16. Kelly
Chapter 16
T he bed feels too empty! Thankfully, everyone’s pillows are here, so I feel around until I find Teddy’s. My big cuddly omega always smells like cookies, and there are lingering traces of Sam’s fresh cut cedar mixed in. It makes me feel warm and cozy and safe, even if they aren’t here with me. I miss Sam, Teddy, and Garret, and not just because they make amazing living heating pads.
Seriously, sometimes I have to escape. It gets too hot when we’re all wedged in here.
A warm weight presses against my back, arms circling tight around me. A masculine voice whispers against my neck. “Missed you so much.” Teeth scrape over the tender skin of my throat and big hands run up my stomach .
The hard body undulates against my spine, a stiff rod pressed against my butt as he grips my hips, pulling me against him. “My Bear.” It’s nothing more than a sleepy murmur against the back of my hair. A heavy palm slides up my waist and stops at my chest, thumb brushing against the underside of one breast.
Then a sniff…followed by another. “The fuck?”
Mumbles followed by another deep inhale and then the hands fly off me. Steve goes scrambling off the side of the bed, rubbing his palms up and down his sleep pants, and making gagging noises.
“What are you, dude, twelve? I don’t have cooties.”
He stares at me, a full-body shudder running across his shoulders. “I know you don’t have cooties, dammit! It just felt too much like I was feeling up Garret or something. It was nasty. Not that you feel like Garret, but it was that same mentally slimy feeling. It’s not something I wanted to wake up to after dreaming of Bear.”
That’s fair.
I don’t even wanna think about how it would feel to wake up in that position with Tuck.
Ew, now I wanna throw up.
Taking a deep breath, I try to clear my mind. Get away from any thoughts of my brother in a compromising position and back to the issue at hand. “Ok, I get why feeling me up in my sleep wouldn’t exactly be appealing. I do lack the essential penis. But why would it make you think of your brother? I mean, I’m with both him and Teddy. Wouldn’t that make Teddy off limits by extension?” He swallows convulsively, looking affronted by my logic.
“No, it’s not the same…dear lord woman, how can you even think that? I grew up with Teddy. We were as close as siblings.” I raise my eyebrow in silent question of that statement, and he blurts, “Well, it’s not like we’re actually related.”
My hand waves down my own body, indicating that we are, in fact, also not related. Not that I want him to touch me like that, ick! He’s right, it does feel squidgy. I’m just trying to figure out how he’s thinking about this.
Shaking himself all over, he gives me an irritated glare before marching into the bathroom and slamming the door.
Well, good freaking morning to you too.
Ugh!
I wonder how the guys are doing?
Have they gotten to Los Angeles yet?
Pulling out my phone, I check for new texts, but nothing has come in since last night when they stopped at a hotel to rest.
Jake greets me when I open the door, full-body wagging around my legs, before trotting down the stairs. He stares at me expectantly after I follow him all the way to the back door. “Sorry Jakey, it’s too early for me to go play with you. How ’bout I get your breakfast ready while you do your business?” He huffs in what I take to be acceptance and bounces down the stairs before sprinting off into the yard.
I feel awful this morning. I just wanna take some Midol and crawl back into bed. But then what would be the point of me staying home while the guys took that long trip? Plus, as smart as Xan is, the office seems to hate him, and I don’t want to deal with going in tomorrow and having anything broken or on fire.
Breakfast at my parents’ house has always been cold cereal, unless it’s a weekend. Tuck and I get up, grab a bowl, and get ready for school. Dad snags one before heading out to work. I don’t really know what Mom does—I always just assumed she had cereal too, but maybe she fixes something after everybody’s gone. And of course, that means it wouldn’t occur to me that Sam doesn’t have cereal.
Looking through the pantry, there’s nothing quick to fix in here. This might be a problem. After scanning the shelves for a few minutes, I give up and get some food out for Jake before letting him back in. He prances into the kitchen and makes a beeline straight for his bowl, hoovering up the kibble like it’ll disappear on him.
