicking off his wet boots. “And I saw her.”
“You saw her?” I prompted. “How did she look?”
“Yes.” James nodded encouragingly. “What did she say?”
“Is she alright?” I urged.
Logan pinched the bridge of his nose like he was trying to dispel the memory. “I ran away,” he grimaced.
He fucking did what?
No. Calm down. I forced myself to see reason.
Ivy likes him and he brought you coffee.
Plus if you hit him he will absolutely crush you with that wrecking ball he calls a fist.
“Thanks for the coffee, Logan. You didn’t have to do that,” I said once I was zen.
James looked at me like I was a psychopath from how quickly my mood had changed in the bond. “Maybe tell us what happened from the start,” he said, taking the coffee from Logan and guiding us to move into the living room.
Logan sank into an armchair. “I didn’t even make it into Beans ‘n Bliss. I was walking past the window and she was in there with her friends. They were all staring at me. So I turned around and took the long way around to go to Rosie’s instead,” he explained.
“Ok, that’s not that bad,” James said diplomatically. “Right?”
“No, not that bad,” I agreed grudgingly.
I wanted to say that in his shoes I would’ve marched confidently into Beans ‘n Bliss. Called Ivy mine in front of all her friends and all the townspeople. Then dipped her into a swoony kiss to the sound of rapturous applause.
But that would be a lie.
Clearly our courtship of Ivy required a little more…finesse.
James patted my hand. “Alright, blood pressure down?”
“Yep.”
“Good.”
I leaned forward and looked at the two other men in the room. I’d known James was pack somewhere during that two-hour conversation when we met. It was a feeling that was independent of the romantic love I had for him.
Logan, I was still trying to figure out.
Nevertheless, the fact that Ivy had wanted him for her heat meant something.
“I think Ivy is our omega,” I declared. Saying it out loud made my alpha purr with delighted possessiveness.
Logan’s shoulders dropped and he expelled a resigned breath. “Yeah, I thought that might be the case seeing the way you were with her,” he said quietly. “I get it and I wish you the best. She deserves the world so?—”
James interrupted him before I could. “Present company included, Logan,” he said with a wry smile.
“What?” He looked genuinely shocked at the thought.
The familiar stirring instinct was back.
It shouldn’t have made sense that hearing someone insist he didn’t belong with us only cemented my belief that he did. Logan wasn’t even considering his own happiness, only Ivy’s. So much so that he needlessly fell on his own sword for it.
I was almost afraid of how unstoppable he would be once he won her love.
I made a circular motion with my finger to encompass all of us. “I think Ivy is our omega,” I repeated.
Logan’s gaze ping-ponged between James and I. “You want me in your pack?”
James tilted his head in my direction. “I think he’s finally getting it.”
“Yes, I was getting a bit worried there,” I agreed.
“But…” Logan shifted his weight and adjusted the way his shirt sat around his stomach. “She’s so smart and pretty and everyone loves her. Why would she look twice at someone like me?”
“I can recommend some TikToks for you if you think women do not like a gruff man who’s good with his hands,” James offered.
“ What? ”
But then James grew serious, a small frown forming behind his glasses. “Is that why you never tried to court her? You thought she didn’t like you?” he asked.
Logan managed to look even more uncomfortable if that was possible. “It’s not that I never tried to court her. I’ve never tried to court anyone.”
“Anyone?”
He looked away instead of answering me. I suppose he wasn’t ready yet.
“She wanted you there last night just as much as she wanted us, Logan,” I said quietly. “We should court her together as a pack.”
Logan took his hat off and ran his hand nervously through his dark blonde hair. Each movement leaving him more frazzled than the last. “Don’t let me fuck up,” he pleaded finally.
I honestly didn’t think that was possible.
Unfortunately for Logan, James spoke up before I did. “I will personally sit in on every date you have with her and?—”
He yelped as I elbowed him.
“I mean…” James cleared his throat. “We won’t.”
The way Logan nodded was almost like he was trying to convince himself.
“So…how are we doing this?”
I’d read the grandiose banner hanging across the town square several times already trying to make sense of it.
“The Christmas Eve Eve Festival,” I recited slowly. “Why is ‘Eve’ on there twice?”
Logan let out a deep sigh. “Well, it’s the 23rd today, isn’t it? It’s not the Christmas Eve festival. It’s the Christmas Eve Eve festival.”
“Do you have another festival tomorrow for Christmas Eve?” I demanded.
“Yes.” Logan’s mouth formed a harsh grim line. “I’m just as mad about it as you are.”
I gestured curtly at the vendors and excited crowd milling amongst them. “Is it all the same shops and activities all over again?”
Logan crossed his arms over his chest. “Nope. Stanley insists on an entirely new line-up.”
“Yeah, Rome. Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve are very different events, why would they have the same vendors?” James said incorrigibly.
“I think he even tried to insist that the decorations should be taken down and replaced too but Felix vetoed that. But Stanley gets around it by adding more on top so it looks different enough for him.” Logan drew our attention to the mayor pointing at the bunting while a nervous woman holding a clipboard followed him taking copious notes. “Everyone tells Janice that being secretary only means taking notes at town meetings, but she insists she’s happy to do it.”
We all stared at Janice squinting as she counted street lamps. Stanley had already walked off, chattering away.
“Felix would never make her do that,” James sniffed.
Why did a cat mayor make more and more sense? This town was rewiring my brain faster than I thought it was possible.
I shook my head to clear it. “Well, shall we go find her?” I asked.
My pack — still adjusting to that — stepped beneath the banner and entered the Christmas Eve Eve festival.