Chapter Fourteen
Brach
After we got back from the premiere, Ronny changed. It wasn’t overt. The other people at Animals probably didn’t even notice, but I did.
He was quiet. If I wasn’t actively seeking conversation, there was none.
And when I walked in on him, I usually found him very pensive.
The worst part was, I couldn’t figure out why.
I could ask him like a grown-up, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it.
“You seem weird,” didn’t feel like the best way to discuss things with the love of my life.
Instead, I hid behind a smile like a coward.
At first, I thought it was my pregnancy that had him so withdrawn.
That he wasn’t ready to be a father yet and thought it was too soon, despite how positive he’d been when I told him.
And that had me going down a path that led me straight to him wanting to focus on his career and me spending months alone with our child.
It didn’t take much to get me to the darkest possibility lately. I blamed the hormones.
Thankfully, that theory was put to bed quickly. One night as I was nearly asleep, I heard him talking to our baby.
“Do your daddy a solid, sweetie, and don’t kick him or give him bad dreams or acid reflux, okay? He’s very tired and needs his best sleep.”
It was so sweet, and that alone would’ve been enough to put me at ease, but he kept going. “And, if you do, I can make it up to you. I will give you all the wolf-back rides you could ever want. Does that work?”
It wasn’t just that night that he showed his excitement over spending time with our baby.
He bought a handmade quilt featuring a wolf with all different-color fabrics, and so many books.
The guy had taken after Mrs. Jones in that department.
Our baby already had an entire toddler-sized bookshelf filled with reading material for when he was ready for story time.
None of that changed the fact that something was definitely off with my mate.
And I could pinpoint it back to the premiere.
I’d been with him the entire time, and I might not know all the lingo of that world, but no one said anything that sounded off.
Which had me thinking maybe it wasn’t what happened at the event but what it represented.
Did he want to keep going full force ahead on his career and was too worried to tell me?
Doing another film meant him being away again. I didn’t like it two weeks into the first time, and we hadn’t met in person yet. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like now.
I tried not to overthink it. Thanks to hormones, I was failing miserably at that, which was how he found me crying as I brushed my teeth one night before we went to bed.
“Mate, not feeling good?” He put his wrist on my forehead. “I don’t think you have a fever, but—”
“No. I feel fine.” I let out a little hiccup, the tears not stopping, my mouth still filled with toothpaste. I quickly finished up and tried to tell him again that it was nothing, but my mate didn’t believe me. He was right not to.
Ronny scooped me up and carried me to the couch, settling me on his lap and holding me close. “If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, I can’t make it better.”
“There’s nothing to make better.” There was, but there was nothing we could do about it that wasn’t going to make one of us miserable.
“Don’t make me call Bosco over here and say you have a T R E A T. You’ll have a furry shadow until you take care of that.”
I had to give him credit. That got a chuckle out of me.
“Don’t be mad at me.”
“Oh, sweet mate. I could never be mad at you.”
Thinking back, he might’ve been telling the truth, as impossible as that sounded. I couldn’t think of a time he’d snapped at me. Sure, there were times that we talked about things that upset each other, but that wasn’t the same as anger.
“I’m sad because”—I sniffled and buried my head into his chest and mumbled the rest—“you need to work, and baby and I are getting in your way.”
Ronny held me tight as I let it all out. Once I was calm enough to have the conversation, he helped me up and off his lap.
“I want to show you something.” He took me to the side table and grabbed his tablet, tapping away.
“Why are you showing me this?” It was his bank account, and that sucker had a lot more in it than I’d ever seen in my life.
“I’ve been saving for a long time, and I didn’t spend my movie money. And there’s more coming with royalties and all that.”
“Okay.” If he was trying to say it was worth it for the money, I didn’t need something to make it worth it. I just needed him to be happy.
“I want to spend this money, all of it. I think if we’re patient and wait for the perfect place, we’ll be able to get something nice. Then, when the baby comes, you don’t have to work if you don’t want to because there will be no mortgage.”
We hadn’t discussed how the first year was going to go.
I strongly suspected I was going to be in the not-wanting-to-work category, but I wasn’t opposed to working either.
My job was at night half the time, and our little one would be sleeping.
We wouldn’t miss much together, especially if I cut down to just the nighttime shift.
“I don’t understand.”
The next thing I knew, he was down on one knee holding a ring box like something out of one of the movies he aspired to be part of.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot since the premiere.
I used to think that was the life I wanted, that that’s what would make me happy.
But the second I scented your pregnancy, I knew that true happiness came from us being together and raising a family, not being away from home working messed-up hours, doing publicity tours, and having people recognize me everywhere we went.
What kind of a life would that be for us and for our children? ”
He opened the box and two rings sat there side by side. One for each of us. I’d been so wrong about why he was quiet. He wasn’t wanting more fame. He was wanting less.
“You’re already my mate, Ronny. And we already have the couples’ rings. Why the new ones?”
“You’re human and I want to follow your traditions. too. So please, will you do me the honor of marrying me? We can buy a house and live together happily ever after.”
“What about your career?”
“I love acting, and I’ve been working behind the scenes trying to figure out a way to act and still be a family alpha. I’m thinking, what if we started a community theater where I could help bring my love of acting to others.”
I tackle hugged him, and then we both landed on the ground. I peppered his face with kisses, repeating “yes” over and over again until Bosco landed on me with a thump.
“Is somebody jealous?” I looked over at his adorable little nose just inches from mine. “I’m guessing the little stinker learned to spell, and he wants his T R EA T.”
Bosco let out a meow. Sounded about right.