No point in wasting more time on food. I can grab an apple for breakfast and then pick up some stuff on the way home from school today. For now, the shower is calling, and there’s no way to ignore it if I want to get to work on time.
It takes a few minutes for the water to heat up, so it’s as good a time as any to brush my teeth and pull my hair back into a braid. I need to perk myself up, because otherwise I’m gonna be crampy and unpleasant to everyone I come across today.
It also seems like a good time to pull out my peppermint body wash. I don’t use it often, ’cause it was stupidly expensive, but some days you just need to pamper yourself. Without the chance for snuggles, I could use the indulgence, and the bubbles tingling against my skin.
Unfortunately, even if I wanted to stay in here longer, it seems like Steve used up all the hot water. Which is frustrating and does nothing to improve my state of mind. My special fancy soap doesn’t help like I had hoped when I have to rinse it off in a lukewarm spray. Grumbling, I leave the bathroom wrapped in my towel, stalking back upstairs to grab some clean clothes and a pad.
Steve appears to be in a better mood when I walk in, but that just makes me madder. Of course he’s in a better mood, he used up all the dang hot water. Brushing past him, I dig through the closet, but all my work shirts are wrinkled from where the guys were rolling around on them. I forgot to toss them into the dryer to fix it.
Crap.
“Girl, what crawled up your ass and died this morning? I thought you were one of those perky morning people.”
Steve draws back at my glare before huffing to himself, doing a remarkable impersonation of the dog downstairs. Jake, at least, would give me cuddles if I asked. Instead, I get to deal with a snippy alpha and then rush off to work.
I would maim someone for one of Jacks’s double chocolate muffins this morning. But it’s rare that the guys bring food in from home. And with four alphas and a pregnant omega, it’s not surprising. Heck, just the groceries for that house probably cost a fortune. Thinking of money, though, I should probably start contributing here some more, so Sam doesn’t have to suddenly take on the cost of four people. The shop doesn’t pay a lot, but at least I can help by buying groceries. I’ll get some easy breakfast options today.
And of course, I stuck all my pantyliners and stuff downstairs in that bathroom…where I don’t keep clean undies. Because why could I possibly make sense and put stuff where it, logically, needs to go? The need for Midol and cuddles slams back into me, and I start crying. Why not? Steve already hates me. Now he gets to gloat when I start crying like a small child.
I’m never gonna hear the end of this.
I sniffle loudly, turning back towards the closet so my leaky face won’t be obvious. But he can’t give me a moment to just deal. He has to mess with me this morning. “Ok, what is all…this?” Even though I can’t see him, he’s probably waving his arm at my disheveled appearance and shaking shoulders.
“Seriously, I don’t even know what’s going on with you. One minute you’re perky and upbeat and happy, and then next…BAM! Ugly crying, slouching. And if I can be completely honest, kind of a bitch. Is the perky thing just so Sam and Teddy like you? Because that would be pretty messed up.”
Turning a hard glare on him, I guess we’re doing this now. “Steve…I’m tired…I didn’t sleep well last night because I’m worried about the guys. I’m also hungry because there is nothing easy in this house to eat. Someone used all the hot water this morning, so my shower was freezing after the first five minutes. My hormones are insane, and it feels like someone is trying to put my uterus through a juicer. Do not test me right now, I will cry on you! Move!”
Steve looks affronted for a second, before he opens his mouth and makes it worse. “Oh…the period. Yeah, I forgot about that. You were in such a good mood yesterday. Hm…” He looks deep in thought for a moment. “I know. Come with me.”
Not waiting for me to follow, he grabs my arm and leads me downstairs to what is officially my room, even though it’s mostly unfinished. There, in the corner, sit several bags from the grocery store.
What the heck?
Steve points at them with a flourish. “We went shopping…ok, well, Sam and Teddy went shopping…I just stood there, not helping.” The way he says it seems so random that I stare at him for a minute before I cross the room. In the bags are several boxes of different sized pads and tampons—but at least a few in sizes I need—Midol, a huge bag of gummy bears, and four different types of chocolate.
