Epilogue
EPILOGUE
BENJAMIN
Two years later
As the Foreign Finance department head, I sometimes traveled for work. I should have known. It was now my job to attend the same conferences Brian Avery and I had attended together when I worked for Barclay Foods.
Meanwhile, my replacement, Sid, the same young omega I'd trained as my assistant, sat in the chair behind Brian, taking pages of notes and frowning while Brian studied his phone. His earbuds were cordless now, but I could see them in his ears. His phone screen flashed like he was watching the first baseball game of the season.
When the session ended, I approached them, shaking Sid's hand and nodding to Brian. "Who's playing?"
"What?"
"Baseball, right? Padres or Giants?"
"Dodgers at Detroit."
"I bet Mr. Danbury would love to hear about that." I walked away while Brian stuttered a justification for watching a baseball game when he was supposed to be learning about fiscal responsibility.
After the conference, Sid caught up to me at the airport. "Hey! What flight are you on?" he asked. "Mr. Danbury switched my flight with Brian's, so I'm taking the direct one and he has to hop all over hell."
I laughed at that. "Think Danbury will fire him this time?"
Sid shrugged. "He might. The rumor at the office is, Mrs. Avery is none too happy. Brian's always on his phone, like he was today."
Sid and I compared flights. We were on the same one, sitting next to each other in first class. Since we decided we'd have plenty of time to chat on the plane, we went our separate directions.
I grabbed a bottle of water and checked the bookstore for a mystery for Connor. I found the one he wanted and texted him a picture, and then we texted until it was time to board the plane.
"This is super nice," Sid said when I sank into the reclining seat beside him.
I grinned, thinking about the first time I'd flown in style. "My husband bumped me up to first class two years ago, the last conference I attended before I got pregnant."
"Husband?"
I flashed my tungsten carbide ring with delicate rainbow scrollwork along the top and bottom of the band. Connor and I had gotten married the summer after Jordan's arrival. Ours had been a whirlwind relationship, from meeting him in the airport to bringing him home with me to finding out I was pregnant, having a baby, and getting married. It took me almost three hours to tell Sid the story, thanks to his enthusiastic questions.
"You don't want your job back, do you?" He asked me when I explained how I'd ended up at the conference. "Mr. Danbury still speaks highly of you, and I know you didn't want to work for your family."
"Absolutely not," I said. "I misunderstood what working for my family would mean. Connor helped me see how it was the perfect job for me."
"I'm glad." Sid looked relieved.
"I'll put in a good word with Mr. Danbury for you."
Sid blushed. "What? No. You don't have to do that."
"It's the least I could do. I left you in a bit of a lurch. Did you end up flying to Chicago when I couldn't?"
He sighed and nodded. "Worst trip ever. And I've been doing both my job and Brian's since you left."
Whenever Brian had asked me to do his work, I'd threatened to tell Mr. Danbury he couldn't handle his duties as CFO, and that shut him up. I spent the rest of the flight sharing ways Sid could avoid doing others' work in the future, and he jotted them in his notebook, filling all but the last page.
When we landed, Connor and Jordan waited for me near baggage claim. Jordan wore a lavender dress and her pigtails hung in perfect spirals. She was spotless perfection, while Connor looked like he lost a fight with an alligator in a mud pit.
I pulled them to a bank of empty seats to wait for the luggage carousel to start. "What happened to you?"
"Someone wanted to play in the sandbox at the playground when we got here. Someone had clean clothes for daycare in the back seat, and someone else," he pointed both thumbs at himself, "did not."
I laughed at his story and then leaned over to where Jordan sat in his lap. "Sandboxes are for after you pick Papa up at the airport."
"We go again?" she asked.
"Oh, no." Connor shook his head. "No, no, no. We go get ice cream."
"Ooh!" She clapped, and the sandbox was forgotten.
"Connor?" Someone I'd seen on the flight but didn't recognize beyond that approached our seats. "Connor McKeeler, is that you? How've you been, buddy?"
I patted my lap, and Jordan climbed over to sit with me.
Connor stood and shook the man's hand. "Derek! How are you, man?"
"I'm good, good. Is this your … mate?"
"Yeah," he said, dragging me to my feet with Jordan awkwardly hanging from my shoulder. "This is Ben. Ben, this is Derek, the guy who was with me when we met in New York."