Well, at least I won’t go hungry. Though I don’t think any of these would be a good idea for breakfast, I still really appreciate the thought. Steve is watching me carefully when I turn around. “Yeah, Sam looked up some stuff online at the store, and they thought this stuff would be the best option. I don’t know, just…don’t get all weepy on me anymore, ok. It’s not a good look.” With that insulting statement, he turns and stomps out of the room .
That conversation feels off in so many ways. Not that Sam wouldn’t do nice things for me, but we’ve been living together for over a week, and I’ve never seen the man look anything up on his phone. He has a laptop with a fold-out keyboard he uses for email and stuff. Maybe he meant Teddy looked it up online. It seems like something he would do.
There’s no time to think about that confusing conversation though, so I grab a chocolate bar and a handful of supplies to put in my bag for school and head for the door. Jake is sitting beside it, waiting for me to try to leave so he can follow me out. There’s no sign of Steve and a tiny part of me wonders if I upset him, and if I care right now.
The drive into work is quick, and I’m really glad the weather is warming back up from that crazy storm last week. Unfortunately, warmer weather means that we’re swamped trying to do catch up from everything that was supposed to get done then, as well as all the stuff from the schedule for this week. So, it’s all hands on deck with Gabe, Xan, Sal, Ray, and Lenny all working today.
Gabe and Xan are already in when I arrive at my usual time. Xan is rolling up the bay doors while Gabe glares at the computer. The bell jingles when I enter the office, and he looks up. “Hey, can you get that damned coffee maker working this morning? It looks like we’re gonna need it.”
I nod an affirmative before heading back to the erstwhile office. They’ve moved out the big desk that was rarely used, and turned it into a break room. Which is nice, except they still haven’t updated the coffee maker, and that thing might be older than I am.
It takes me just a few minutes to get the thing started, and get back to the front, where Gabe is glaring daggers at the printer. “Kelly, do you mind? This thing hates me.” Nodding again, I go to wiggle the cord on the back and start printing out work orders for the appointments we have today. I tried telling him last year that he just needed a new cable. But Gabe said he’d have Jacks come look at it. Which is fine, but then they learned Candice was pregnant, and he never leaves her side.
Of course, to completely start my day off right, my stomach makes a loud rumbling noise when I step out into the garage to bring the orders to Xan. He and Gabe both stare intently at me, but Gabe’s the one who speaks first. “Isn’t Sam feeding you, do I need to have a word with him?” There’s no stopping my laughter, and by the time I finally get it under control, Gabe looks murderous.
“He is, seriously. I’ve never eaten as well as I have since I moved in there. But Sam, Teddy, and Garret all had to drive back to L.A. to pick up stuff from the omega center and clear out the twins’ apartment. I didn’t realize Sam didn’t have any cereal or anything at the house and didn’t get up early enough to fix something. So, no. This is on me.”
They both look intense for a moment, then Xan reaches into his pocket and pulls out a couple of twenty-dollar bills, handing them to me. “I know it’s not part of your job, but can you run down to the diner real quick and see if they have any breakfast pastries or burritos, or some kinda hand food you can bring back for the breakroom? Preferably something that will go with coffee if you got that damned thing to work already.” Then he turns his back to me, not giving me a chance to reply.
Gabe looks between the two of us. “Uh, yeah. If you’d rather, there’s also the grocery store, if bagels or something would work better…for the breakroom. We’ll…uh…Sal can watch the front office till you get back. ’Cause, you know…we’re gonna be busy. Better to have food on hand in case anybody needs it.” He rubs the back of his head and shuffles a bit before turning and walking off.
Well, I guess I’ll go grab some breakfast…for the breakroom. My eyes tear up a bit at their attempts to make things better in an inconspicuous way. They obviously failed horribly, but I really appreciate it anyway. Plus, maybe I’ll luck out and the diner really will have some good Danishes that I can bring back for everyone.
Cherry and cheese would be heavenly right now.