"He ran off talking about his fated mate, and that was the last we saw of him!" Derek must have told himself that lie so many times, he thought it was true.
"Hank fired me," Connor reminded him. "It wasn't like I ran away."
"Yeah, man. I'm sorry about that." He reached for Connor's elbow, but my mate jerked away. "Oh. Um. Could we talk … over there?"
"I already talked to Hank." Connor stood up straighter and flexed his arms at his sides. "The answer is no."
"Oh." Derek looked a little panicked, but he covered it with a lopsided grin. "Well, you look great, man. Good to meet you, Ben." He waved to me and dashed away, quickly disappearing into the crowd around the carousel.
Connor sank back into his seat with a sigh.
"That was strange," I said.
"That explains the weird call I got from Hank earlier. He offered me my old job."
Hearing his name again made me mad. "After all this time?"
Connor shrugged. "He expects a huge boom in crypto over the next few years."
"You said no?" I tried to keep my voice neutral, but I'd always worried this day would come, and that Connor would be tempted to return to his jet-setting ways.
"I said hell no. I like my job. No travel, no hard conversations with strangers. Plus, I get to see you and Peanut every day."
I grinned. I loved seeing him, too. My office and Connor's were on the same floor, and we ate lunch together each day. Usually, that meant grabbing something in the cafeteria and sitting on the benches overlooking the daycare's play area. We could watch Jordan, who Connor had nicknamed Peanut, play with the other kids after their lunch until it was time for their nap. We did so without her knowing we were there, for now. Eventually, she would look up and see us, and then we'd need another pastime for the noon hour.
Jordan was getting squirmy in my arms, and the lights flashed to signify incoming baggage on the conveyer belt.
"Come on, Peanut." Connor took Jordan from me so I could grab my bag off the line.
Pops had insisted I travel with more than my carry-on this time. "I'm paying for one bag whether you take it or not," he'd said. "Humor me, even if it's empty."
I'd packed an extra set of clothes and left them with the lost-and-found clerk at JFK. The woman at the kiosk cocked her head and looked down her nose at me like she was confused by my human omega scent. I was beginning to recognize shifters by their animal actions, and she'd had the same mannerisms as a raptor.
For the trip home, I'd filled the bag with stuffed animals for Mina and Jordan and building sets for Jeffrey and Jonah. They were going to love them.
The bag was light enough to grab it by the handle, pull it off the conveyer belt, and unleash the extender all in one snap. As soon as the wheels hit the ground, I pushed my way through the folks still waiting. Panic set in, and I walked faster until I reached the fresh air near the exit.
The crowds at baggage claim were the worst part of traveling. I was halfway out of the terminal before Connor caught up with me.
"Ben, hey, slow down!"
I'd almost made it to the doors. I stepped off to the side and let him catch up, gulping the cool air. I had to stop, anyway. I didn't know where he'd parked.
Connor wrapped his arm around me and kissed my temple. "I've got you now. You don't need to run away."
"I wasn't running."
"You don't like crowds." He grinned down at me. "Or airports. Or anything about traveling. I remember."
I already felt better with his arm around me. I relaxed even more when we buckled into our car seats, but I wasn't completely myself until we sat eating ice cream on our back patio table. Jordan couldn't finish her cone, so Connor gobbled the rest before it turned into a dripping mess.
"We missed you," Connor said after we put Jordan to bed. "It was a long week."
"It's good to be home," I said. "I missed you, too." I poked his shin with my toe.
"I've been thinking about what Pops said. Maybe it's time for my assistant manager to take over traveling to conferences."
"That would be great," Connor said, flashing me his brightest smile. Both he and Pops had tried to get me to reconsider this trip, but I'd insisted it was my job, all because Brian would be there. Now, I understood the reason Mr. Danbury sent Brian away as often as possible, and it had nothing to do with his job title.
"I thought about our future while I was out east, too." I reached for Connor's hand across the table, and he placed it in mine. "I think it's time to grow our family."
Heat filled Connor's gaze. "I'm ready when you are."
Pops had been pushing for Connor to take more time off to dote on Jordan. Connor loved his job, but I'd shared his dream with my parents. He wanted to stay home with our growing family, and I would do everything I could to make it happen.
That night, we made slow, sweet love, our bodies rocking together toward ecstasy. We didn't need to rush. If I didn't get pregnant tonight, we could try again and again. We had forever in our fur-ever home.
THE END